steven was little puzzled looking at both wu yuan and brain return and by the looks of it wu yuan seem to be in pain. While he was contemplating on whether to get down or not.
Brian looked up to him and shouted
"HELP!"
Steven finally got down and did a little sprint towards brian and wu yuan. When he got there, he noticed there were no injures on wu yuan.
Brian felt calm when he noticed Steven coming towards him and said while pointing at wu yuan
"He suddenly dropped down in pain. Saying path. I didn't know what to do.so I called you."
Steven didn't know what happened to him while he was out cold unconscious when he path integrated with him. So he asked brain
"Did you felt this much of pain when your path integrated with?"
Brian thought for a second then replied
"No. In fact I felt good the only time I felt pain was when I was doing different postures along with breathing which increased my stats."
"Oh."
Listening to brian it seems each path integration may be different from each other. He looked back at wu yuan who is still in pain and sweating all over.
As time passes wu yuan condition was getting bad. When looking at him Steven and brian could notice along with sweat some dark blood also coming out
"Ahhhhaahhahh"
Just after few seconds after black blood started coming out wu yuan started screaming involuntarily and passed out from pain.
Both Steven and brian didn't know what to do. And when they saw him passed out. Both looked at each other. Until Steven spoke first.
"I don't think it is safe in the open. Why don't we get him on that tree?"
Steven didn't know but he felt that tree gave him some kind of protection or he just got attached to it. Brian thought for few seconds and nodded
"Okay"
When Steven was about to help brian carry wu yuan. Brian just lifted up twitching wu yuan easily as carry a kid. And put him on his shoulder. And said
"Let's go"
Steven surprised followed brian to the same tree. And they both some how got up even higher than before as a good wide branch that could at least support two people.
With brian and wu yuan on one branch and Steven on another. Steven asked about what happened after they left him.
Brian without any hesitation told what happened to Steven along with conversation which happened between him and wu yuan.
When Steven heard it. He thought to himself.
'it seems I jumped into conclusion to soon.'
But as more he listened. The more scared he got. Like went he heard they ran away from more that more than 30 hyenas. Steven hair stood up.
'hyenas are slow. As there legs are week as far I know. But still they stay in large number of groups. Wait..'
"Hey Brian. How far back did you loose them?"
Brian thought back but shook his head while saying.
" I don't know. All I thought was to run. But thinking back. We at least ran more 20 minutes even after we couldn't see any hyenas."
'wow! Did he really ran that much. Both of them ran at least 40 minutes straight.'
Steven after few minutes of silence spoke up.
"Can I still join you guys?"
When brian heard it he smiled and said
"Yes. As I said there is strength in number."
" thank you"
"Growl..." Stomach noise...
This time the growl came from Brian's stomach.brian put a hand on his stomach and laughed
"Hahaha... As I said we didn't even had time eat."
As he said that he took out some meat. And started eating. Steven look at him eating raw eat. Remembered himself ate raw meat. Couldn't help but feel like puking.
He look away from brian. But when he looked in the direction where brian and wu yuan came he noticed many hyenas were coming this way.
"Fu**"
He couldn't help but curse.
"What happened? "
Brian too. soon noticed those hyenas. Steven looked back at brian and wu yuan he subconsciously thought if it weren't for them those hyenas wouldn't have came this direction.
But shook his head. Thinking
'They didn't do it wantedly. And hyenas can't climb trees so we are safe for now.'
But they can't stay on the tree's forever. He looked at brian how seems to thought the same thing and relaxed a little.
They both stayed clam while look at approaching hyenas. After 10 to 15 minutes. The hyenas approached the tree while sniffing around. But didn't notices they as they were quite up on the tree.
Even though they didn't notice them. The hyenas stayed around the tree. Counting them Steven noticed they were actually 42 hyenas.
Steven looked at brian and whisper.
"All we could do is wait and pray that they leave. If not we have to think of something else."
Brian nodded. Time passes
They could eventually see the sun raising. Looking down, those hyenas still there. Wu yuan stopped twitching 5 hours ago but didn't wake up yet.
And Steven noticed brian eating again an hour ago. It seem as stats increase, appetite also increases. Even though he wanted to talk to brian. It may grab the attention of those hyenas. And they may not leave.
Time passes. it's already afternoon.steven started to feel hungry.
" Hey Steven. I think wu yuan is waking up."
Brian noticing wu yuan moving his hands a little. Brian put a hand on wu yuan mouth to stop him from making noise.
Wu yua who just woke up noticed Brian's hand on his mouth and started to remember the pain and discomfort before he passes out.
Brian noticing wu yuan is wake. Signaled downwards with his other hand. And when wu yuan puzzled looked down noticed he was high up on a tree branch. Involuntarily grabbed Brian's clothes cause of fear of falling.
Wu yuan after calming down also noticed they were surrounded by hyenas all around.
"I am gonna remove my hand now."
Listening to brian wu yuan nodded. After a few minutes of whispering. Wu yuan understood the situation they were in. After taking everything in. He looked at his status.
[User : sei wu yuan.
Status : hungry and tired
Path : blood manipulation
Health :12/12
Mana : 1/1
Stats :
Strength: 0.9 -> 1.2
Agility : 1.2 -> 1.3
Endurance : 1 -> 1.2
Path stage : 0
Path progress : 0 -> 21%
Skills:
Blood rush: increase the blood flow and heartbeat speed in you body. Your perception, reflex and agility increase greatly while endurance decreases.
Increment: 0.2->0.8
Decrement: 0.1->0.3
Blood familiarity:allows you to enter a state of meditation which improves your control over your blood and increases path progression.]
When he look at his status he noticed he was still stage 0 but his stats increase little.
He started to open and close his palm.he noticed even though stats increase a little it felt like he improved by a huge margin. And when he looked at his skills.
As he read his skills. Unlike what he expected the blood rush seem lot like a Adrenaline the filet or fight hormone. And all it showed is a range of stats increment and decrement.
This skill seems like a short time burst skill. while blood familiarity seems like kind of meditation art to increase path progression.
After few minutes he reached out to his make shift bag and took out raw meet piece and started chewing.
Three of them wait as time passed.
It was night again. Steven thought of his daily stats increment and opened his status with some anticipation.
[User: Steven blademore.
Status: thirsty
Health: 13/13
Mana: 12
Stats:
Strength: 1.3
Agility: 1.2
Endurance: 1.5
Status increment rate: 0.1-0.5
Recovery rate: 0.01/minute]
Steven was sure it has already been more than 24 hours before last stats increment.
But his stats didn't increase at all.
Steven started to think back. It never said it was daily stat increment. Now it seem for increasing his stats he has meet some unknown conditions.
Unlike wu yuan and brian he doesn't have a path progress nor stage. He started to contemplate how he could active status increment and the only thing he could think of was getting injured.
That was the last thing that happened to him or else it is just system integration added those stats.
While thinking he ask brian and wu yuan with a low voice.
"How do you guys increase your stats?"
Brian answered without thinking much.
"As I said before postures and breathing."
Wu yuan thought for a few minutes and said
"Wait"
Then started siting cross legs and started to meditate.
Few minutes passed but it didn't seem like he is going to get up any time soon. Time passed it is already 2 hours until eventually wu yuan opened his eyes and said with a smile.
"By meditation and all my stats increase by.."