Her smile vanished from her face as a faint blush crept into her face from being stared at by Ocelio. She dropped the fork on the plate, her feet interlocked and she hid her hands under the table.
All the signs were registered by Ocelio, his smile deepened as if he had realised something.
[My story? Sir, I…do not understand.]
[You were not born in this city, are you not?]
When he looked at her, she appeared tense, she avoided his stare, the smell of sweat started to overpower any other odour on her body.
He glanced around his table. All the customers had a similar appearance. Their hair main colour was brown and their eyes contained impurities, swirling in their eyeballs like dust.
Their skin was light brown coloured as if a layer of mud had covered their bodies.
On the other hand, Synthea and her child had silver hair and brown eyes mixed with black and white spots.
Their skin had an unhealthy pale glow, making their bodies look feeble.
[I…I’ve…I’ve lived in this city since I was small. My parents had an accident and died, leaving me to live on my own. I…grew up in the poorman’s district. I…did not come from another city...I was…always here.]
It was obvious she was lying but a deep emotion was hidden behind the moist veil of her eyes, erasing the smile from his face.
[What about your daughter?]
[She was born here in the poorman’s district with me. She never left the city. Her…father was a neighbour, he said he would earn a lot of money by joining a merchant convoy and helping out. He said…it would take 2 months to come back…but he never returned.]
She seemed about to break down into tears, even Monime looked affected by the ambience, her bright eyes were glowing with hot tears as she stared at her mother.
Ocelio appeared to guess at where the story was going. He finished his cup before asking in a monotone voice.
[When did he leave?]
Synthea’s throat swallowed hard, she looked miserable, it was as if the joy she showed a minute ago had been an illusion.
[When…Monime was 2 years old. She doesn’t remember him anymore.]
He heaved a sigh before rising from his seat.
[Keep the money, learn a craft and find a job. I’ll rent you a place to stay here, this is your chance to take advantage of your luck, take it or leave it, it’s your choice.]
He walked to the tavern’s counter, after telling them to reserve a room for Synthea until next week and to send the bill to the Warrior’s Association in his name, he walked out with light steps.
Synthea stared at the pursue sitting on the table. She seemed to know it was filled with coins but appeared confused on why he would help her so much. She lived in the slum, she had nothing to give him, even if she wasn’t ugly, he had never looked at her with that kind of eyes.
Her daughter gazed at the pursue with yearning, she appeared to have forgotten the joy and sorrow from a minute ago, dazzled by the gift he had left them.
[It’s not ours. Sir said to use that money to learn a craft.]
She shook her head at the little girl, a faint smile couldn’t help but bloom on her face. She hugged her daughter before leaving their table.
However, another surprise awaited them as they were about to leave.
Meanwhile, Ocelio was wandering through the streets in the trading district, witnessing the busy lifestyle of the inhabitants.
After his shopping spree of yesterday, Ocelio had managed to get familiar with the trading district, it concentrated most of the economy of the city and made it the most frequented district.
He went inside a weapon store to examine the equipment they had. The shop was small and mostly sold melee weapons such as swords and spears. He seemed to be intrigued by this practice so he asked the shop keeper.
[Distance weapons such as bows, javelin, flying knives are useless against what sir may encounter in the wilderness. They are effective against other humans so they are banned in the city. However, it is only true for regular weaponry, artefacts are an entire different matter. If sir wishes to buy a distance artefact such as a bow, the Crafting Association has a master blacksmith in our city.]
This was the third time Ocelio had heard people of this world mention armaments. He knew what the word meant but seemed unsure if it was the same as his previous world.
In his homeworld, armaments were used by human to hunt vampires. They had special powers that countered vampire natures, granting them enough strength to fight on equal ground against the most powerful vampires in their ranks.
All of a sudden, a tremor erupted from the ground, making Ocelio fall to his knee. A deafening sound came from above the city, he noticed the weapons falling one after another to the ground, the second after he dashed outside the store.
The buildings trembled as if they were about to fall, all the pedestrians were curled up on the ground, shielding their head with their hands.
The carriages fell to the ground sideways as the magical horses bellowed in panic, ripping the restraints on their bodies through sheer desperation.
Ocelio stared at the rumbling from the ceiling, the next instant he activated his blood sense ability. His eyes dilated, turning into a lighter red colour.
However, his ability reach did not extend to the ceiling, he could only see the roofs of the tallest building.
A hint of annoyance rippled in his eyes, he seemed to have taken a decision on the spur of the moment as he dashed right above the ground.
He did not fly too high, however, it allowed him to gain stable footings to reach the nearby walls, acting as if he was jumping to reach the roofs.
When he reached a tall building’s roof, his eyes stared above, a grim expression on his face.
Astonishment surged in his eyes at what he saw.
Countless beings were running on the land above the city. There were more blood shapes than he could count and every second, more creatures would appear and disappear from his range of detection.
[Thankfully, they do not appear to target this city…]
Ocelio whispered under the tumult created by this artificial earthquake.
For long minutes, nothing but the sound and tremors produced by the stampede of creatures above the city could be heard. Many buildings in the poorman and hardman’s districts had fallen, crumbling to the ground into solid pieces of mud, before being reduced to dust by the intense vibration of the ground.
Many people had vomited on themselves, the stench of urine and vomit filled the crowded street.
When the situation calmed down, Ocelio dropped down from the roof, leaking a sigh from his lips.
He made a tired face as he walked toward the Warrior’s Association, he avoided people as much as he could.
He sneezed from the dust that had covered his hair and clothes.
[Defeated by dust…What a disgrace, mother would be furious.]
The corner of his lips rose, before releasing another sigh and moving faster to his destination.
When he returned to the Warrior’s Association, the receptionist greeted him with enthusiasm despite his current appearance.
By the side of the hall, sitting and chatting were two Bloodrainists he had seen in the city before. They wore casual clothes, a drink laid on the table in front of them with their contents spilt on the table.
He heard then talking about the earthquake before he entered the hall, at which point they stopped talking.
When they noticed his glance, both of them made a slight nod in his direction, they appeared perturbed by his appearance but seemed to know who he was.
Ocelio responded in kind before hurrying to his room and taking a shower.
He ditched his clothes in a basket and wore the clothes he had brought with him from his home.
He sat on his bed and entered a meditative state. When he had recovered half of his spiritual energy, he used the spirit eye to enter his personal container.
Inside of his soul, he stared with harshness at the Void Rabbit’s figure.
The rabbit’s manifestation remained unchanged, but Ocelio could no longer use his power.
The Void Rabbit remained silent no matter what Ocelio did to elicit a response. His voice resonated within his personal space, vanishing the next second.
After thinking for a few minutes, he returned to reality, only to switch to his personal mental space right after.
Within the white space, he materialised a desk and a chair. A shelf popped into existence as he walked to his seat.
Ocelio spent the next hour writing in his diary, recording everything that had happened during the day and analysing its meaning.
“…The land was barren. It wasn’t that all the grass had been picked clean, I could not find any living being present, nothing was growing as if the world itself had discarded that plot of land.”
“The forest was abundant in smell, life and sounds. Do all forests share these characteristics or do they differ based on the location and the ecosystem? I had never heard of grey trees…why is everything brown?”
“The dog-like creatures reached my chest, had I not used the camouflage to hide my smell, I expect that I wouldn’t have been able to escape their claws. Their ability to coordinate with the other members of the pack was superb, they left no path out after coming to surround the tree.”
“This world appears to be a giant box I cannot peek into yet. I feel that the answers to my questions reside outside the city, but I do not have the power to leave for the moment.”
At the end of his record, he left two names with a question mark.
[Synthea…Briseis…?]
After placing the diary book back on the shelf, it disappeared
He created a door on his right and went through it.
Ocelio red eyes stared outside his apartment, after making sure there was no one in proximity, he took out a brown wooden container from under his bed. Inside of which were two boxes taking all the space, they contained the magical plants he had bought from a store in the trading district.
They were called magical plants but they had nothing in common with what he had witnessed in the Silverpine Forest.
Ocelio took one of the wooden boxes and opened its gate to create a slight opening. The brown vine tried to dash outside as soon as the light made its way inside the box.
Ocelio grabbed the vine in a hurry, using his spiritual energy to encompass its body before employing the hypnosis technique he was familiar with, trapping the vine’s mind within an illusion.
The magical plant stopped moving and its body turned supple in his hand, it had become powerless.
After giving it a thorough analysis, by using his spiritual power and blood sense to examine its characteristics, he put it back in its box.
All through his study, the other box kept shaking, scratching noises came from within it as if begging to be let out.
When Ocelio’s hands placed the vine’s box in the container, the magical plant seemed to have sensed his presence and made more sounds in an attempt to attract his attention.
However, it did not seem to work on Ocelio. He closed the container before placing it back under his bed. As soon as the container was shut, all the sounds coming from within were isolated.
[Soon my friend. You’re too dangerous to be let out at my place. I’ll need some preparations to study you.]
Both magical plants had no facial characteristic, they both had souls and blood but only appeared to have basic instinct with no intelligence.
[I can’t believe they have no books in the city. They have parchments but no book, where should I get my information now…]
