Itsy Bitsy Spider

34. Setting Up

"I thought Greed Island would be a challenge, but it's been a piece of cake!" Shalnark announced to the world as he trudged through the foliage. "Getting information's been super easy, plus the cards only have the obstacle of determining where they're located and the method in which you have to retrieve them. Now, there are the powerful players..." Shalnark continued to drabble on, about possibilities and theories, finishing with a neat, "Don't you think, Feitan?"

"Why am I here," Feitan muttered under his breath, pushing past him to move ahead on his own.

Shalnark froze in the middle of his next sentence and reached for the sleeve of his comrade, who immediately pulled away. He pointed. "Feitan, isn't that a good training space?"

Feitan spared a critical eye. A clear area, with high walls caused from industrial digging before it had been abandoned, the place was like a pre-dug out war zone. Lumpy and bare. "Too flat," he stated, walking on.

Shalnark shrugged at the rejection. "Anyway, back to the game. I find it peculiar how there was the result of having your physical body disappear when you entered. It seems kind of set up in a certain way, you know? Like they want us to find something out." A leaf crunched under Shalnark's soft slipper. "I think this is somewhere in the real world."

The world went still, as if hesitating to dissuade him of something so true. There was a stream nearby, and he bent down to dip his fingers in it, sipping the crystal clear water from his cupped hands. "It's all real," Shalnark said, wiping his mouth and hands dry.

Feitan convinced himself he wasn't surprised.

A glimmer appeared in Shalnark's eyes, the flowing stream reflecting the sunlight so his eyes swam, sparkling. "Should we test it?"

Feitan looked away, disinterested as he was set on looking for a training space himself, without help. He didn't care whether Greed Island was real or not, only about what was in the stupid game and whether he could take advantage of that.

Smiling and shaking his head, Shalnark followed as his comrade continued on the path without him. "Anyway, where exactly are you looking for in a training area? Somewhere with obstacles? Although I guess it also depends on what kind of training you're going to put them through. What kind?"

"The hard kind."

"So a difficult but rewarding improvement schedule. Physical or purely Nen?"

"Both."

After a silence, Shalnark's cheeks puffed out in the smallest huff. "You have to give me more specifics about what you have in mind or else I won't be able to lend you my help at all," he tried to argue, in vain.

"Didn't ask for it."

He shook off Feitan's coldness. It was nothing new. "What about there?" he suggested, gesturing at the waterfall they passed. "Lots of resources. Here, their skills at surviving in nature are going to improve, surely. Lucky could learn a thing or two about how to stay alive, don't you think?"

Before he knew it, Feitan had gone on without him. "Not good enough," was the justification.

Shal had to lightly jog to catch up, and immediately restarted the pointing and suggesting. "What about-"