They continued walking towards their destination. Jacob could faintly hear the river getting closer to them.

"That monster you fought. Would you say that was the strongest one you’ve fought before?"

Slimo scratched his chin.

"Definitely not. I fought a dragon once. Neither of us won the fight though. It just ended in an awkward stalemate."

Jacob felt like passing out. Maria caught him as he swayed. Lidia and Doc seemed like the only ones unaffected by the crazy stories.

"A dragon? My mom used to read me stories about those when I was a kid!"

"Yeah, they are a lot smarter than in the books. The one I fought used techniques I didn’t even know possible for a dragon to do. If I hadn’t prepared for eight months in advance, I would have been killed on the spot."

"You prepared for eight whole months before fighting it and it still led to a stalemate?!"

"Yup. I did manage to scar its left eye though! I damaged its wings too, but they have probably healed by now."

Jacob’s head was swirling.

"This is crazy. There’s no way you are telling the truth."

Slimo smiled embarrassingly.

"I would rather never have to fight one again than prove that I’m right. Let’s just focus on cleaning ourselves for now and stop worrying about monsters. The river is almost here."

They had finally reached their destination. Lidia grabbed Maria and started dragging her away.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"There’s no way I’m letting you bathe by those boys! Especially with how crazy you two have been acting lately, I’m not taking any chances!"

Maria’s face turned bright red.

"... I don’t... we haven’t... I’ll just follow you."

"That’s what I thought. We can meet up back with you all in a bit. We won’t be long!"

Lidia waved them all by with an innocent smile. Jacob looked at himself in the reflection of the river. His face and hair were greasy and full of dirt. His clothes were in no better shape either. With little hesitation, he took off his clothes and dipped into the lake. The weather was getting cooler around them, but the river water felt nice as it pushed against his back. Even though he has a harbored bias against water because of his uncle, he was allowing his guard to drop slightly seeing how powerful Slimo was.

Jacob finished cleaning himself and his clothes after a few moments. Before jumping back out of the lake, he dipped his entire head underwater one last time. He allowed his clothes to dry on the grass before putting them back on. He decided to talk with Slimo a bit more to pass the time.

"Why haven’t you tried going to these other continents you were talking about if you are a criminal here?"

Slimo seemed to have expected this question and almost immediately gave his response.

"There’s a few reasons for that. For one, I have family here who I would rather not leave to themselves. They don’t really like me or want to see me, but being close to them is enough to put me at peace with myself. Another reason is because I’m a little intimidated by the idea. I would have to leave to lands I am completely unfamiliar with, be surrounded by people who may not speak my language and find another place for me to settle down."

"Isn’t that what makes an adventure fun? Seeing new things, learning new things and feeling new things?"

"Maybe. Change can be scary sometimes. What if I lose track of who I really am?"

Jacob looked into the river, watching it gently flow downstream.

"If you already know who you are, you are ahead of most people. However, there’s no need to worry about different experiences changing who you really. If you stay true to yourself, you will have no trouble adapting to any situation thrown your way."

Slimo smiled and looked at Jacob.

"You have such wise words for being so much younger than me. Maybe your kingdom taught you something that I didn’t know after all."

"I would like to think I learned it myself through my own experience."

"What about you, old man? Would going to another place sound fun for you?"

Doc was sitting quietly with his feet in the water.

"That does sound interesting. I’ve lived in the Iron Kingdom my whole life. It would be a unique experience to see what other places look like or how they run things. Maybe we aren’t that different from them."

"Perhaps, we can all go there together some day as a group."

"That sounds like trouble waiting to happen if you ask me. Look at how destructive we’ve already been!"

Slimos expression turned serious for a moment.

"There’s actually another reason I don’t think we should go to the other continents."

"Why? What’s wrong?"

"It has to do with Zalo users. I’ve only been able to survive this long by myself because I understand the terrain enough to be able to prepare for battle against those kinds of people. Putting myself in a new environment will mean putting me at a disadvantage I cannot afford to have."

Slimo brought up an amazing point with this. Even if they were to move to another continent and possibly meet new people, there was no guarantee they would be friendly or welcoming in any capacity. And if they face people who are familiar with the terrain as well as have powers, they would be at an overwhelming disadvantage. It would almost be suicide.

"You make a good point. Maybe we can try to get more information from others before we try to journey over there." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Not long after they finished talking, everyone put on their clothes and patiently waited for Maria and Lidia to return. As the sun started setting, they finally saw the pair walking back towards them. They both looked infinitely better than they did before. Their skin seemed to glow a lot brighter, even in the fading daylight.

"Sorry we took so long. We had to wait for our clothes to dry and that took a lot longer than expected."

"It’s because she accidentally knocked our clothes in the river when everything was about to finish drying... twice."

Lidia blushed slightly.

"How could you betray your own mom like that?! And it was once, not twice!"

"Actually, it was three times. I was already being nice, mom."

Lidia put her hands on her hips and looked away.

"Whatever. It looks like they’re extra clean then."

Slimo smiled and walked towards Lidia.

"You look great. Let’s all head back to the cabin. It’s getting dark and we don’t want to be by the forest without sunlight. Something could easily see us when we can’t see them."

As they walked back, Lidia continued talking with Slimo.

"You seem overly concerned about having advantages in fights. Why is that?"

"Well, whoever has the advantage wins. Besides, when you don’t have a power like me, an advantage could make the difference between you winning or losing your life."

"Even so, do you not care about honor or anything like that?"

"What good is honor if you’re dead? In a fight, only the smartest and most cunning survive. Honor will only hold you back."

Lidia smiled.

"I like it. I think we’re going to get along great with an attitude like that.