[A Week Later]The nominated members were all packed and ready to go.“Are you guys sure Mr. Shambala is still coming back?” Riley asked, seeming unsettled because it was getting longer now."Relax, I am sure he is close.” Vladimir, who has been close to her during Shambala, comforts her with those words.“Do you think he got attacked, captured, or eaten by a beast?” Grover asked with a grin."Grover, man, we do not need that negativity right now, okay?” Krystal said.“Come on, lads, have you guys already forgotten who whooped your asses some weeks ago? Do you guys think any of those things I mentioned can befall him?” Grover asked again after making his point."Well, you have a point there, but what about starving and becoming weak when those things happened? Remember, we do not know if he went with food or water. Even money,” Justin replied.“My thoughts are that if he could do all of those for us, he could source food and, if needed, hunt. We do not know if his journey took him thr
Immediately, they walked out of the city, stepping into the morning sun just after the gates of the city.The guild were talking and laughing when Shambala stopped."Stop, lads,” Shambala commanded.Turning to face him, the guild thought he had changed his mind or something.“Take down your bags, lads,” Shambala instructed.The boys did so a bit confused as to why he would ask them to do so, knowing fully well they just stepped out of the city and could not camp there.“Bring them here,” Shambala added.They took it to where he was standing; he brought out a little space storage-type item, but to their amusement, everything just kept going in without getting full.“What is that?” Grover asked curiously. “It is a rare item specially designed to relieve travelers of their burden,” Shambala said as he brought out three long rulers about the length of each of the boys.“Thank you for relieving our burdens, Sensei,” Krystal appreciated.Shambala smiled.“These rare items were a gift from
The meeting on the target stuff sparked up a lot of questions, but Shambala said he would not entertain any more questions about changing the time on the ruler.“I am not taking any more questions, lads. Like I said and will repeat, you lads know it is important for your training. Your bodies are too weak for what is ahead of you; you gas out easily during fights. So I have to get your bodies very strong by whatever means necessary,” Shambala stated.“Here is a dagger for your defense as you go through the forest,” Shambala added.“What for? We do not need it, Sensei. We have our artifacts,” Grover retorted.“About that, give it to me,” Shambala instructed them, pointing to a bag before them and prompting them to drop their artifacts into it.“Is he serious right now?” Vladimir asked, looking at Krystal.“Just do it, guys; I am sure we will be fine,” Krystal replied.“The animals in the forest are not that dangerous; some will even run at just seeing you guys approach them,” Shambala
Every step taken by the guild members was laborious.They sweated all over, as the heat of the sun was very scorching.They rested a bit as they began contemplating where to find water.“I am so thirsty, I could drink a river right now,” Grover groaned.“I would just fall into it and drown because this heat is too much,” Krystal added. “This journey is suicide. I would not wish it on any of my prisoners back at the district command prisons,” Vladimir said as he rested on a tree.“A few more steps, and we are in the forest,” Krystal said.“Stay alert guys, we cannot lose our lives here,” Grover spoke, knowing that if they got attacked with this sort of weight, it would be over."Plus, we have to go through this forest stealthily to avoid drawing unnecessary attention,” Krystal said.“Come on guys, we might find water as we navigate the jungle,” Krystal added.They started moving again. stepping into the forest, Grover's eyes were skimming through the forest as if he had misplaced some
As the team waited for the supposed boar to be seen, it attacked.The grunt got louder.“Must be a big boar; more meat to round,” Grover said, spinning his dagger.At this point, the team's mind was on getting the boar, and they forgot that they were not as mobile as they should be to attack any animal. The thought of food clouded their minds from the heavy rulers behind them.A pig-like beast came out at them.“What!?” Grover screamed, as he was too shocked. He had never seen such a beast before.The rest were not so shocked because they had seen the Pigaus before.“That is a damn Pigaus,” Krystal said.“It should be a workover,” Grover added.“But this ruler's will be a problem,” Krystal said.The Pigaus dashing close to them attacked the closest, Krystal, hitting him to the ground."Guys, get this shit off me!” Krystal shouted as he was struggling to keep the beast from snatching his head off.The beast had slapped his dagger out of his hand and reached as he stretched to get it b
“Yes!” Grover shouted.“It worked,” Vladimir said as he wiped off the blood on his face from the beast.“This beast tested us to be candid,” Krystal, who finally got to where the rest were, said as he was panting from the breaking of trees.“This beast tossed you guys around,” Grover said mockingly as he laughed.“Guess who got stepped on?” Vladimir said this as both Krystal and he laughed at Grover.“Nice one, real good,” Grover commented as he felt what Vladimir said.“Did you guys notice how hard it was to kill that normal beast?” Krystal asked.“I mean, see how exhausted we are. For a beast, I know even the least member of my garrison as a district commander could kill in at least four moves,” Vladimir responded.“I have never seen a thing like that before,” Grover said.“Yet you devised a means to kill it. Grandmaster planner,” Vladimir complimented him.“You do not have Pigaus where you are from, especially with the great walls around towns and villages; it cannot get in even if
They all shook Vladimir into becoming the leader of the journey."Please, whatever you feel I need to know—contributions or observations—let me know. Thank you,” Vladimir said. “That would not be a problem,” Krystal answered.“Of course, we are still a team,” Grover added.“Now let us get materials to roast this meat,” Vladimir said."Finally, some real meat,” Grover stated as he smiled.“Let us go out and find firewood and stones; this part of the jungle is looking too empty,” Krystal said.“I will stay back to cut the meat for roasting since I already have blood stains on me. Or what do you guys think?” Vladimir asked.“Oh, it is all good. Go ahead and do so,” Grover said, not wanting to touch the Pigaus.“Yeah, it is fine,” Krystal added.“Okay. Off we go,” Grover said as he led the way to find the firewood and stones.All this while they struggle to walk about with the ruler behind them. They later got separated to find more sticks.Grover spotted a stream as he was picking up st
In normal time, three days had passed, but since the Ents had frozen time in the forest, the timer on the ruler worked the same with the time in the forest.With time gone by, they were now used to the weight of the ruler. Now able to walk quite normally but not able to run, they covered more distance in their journey.They could even carry out some fighting styles with the heavy weight they had on.Krystal, with practice, could now even backflip with the weight of the ruler.They also encountered a lot of beasts on their way, which they killed all of them and ate their meat. This led to an increase in their teamwork, and their leader was doing quite well.In one of their encounters, they met with the three-headed ape.This was one of the hardest beasts, and killing it made them stronger. This was how they killed it."Guys, look, is that an ape?" Vladimir, who was in front, stopped to ask.As they got to where he was, they also saw it from afar, but they also noticed it had three heads