Rion and Dora ran and searched throughout the deep southwestern forest for the herbs required to create the medicine that had yet to become a reality.
Dora’s bloodline ability made it easier for them to locate the herbs or other flora that were typically found near the rare herbs they needed.
Even then, it only diminished the time it took to find the areas that may have the herbs.
They still had to check all of those areas thoroughly, not to ignore the possibility of the herb being at any one of those spots.
"Can we find all five of them in a day?" Rion asked while searching for one of the herbs at the root of a redwood tree that had small green pea-like mushrooms all around it.
"I don’t think so, it’s already afternoon, and we still haven’t even found one of them," she answered while doing the same at the root of another tree; the only difference between the two of them was that she was using a dagger instead of her bare hands like him.
She looked at him from the corner of her eyes and commented with a baffled expression, "You... didn’t you say that these are poisonous? Why are you touching them?!"
Rion shrugged and answered, "Poisons don’t work on me because of my bloodline."
He lied as his bloodline had nothing to do with his poison immunity; instead, it was the endless reserve of life essence that he had because of the immortal body skill.
She stared at him with a stupefied look and returned to search for the herb while mumbling under her breath.
One hour, two hours, three hours and finally four hours passed but they didn’t find the herb.
Yet, both of them continued to search for it.
Rion was able to search for so long because he only felt tired when he wanted to.
He could do anything that he wanted without a hint of tiredness, but as soon as he desired to sleep, the accumulated tiredness would hit him like a train.
Dora, on the other hand, managed it thanks to the passive ability of her bloodline that enhanced her stamina twice that of the healthiest human from Rion’s previous world.
But she was still extremely tired because of everything she had done.
In the morning, she had begun her bow training.
Afterwards, Rion came to ask for her help, which her heart accepted within a moment, and because of that, she had to run from the central camp in the face of the purple fog forest to the deep southwestern forest to search for the herbs he needed.
Finally, she had been searching for the herb for hours.
Unlike Rion, she didn’t have an endless reserve of life essence or a skill that allowed her to control her trideness like him.
Even then, she forced herself and continued to search for the herb.
Why? Because she wanted to do anything she could to make him happy.
Whenever she saw him sad or worried, she felt a disgusting ache in her chest — an ache that told her to hold him, but she knew that Rion didn’t want that... not yet, at least.
Both of them knew that they viewed each other differently than just friends, and she also hoped to give a more suitable name to their relationship, but she couldn’t because Rion was not yet ready to cross the line of friendship between them.
She didn’t know why he was reluctant, but she knew him enough to understand that it was something important.
Sweat dampened her body, and her eyes threatened to shut, but she forced herself to continue her search for the herb.
A few minutes later, Rion’s excited shout reached her ears, "Found it!"
She smiled and walked towards him with tired steps. He collected the herb and showed it to her.
She stared at the herb and mumbled, "Good..."
Just as those words left her, the tiredness struck her and her body, which was standing solely because she was forcing it to, collapsed.
However, before she could fall to the ground, Rion caught her and spat worriedly, "Dora?"
She didn’t answer as she had already entered the soft embrace of sleep.
He watched her breathe softly and let out a relieved sigh.
"Just tired," he commented before piggybacking her on his back and walking towards the campsite.
"It’s not that bad," he mumbled and let out a hearty chuckle before he quickened his steps.
Another hour passed, and the sun nearly drowned itself behind the horizon as the two of them reached their camp.
Rion walked towards Dora’s bed and lay her on it as she was still asleep.
He sat beside her and watched her breathe evenly.
He thought obsessively, ’I don’t know about others, but I’ll make sure to keep you with me, no matter what...’
Rion had various people in his heart, but Dora was different from all of them; she was the only one he loved just as much as he loved his parents, but unlike his parents, Dora had always been dependent on him for one reason or another.
She was the only one who thought of him as someone dependable, and because of that, his love had begun to step into the realm of obsession.
As for why he still hadn’t boarded the submarine of love was simply because he feared sinking too deeply into the sea romanticised as love and end up losing her, so he first wanted to find a way to keep her with himself — forever.
He wanted a way to make her an immortal just like him, and for the moment, the purple fog forest was his only lead, as the kareths were kind of immortals and had an ability with regeneration on par with the immortal body.
He inched closer and pushed away the strands of hair that were covering the side of her face and whispered in a lovely tone, "One day, I will make mine... then we will stay together... forever..."