Chapter 23
The First Encounter
Part 2A
Since I made up my mind and decided to tell half of the truth, at least at the moment, the pressure left my shoulder. Still, I intended to tell the emperor the truth when the time was right. I don’t know if he would be able to help me with my situation or not, but all I can do is try, since all I can do at the moment is to go forward. There are no set goals a head of me that I am aspiring to or want to fulfill at the moment. Except that thing deep in my hearth looking for some one or something that I don't know who or what it is, at that one of the ladies started talking and introducing herself; the one with two swords started speaking and said, “Your Highness, my name is Amun; I was in a city called Andoradiya when I left an office building. I found myself in this forest suddenly, although that was not the most strange thing that happened to me but definitely the strangest.”.
I thought to myself apparently that what she said was true, for somehow I was able to feel if anyone was telling the truth or not, although I could say for sure that everyone told the truth, but I had a feeling that none of those who spoke and introduced themselves so far told us the whole truth, which means that everyone was hiding something like that, so no wonder what it was or why, since I myself was doing the same, why would I judge the other people? It was obvious that everyone was doing that for their own reasons. And I don’t have to meddle in other people's affairs; the way I don’t want anyone to meddle in mine, although what she mentioned about this not being the only strange thing that happened to her made me curious about what else happened to her. But I don’t have the right to ask her now since the emperor himself didn’t comment on it; he just nodded and looked at the other lady next to her.
Somehow, feeling that it was her turn, the other young lady who we met in the middle of the forest looked around. I can't even imagine what she was thinking about; she looked like she was completely somewhere else and just found herself that everyone was looking at her. A little bit of hesitation was visible on her face, but her eyes finally stopped on the emporer. For a couple of seconds, she just looked at the emperor. When she saw him nodding several times, she started talking and said, Your Highness, my name is Jennan Hadi, I am from "Longathis," and the same way I found myself in this forest under strange circumstances." I don’t know why, but maybe because I heard the story before, but at that moment I was looking at the emperor, and although he was trying to hide his expression and doing it well, I was able to see a hint of surprise and wonder for a split second in his eyes.
Finally, it was the other young girl's turn. I was interested in hearing her story myself, since she doesn’t look much older than me; if not younger, she may be the same age as me. Although I didn’t know what I was doing here or even how I came here, it was strange somehow to see a young girl at this age in the middle of a forest, especially somewhere dangerous like this forest. So far, I don’t know the reason for anyone being here, and no one has explained why they are here except for the young ladies I met first. Meanwhile, she was not the only young one here, excluding me. There is this young girl who keeps looking at me whenever I look towards her side, and there is the other young boy with the other two men. The only difference here was that the others came with somebody here, but she was alone. I wonder why that was.
The girl was timid from the first time that I saw her; from the beginning, she looked very scared of everything. That was also one of the reasons I concentrated on her, and I was wondering what she was doing here; absolutely, she doesn’t look like the part of someone that even by mistake or coincidence will end up here. I don't know why my thinking was that way, but it was, and I don’t know the reason. The young girl started shaking when she noticed that everyone was looking at her, and she started stewing buckets. The nervousness was overwhelming her, and like someone with epilepsy, she started shaking with convulsions while standing, and she suddenly fell to the ground unconscious. That was really strange among the strange things that were happening all day long. I heard the emperor whispering beside me, “Is she sick?” Of course, the question was not addressed to anyone; probably he was talking to himself.
As soon as I intended to go and look at her, though I ma not a doctor but I think its something came to me naturally without thinking, all I was thinking about was to help her without thinking about how, at the same time the young girl on the other side, if member correctly which her name was Amran walked toward the girl as the same time as me, although I thought that I was closer to the fainted girl than her, but we reached her at the same time, Amun was holding her head up while her body lie on the ground and Jennan was kneeling beside her, for a second we looked at each other, then to the girl on the ground at the same time also, and we both said, “Turn her to the side” with a surprise I looked at the young girl now beside me, and she was looking at me the same way also, the we heard Amun saying, “She is not having an episode, this something else” I looked at the girl for a second, trying to see if there is any symptoms that I could recognize, but unfortunately, I couldn’t understand what was going on.
Now even the emperor came to our side, and asked Amun, “What is wrong with her? Do you have any idea?” Amun shook her head and said, “No, I don’t, but I think its stress; whatever she has been trough, she couldn’t handle it anymore.” the emperor looked at them for a second and asked again, “is there anything you can do for her?” Once again, she shook her head and said, “No one can do anything for her at moment; she needs rest. I believe she will be fine when she wakes up”. Luke, who I didn’t even notice when he came beside us, said, “We cant stay here for long; we don’t know when the enemy reinforcements will come again, so the best thing is that we change the location, and search for a somewhere safe.”. what he said was logical, but the question that I wanted to ask was: Where is safe? I guess while I was distracted with the girl, everyone came to where we were standing. The next thing I heard was the man in a uniform saying, “The question is where in this forest can be considered safe?”.
Chapter 24 The First Encounter Part 2B I guess while I was distracted with the girl, everyone came to where we were standing. The next thing I heard was the man in a uniform saying, “The question is, where in this forest can be considered safe?” Although I have no idea what dangerous animals or beasts are roaming around this forest, or any other beings I am not aware of, regardless of the armed men that we have been fighting for a while now, the real question is: where in this forest can it be safe for us to rest and plan for our next step? Personally, I don’t have any answer for that, and I don’t think anyone has the answer to that. At that time, the Statues Panel interface appeared in front of me, like it was giving me the answer that I was looking for, but the full menu appeared this time, so I had to figure out what was new this time by myself: Name: Aden Age: 16 Race: Human Rank: A (Officer) Level: 6 Status: healthy Skills: five skills gained 1- Skill Name: Flash Skil
Chapter 25The First EncounterPart 3AIt took several minutes for the two young ladies to calm down the young girl who was screaming in terror, that give a little bit more time to contemplate on the issues of how do I present the items I have in my inventory and also the gifts that I have, I had a pretty good idea about the skills and attributes but this gifts I had no idea how it works, but assuming that it works just as the skills and attributes I concentrated on the mystery map, without any difficulties a map appeared on my interface covering all the space in front of my face, previously the interface screen was like a 14” screen but now it was almost 30” screen, and the whole screen was filled with trees, it was like I was watching a life TV in front of me and not looking at a map.{You have activated the mystery map.}{You can zoom in and zoom out by either using your hand gesture or by concentrating on the location you want and giving the order verbally}{Markers are indicated
Chapter 26The First EncounterPart 3BJulian Point of ViewFor the last hour, I have been in a state that has affected me physically and emotionally. For one thing, I have never walked or run approximately all my life. The one I did today was meeting the famous emperor in this forest, then again meeting this other group of people. Some of them look suspicious to me, though I can't figure out the reason. I was trying my best to keep calm, and stay away from the sight of the people, and not to get the attention of any of them. I don’t know why?. I am here, but when I saw the emperor and heard his story later, I got a little excited. I felt like I was on an adventure, but that excitement quickly changed to anxiety, which overtook me completely when we came to the place where we were supposed to rest. I was tired and hungry at the same time, although usually I don’t mind the hunger that much since I usually eat less than anyone else that I know of, and the small meals that I have, which
Chapter 27The First EncounterPart 4AWarning Gore and bloody, readers discretion is advised.The monster that came out of the cube was over two meters tall; what makes its humanoid shape totally odd is not its height but everything else. Although he was standing at two feet, his arms were taller than anything else, and they reached blew his knees. His torso was naked, with nothing covering it, and was almost one meter wide. Each one of his arms was as thick as my full body size, bulging with thick mussels. His head was round like a ball, and huge on top of it were two silver-colored horns extending from each side of his temple and then curved towards his forehead. Below the horns were two round ears, each bigger than the palm of an adult human, and his eyes were each as big as a fist without any eyelids; their color was as crimson as the color of the blood. Below the center of the eyes, there were two holes, probably the nose, that he or it could breathe from.The mouth was the scar
Chapter 28The First EncounterPart 4BI used to wake up jumping, but that was a long time ago when I was not aware of what was happening to me. But now I am aware that I am having a nightmare, so there is no reason for me to yell, jump, or act anyway, different than what I usually do with or without a nightmare. Apparently, I was taking a nap or actually passed out inside a tent, and someone was cooking some food because of the smell that drifted to my nose. That reminded me that the last thing I ate something was yesterday afternoon, I guess, really this trip, although it was so short and not that long, just hours or half a day. I think maximum; I couldn't even tell if that was yesterday or a few days ago; the time and what happened were so much for me to comprehend accurately at the moment. The smell of the food made me put aside the ominous feeling that I had. I didn't forget it, but I shelved it somewhere, not that far. Why would I think of something that I couldn't do anything a
Chapter 28The First EncounterPart 5AAnther's noteIt's been a couple months since I've written any new chapters, for some health reasons and other technical issues. As much as I like to keep it steady and regular, sometimes things are beyond your control. All I can promise now is that I will do my best. I may skip a week or two, and then I may make it up to some bonus chapters (who knows?). Also, to cover up any inconvenience, remember that the chapters are now longer than ever, and, I will try to increase the length of the chapters as much as I can from now on.One more thing: although this is my first work, with your support and encouragement, it already attracted enough attention to be offered an exclusive contract, which I hesitated to accept due to a lack of commitment, but at least that made me happy and encouraged me more. So I can't thank you enough, so please keep on supporting me as usual.It was not just an explosion that I heard; at the same time, I felt the ground sha
Chapter 32Intermission Jack’s side story Part 1Anther's note:This is Jack’s story recap as I told it in the first volume, but I will now add the missing parts that were not known to anyone in the first volume or the second volume until now, or what was his connection to the storey line? So far, all we knew in the first volume was that he was looking for his wife, and that was all he was looking for. Where was he imprisoned? What for? There were a lot of questions that no one asked and nobody answered, and no one will unless someone dares ask the correct question.Also, I edited the previous chapter, its not just a copy of the same chapter of the first volume to go along with the current retelling of the story without changing much from the original story as a recap because of the importance of the story line. I remember one reader asking me if I was just filling in the characters for the sake of my book, and he was specifically talking about Jack :) I hope now he got the answer.
Chapter 33The First EncounterPart 5B“We need to move from here; the monsters are coming; he is coming, he is coming; and we are all going to be dead." That was the only word that came out of his mouth, and then all he did was stare at the man standing beside him, although his body was shaking, like somebody who is scared or feeling cold, but his eyes were totally blank, like a blind guy who is just looking but not seeing anything. From the blank way he was looking at him, the emperor noticed that the boy was looking at something else, and most probably he also got, “The lost art.” As one of the few humans on this planet who has knowledge of “the lost art” and has learned a few of its skills, he can tell that this boy has it. This is his first encounter with not one but two unexpected individuals in an expected situation with unexpected knowledge. While Juian was talking to the emperor, the skill foresight was activated, and he was not actually looking at or talking to the emperor,