Lince and Zon had decided to head into the dark green jungle area and looked for a location that would provide them decent cover. Eventually, they found a cliffside of sorts, where they could set up some type of camp.
Because Lince was a powerful warrior, and Zon was… whatever Zon was, it wasn't as if a campfire was needed for heat or for them to see. Zon could see well at night, and Lince could use his other senses to help him in a fight.
The cliffside was chosen because they could at least see enemies coming from one direction toward them, and didn't have to worry about their back or what was above—at least at night.
Still, there were a few things Zon had said to set up, and they were temporary measures to allow them to hear if beasts were heading their way. Breaking apart bark of the tree or heavy-duty leaves, setting them up so if beasts came then it would clack several dark black coconuts together, setting them awake.
While doing all of this, Lince had gotten his answer as to why Zon was just floating in the water. Eventually, the two of them sat down by their makeshift camp and decided to talk.
"So what's the grand tale then? After you ran off and left me behind, it's quite clear you didn't find the item, so why were you floating?" Lince asked.
"I had a run-in with those from the Light Faction. From my database, they were Ricar and Beatrix," Zon explained.
It was as expected for Lince. The ships they saw were certainly the Light Faction, and judging by who was sent, they didn't send any weaklings either.
"You don't look hurt, although it's hard to tell if you are hurt or not," Lince asked.
"I'm not," Zon answered immediately, as if he would have been offended to say he had received a wound. But receiving one from two strong members from the Dawnblade Clan wouldn't be a wound one should be embarrassed about.
"The reason I was floating in the water was because I was interrupted by a beast—it had to be at least a level 7 beast. It took a lot of my energy and power to defeat it, and by the end of it, I was low on reserves."
"I managed to pull out its crystal though, but my body is having a hard time taking in the energy from the crystal. In order to not tire out and still travel around the island, I decided to allow the water to just let me float around while observing all the areas I hadn't been to."
Lince didn't know what to say. He was thinking more and more that this partner of his was a madman. Who would even think to do such a thing? Was he not worried that there would be more beasts in the river where he fell from?
Or did he just not think that far ahead?
"Absorbing the crystal raw, not as a Qi pill? I know you're not a Pagna warrior, so you don't use Qi. So is that what you run on, power stones from the beasts?" Lince asked. He was curious for more reasons than one.
"A correction would be that's a type of energy we can run on," Zon explained. "In our world, those like us can use different forms of energy. The system has to run on something, and we can charge ourselves at certain places."
"Coming to this world, I learned that we can use crystals to power the system, the suit, and other things that my body requires. However, it's interesting, I gave a system to one of the warriors in Raze's group."
"It appears because the system integrated with him rather than someone from our world, that the energy being used to power his system is his own Qi, so he doesn't have the same hurdles as us. I'm sure he can grow up to be very strong." Zon smiled.
It was interesting to note, and it gave Lince an idea if he was ever to run into someone else like he did earlier in the day again.
"Are you not going to even ask what happened to me?" Lince asked.
"Did you find the item?" Zon asked.
Lince shook his head.
"Then relevant information should have already been gathered. The Light Faction are here, there are powerful beasts and we have no idea of the present location of the Golden Globe. If you had information that was important, you would have said it already."
Lince's eyes were twitching. Although Zon didn't seem to be trying to antagonize him or make him angry, he was sure doing a good job of it.
"The reason why I was asking you questions was because I ran into someone on this island as well," Lince explained. "And he had the exact same black suit that you have, heck his arms even lit up red like you did as well."
Immediately, Zon's eyes widened, looking at the ground. Numbers of images flashed in his head. So many questions were coming to mind, but he didn't even know which to ask first, and multiple system screens were popping up in front of him, reacting to his mixed and various feelings inside.
"I think he said that he was from the Red Fortis army or something. Is he related to you then? Didn't you say you were looking for someone, maybe this is your long-lost friend or something or brother?" Lince joked.
But his happy nature stopped as he saw the look on Zon's face, and there was only one question on his mind.
"A name… did you manage to get his name?"
"Yeah…" Lince replied. "He called himself Red."
Immediately, Zon clenched both of his hands. He had done so so tightly that his fingernails had carved into the palm of his hand drawing blood.
"He's here… Red is really here, like I thought. The person I've been looking for is right here on this island… this isn't good though. If you met with him and fought against him, how are you even still alive?" Zon asked.