Turns out the owner of the cave was an old friend, one who had previously given Adrian a ride from the black sea.

The bird had attacked the moment it sensed his familiar mana, and yet, they ended up in the same position as before.

"You just couldn’t learn from the first time, could you?" Adrian said as he found himself comfortably seated on the giant bird’s back, flying above the forest.

The only difference this time was the fact that his clone was the one controlling the bird through [Shadow Possession].

A faster way out of the forest and towards the center of this island where he suspected the city was.

Adrian leaned to the side, realizing that he had left the forest quite a distance away and he was now flying above what seemed like ruins.

"We should be close to the city," he muttered, as the bird, possessed by his clone, continued forward.

«No,» Noctis said, shaking its head, «I can’t sense any human presence in the distance ahead.»

"I see," Adrian muttered with a nod as the bird continued forward, unfortunately, his journey was suddenly cut short when a sudden force pulled the bird towards the ground.

Adrian went down with a blank expression on his face, it seemed this dungeon truly did hate him.

But just before he could reach the ground, both he and the clone that possessed the bird teleported away, letting its corpse reach the ground.

BOOM!

A dust cloud was kicked up where the bird’s body landed, but Adrian had already reached safety as he looked towards the dust cloud.

"I guess I’m cooking bird meat today," a voice was the first thing he heard before the dust cloud cleared up revealing a person.

Or at least, that’s what Adrian saw.

It was a man who stood a bit over six feet, with long black hair and black robes, said man had his back to Adrian.

He crouched and touched the corpse of the bird before muttering seemingly confused, "Strange, that shouldn’t have been enough to kill it."

In other words, he was responsible for the force that had pulled the bird down.

Adrian silently observed as the man stood back up and added, "Well, I can’t complain either way."

He continued muttering to himself, seemingly unaware of the presence behind him, until he suddenly stopped his movements.

"Right, right," he shook his head and turned around, locking eyes with Adrian, "we had guests."

His face was what one would describe as handsome despite how pale his skin was.

His eyes were also completely black and despite the smile on his face, they seemed empty.

Something that Adrian immediately recognized and it was almost as if he was looking at a mirror.

The smile might seem like a genuine one to anyone else, but to someone like him, he could clearly see how robotic it was.

"Welcome," the man spoke up again before looking at the bird and then at Adrian, "you wouldn’t happen to be the one who was riding this, would you?"

Adrian looked at him for a second before nodding, "I was hoping to reach the city with that."

"City?" The man placed a hand on his chin, seemingly thinking before he struck his fist with his palm, "Ah, right right, you mean the established kingdom."

He then looked at the bird’s corpse again and added, "Then I apologize for attacking your means of travel."

"But since you’re stuck here for a while, then why not join me for breakfast," he said before Adrian had the chance to say anything, "or whatever time of day it is."

With that, he turned around and walked away, dragging the bird’s corpse, which he had quickly bound with rope, with him as he moved towards the deeper parts of the ruin.

Adrian stood there for a second, blankly observing the man’s retreating back for a while.

«He’s...» Noctis started.

"Yeah, I saw," he nodded, "but he also seems mostly unaffected by it."

«Will you follow him?» it then asked after a moment of silence.

"Hmm," he nodded as he started walking forward, "he seems to know where the city is."

Νοctis said nothing in response, as it just calmly rested on Adrian’s head and they followed the man they had just met.

***

"I apologize for the mess," the man said, "I didn’t expect guests."

They didn’t have to walk for long before they reached his ’house’ which was just as run down as all the others here.

The upside though, was the fact that this one at least had a roof over it and wasn’t immediately crumbling like the others.

The man pushed the large door open and walked inside with the corpse behind him.

Adrian followed soon after, and he immediately noticed the interior was full of rocks shaped to make a table, chair, and everything in the far end of the house.

At the other end were bones of monsters of different sizes, and that was exactly where the man was headed.

"You’ve been busy," Adrian commented.

The man chuckled lightly as he dragged the bird’s corpse further in, dropping it near what looked like a crude stone slab.

"Survival tends to demand that," he replied casually, kneeling beside it.

"I see," Adrian nodded before asking again, "you hunted all those alone?"

The man didn’t reply to that, instead, he stood up fully now, wiping his hands slowly on his robe before turning towards him.

"Sit," he gestured toward a relatively clean stone nearby, "no need to stay on guard. If I wanted to attack you, I would’ve done it already."

Adrian remained standing, still keeping his eyes on the man, if he tried making any move, then Adrian would just teleport to his shadow, which he had left back in the place he crashed.

But, as he said, the man had no intention of attacking him, instead, he said, "We haven’t introduced each other yet."

He then walked closer, stopping just a small distance away before extending his hand,

"I’m Marion."