Noy slowly opened his eyes. The surrounding air he breathed in was different from before and his hand felt a soft grass beneath him where he was sleeping unconsciously. Then he saw a large black figure standing but couldn't quite make it out with his blurry vision.

After looking around for a while, his vision finally started to clear up. Again he glanced at the figure.

It stood there facing towards Noy and had a human-like appearance standing six meters tall, with two massive inward curled horns accompanied by the most mesmerizing two black wings, that could even fill gods and angels alike with envy, came out from its back.

"Beautiful...", this was the first word that came out of Noy's mouth after he woke up.

Reorganizing himself after a few seconds, "W-Who are you?" Noy stammered as he took a step back.

He now noticed that it had a blueish pupil that seemed like the embodiment of the earth and its body was adorned with all-black wearing and a robe with golden linings on either side.

"You are finally awake little one," it said with a half-lazy smile, "No need to be afraid, after all, I am the one who saved you."

Noy inspected himself. All the bruises that he had, were gone. Even the clothes that were ragged from running, were now changed to something cleaner. In the midst of looking at himself, his stomach started to growl loudly. His face became red filled with embarrassment.

"I had prepared some food for you. Have a bite of it.", it pointed out to the bowl next to where Noy was.

Noy had finally seen food after so long. He couldn't wait to chow down the food which it had prepared.

He took a look at the food that was in the bowl. It looked like a normal stew but the scent coming from it was unbearable.

Seeing his hesitation, it sighed, "I have mixed some herbals in that stew. It's helpful for your body."

"..."

Noy could no longer question whether to eat or not as he was starving for food. He just ate it like a squirrel putting nuts in its mouth. It surprisingly tasted good, and it filled him with strength and energy. The only problem was that the stew smelled so horrible that he had to close his nose to eat it.

"Th -Thank you for the stew and for saving me." Noy said with a 

polite bow, "What should I call you mister?"

"hmm... you can address me as Akriel."

"What are you?" Noy wanted to ask but didn't, as it would sound rude for someone who just met. Instead, he asked, "What is this place?"

"It's a prison and I am a prisoner." Akriel replied with a doleful face.

Seeing the sadness, Noy didn't pursue the subject any further and looked around the surroundings.

Akriel said it was a prison but it didn't look anything like a prison. It would rather blend nicely with the term "underground forest". It looked like a medium-sized room covered with numerous small plants on floors and on walls, and a few stones here and there. The only thing missing would be the lack of a door. Instead, there was a single pathway leading outside and 3 candles lit on each opposite wall.

"You are the first human to be here. How did you end up in this state?" Akriel questioned.

Noy then recalled and explained everything from being in his mansion to how he ended up there with a tear almost coming out of his eyes. What held his tears back was his determination to get stronger and have his revenge.

After hearing such events happened to an 8 years old, Akriel wanted to do something for Noy.

He asked, "Do you want to get stronger?" to which Noy replied without any hesitation in his voice, "Yes!!"...

Looking at his determination, Akriel asked him to go collect Gammiagrass and a few fruits.

"Uhh... What is Gammiagrass?" Noy raised his hand as he didn't know much about the outside world.

Akriel pointed a finger in the air. Then all of a sudden a hologram-like image appeared in front of it.

"This is what Gammiagrass looks like. It's an herb that you can find in mana-rich places but it is quite rare. There might be... a little trouble, so do be careful while retrieving it."

It looked like a little larger grass and grew a blue bud which almost made it resemble a flower. Its leaves were dark green with yellow edges and it had small thorns on its stem.

"I understand." Noy nodded his head, "What did you mean by - be careful?"

"You will find out when you get there," Akriel answered with a smile.

"Umm okay," Noy hesitantly replied.

"In case you get lost, this will help you to find your way back to me." Akriel rounded his finger and a strange light entered Noy.

He could now see a bunch of slightly transparent white lines leading to Akriel. It was so surreal to him that a feeling of accomplishing something arose within him. However, it was only for a while and he couldn't get really happy, as it wasn't his own power.

Noy questioned, "How do I get these off?"

"Think about something else and it will go away after a while. In contrast, if you concentrate and think about how to get to me, it will pop up and lead you to me."

Now that he knew what to find and a way to get back, he steeled his resolve and went off on his way outside the room.

***

There was a whole new forest-like place as he stepped outside. He walked through it and came across a small pond. On the other side was an old tree. He looked around for Gammiagrass but there was no sign of it anywhere.

“It’s not here.” Noy sighed

He continued looking around and finally found some of the plants growing here and there, but still, no sign of it could be found.

“I don’t know where it grows. I should have asked for the specifics.”

He felt a little bit down but he knew he had to keep going. After walking for a while he noticed something strange. A small plant was growing next to this dimly lit rock. It looked like a miniature version of Gammiagrass but its bud illuminated blue and red light in a timely pattern.

Then, a wolf came and sat near Gammiagrass. It was larger and darker than the normal wolf found in the empire. It seemed to be guarding the plant.

He hid behind a large rock and continued to observe the situation.

"Is this Gammiagrass?" Noy wondered. But pondering back to the time Akriel described the features of Gammiagrass, it was really identical to it excluding the changing colors of its bud.

“I am pretty sure it's Gammiagrass. Maybe it’s a variant? I don’t know. I’ll just assume it is and take it. “

“But how do I take it? I will certainly die if I fought the wolf.”

His blood boiled, "So, this was what Akriel meant by - be careful while retrieving it. DOES HE WANT ME TO DIE? WHY THE HELL DID HE NOT SAY THERE WOULD BE WOLVES?"

Noy calmed himself with a big breath and cleared his mind. His observation for a few hours led to him concluding that the wolves continuously guarded the plant like a shift duty.

“There is an interval of around 10 seconds when one wolf would leave and another would come to guard it. Each wolf guards the plant for around 45 minutes before they switch. So that 10 seconds window is my only chance to grab the plant and make a run for it.”

A wolf had just come and sat next to the rock to guard the plant. So, Noy had to wait another 45 minutes for it to go away in order to have that 10 seconds interval.

These 45 minutes were killing Noy. He was restless and his body ached from the tension.

Finally, the wolf left and the 10 seconds window presented itself.

He quickly jumped forward and grabbed the plant and ran as fast as he could.

10 seconds passed and another wolf came to guard the plant. However, it noticed that the plant was missing and panicked. It desperately looked around and spotted Noy running with a plant in his hand.

Raged, it howled loudly and started chasing him down. Soon after, the rest of the pack joined in for the chase.

Noy sprinted as fast as he could but they were gaining on him.

He was close to being caught when he saw a bunch of spikes hidden in the ground. He surprisingly had a sharp eye. He used it to his advantage and jumped over the spikes and rolled to the floor.

The rolling helped him to gain some distance, "I am sorry but I don't want to die."

The pack of wolves followed him and then a bunch of spikes came out of the floor killing a lot of them. Seeing their own die in front of their eyes made them stop and hesitate for a while. But even after all that, they jumped over the dead wolves' bodies and leaped over the spikes to chase after Noy.

This surprised Noy but there was no time to think anything. He again began running from the wolves.

He ran and ran until he couldn't anymore. His breathing became heavy and each gasp of air was hard to get. His body felt like it was burning from the inside. The feeling of void consumed him and his dead eyes looked like they would give up any minute now.

Eventually, he came to a dead end with the wolves chasing right behind him. With no hope left of escaping, he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed reminiscing about the time of fond memories.

The wolves were closing in on him and soon they jumped over to Noy's body aiming at his both shoulders. At that time, the wall rotated and put Noy over to the other side of the wall.

To say he was relieved is a major understatement. He thought he was surely done for but he was wrong. However, he didn't get out unscathed, a wolf had managed to injure the upper side of his left hand and a few drops of blood were dripping down from it.

He was very exhausted. So, he slowly walked to explore this new place that he landed in. But he couldn’t even traverse half of the place.

It seemed like he would faint when he stumbled upon a medium-sized plant that gave off a strange soothing aura. Just beneath it, was a small hole and was filled with crystal clear waters that shined gleamingly.

Finding some water renewed his hope for survival and he sipped the whole hole dry.