Chapter 25
The First Encounter
Part 3A
It 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 as follows:
Green: indicates you. or any one you deem allay or friendly to you.
Yellow: indicates any beings who are neutral to you or don’t harbor any harmful intents toward you or whomever is following you.
Red: indicates any beings that are enemies of you and intend to harm you.
Purple: Indicates any being that will harm you seriously, regardless of the situation.
Black: indicates any unknown creatures with an unknown outcome.
{Distance will be converted to meters and feet for easy understanding}
With the map opening, the instructions also followed, which makes everything easier for me. Although I saw it as strange to use my hand to zoom in and zoom out of the map, I just imagined myself using my hand to zoom in. For sure, anyone who sees me doing that will think without a doubt that I have gone insane. Now all I have to do is find somewhere relatively safe for us to camp, and then I can think of a way to use the inventory to share the tents and the items in them in the least suspicious way possible. For some reason I totally forgot about what happened earlier, that I withdrew my sword out of nowhere and flashed in front of all and also appeared out of nowhere in front of all of them. Still, no one said or commented in it at all. There may have been some surprise on some of the faces, but that was all. So why am I worried about it that much? I even remember one of the girls doing something similar to me by taking something out of nowhere like I did. I don’t remember which one was that, because I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time. Why I was overthinking those simple matters, I really don’t know.
I went to work immediately after I removed everything else from my brain and started looking for a safe place on the map. It was not difficult or hard to understand the map since the first thing that caught my eyes was a punch of green dots in one location, so the only other thing remaining was to figure out where to head. Everything was green trees all around us, but when I zoomed out or zoomed in, it looked like a never-ending sea of trees all around. I suddenly figured out something: today my mind is not working the right way. Of course, we are in the biggest forest on this planet, so what was I expecting to find a resort or a city? I face-palmed, thinking, Am I that stupid or something? Why am I figuring out everything at the last minute today? Apparently, I am one of those people who cannot perform well under stress.
All I needed to look for was somewhere without any red, purple or black dots and as far away from those colors, when I reached that conclusion it became easier for me to find a goo location, while everybody was paying most of their attention to girl, I came closer to the emperor and I told him, “Your highness, I found a relatively safe location which is about three thousand feet from here” he looked at me with questioning eyes and “Found how?” there was no coming back now from telling the truth so I said, “ I have a map, I will explain everything but we have to move now” while I was talking to him I saw something blinking at the corner of my eye, and when I looked the map opened once more and there I saw a punch of red dots coming towards us, I couldn’t tell how many they are but at least they ware couple dozen minimum, and they ware coming from the same direction that the young boy with rifle was facing whose name was Luke.
Without any more questions emperor Haider said in a loud voice, “We need to move the enemy are not done yet” then he looked at the girl on the ground and asked her, “Can you move at least for a little bit more?” the girl didn’t say anything but she nodded with her head, with the help of the other girls she stood up, then the emperor looked at me and said, “Lead the way”. Without any delay I opened the mystery map and imagined myself butting a mark on the location that I choose previously, then a small star shaped mark appeared on the location, and a white line has been created from my location to the location with the star mark that I made, thinking to myself “Amazing, so this the magic I used to read about in the books, its simply amazing, I wounder what else is coming up and I will be able to do”. If anybody was looking at my face at that moment they would have see a wide grime on my face and stars shining on my eyes.
It didn’t take us much time to reach the location I marked on the map; it took almost twenty minutes, and we reached it. One of the reasons that I chose this location specifically was because there was a small clearing in the center of the trees with some boulders catered around. It looked like the same place that we had before but smaller in size, and that will help us more to be together in one location. On our way, we haven't encountered any beasts or any other issues, and there was no conversation between anybody, except maybe the emperor who talked to his kids and his a few times. I was in my own world; in fact, although I was following the arrow to reach the location that I chose, I was wondering why I volunteered to guide all those people that I have nothing to do with and have nothing to do with me. I guess if there was a way for me to get back to where my vehicle was, I would have left them and started looking for what I was looking for. I don't know what it is strange about it, but somehow I was feeling at ease and not anxious the way I was before I started this journey.
My brain was still busy analyzing things and thinking sometimes about things even irrelevant to our situation. When everybody saw my location, they seemed satisfied with it; even the emperor was somehow happy with it, so without giving it much thought, I took out of my inventory a few tents with different sizes. While I was checking the reactions of everybody, only a few of them showed strange faces full of surprise, but the emperor and his family, the two men Azmar and Murad, and also from the other group, the young girl Amran and her companion Ozak, didn’t show any reactions. Also, two girls who were with me and the new girl didn't show any reactions. I couldn’t figure out why, in the group, some are surprised and some are not, but that made me relax more, thinking that not everyone in this world is capable of using this magic. Apparently not. Still, even in the fantasy books that I used to read, not everybody was capable of using magic.
The clock was ticking, and no one was aware of what was to come. Julian felt goosebumps all over his body suddenly and started sweating all over his body. The feeling of fear consumed him all. In a low voice that no one could hear, he started whispering, “Its coming, its coming,” and for the second time within the hour, the second person fell to the ground unconscious. For reasons no one knows, still, even before anybody asks the young girl what happened, the second young boy fell on the ground. Everyone stopped what he or she was doing and started looking at the boy laying on the ground, everybody wondering what happened?.
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,
Chapter 34The First EncounterPart 6A“If you don’t believe me, use your Predict skill, and you will see it.” That was it. I had to let him go and step back a couple steps. He knows two of my skills not just one but two. That is ridiculous. I have been shocked. In a manner I never had before, if it were anybody else in front of me telling me that, the first reaction that would accrue to me would have been to cut his head immediately, without even getting the opportunity to get questioned about where he got the information. But fortunately or unfortunately, the one who said that was a child, although the expression on my face changed and my hand was on the gun and the sword in my waist, a complete involuntary reaction from my side.It took me nearly a minute to gather myself and regain my composure. During this time, I came to the realization that someone else must have informed him about my skills. Therefore, I felt compelled to find out who that person was. At that moment, the only
Chapter 35The First EncounterPart 6BGoosebumps ran down his spine when he saw what he saw when he used the skill. He was staring at a black portal that was enormous, over four meters tall and ten meters wide, with a black square shape instead of the typical gateway portals seen on this planet. It was both smokey and liquid-like at the same time, and he was unable to determine what material it was composed of. It was moving like a live entity with a pulsating heart, but it was not changing shape. In a matter of seconds, it gained shape and materialized in front of him at the location the youngster had indicated. He felt a terrible sensation throughout his body. This is what the young man was talking about. He told himself, "So it's all true then," confirming the first thing the boys had mentioned. "The time was the next thing he confirmed, and it was true too." He had the chance to glance at the clock now that it was getting to be the time of sunset, but he didn't think of it. He fe