I am quite interested in seeing what's in this forest now. When I entered the forest I felt an ominous presence watching over me. I wonder what that was?
Still…looking at this forest,it seems to be really big, I don't know if I could explore it in one day without food. I need to find food it seems then. But… There's almost nothing I see that I can eat.
Actually there is something. There are these wierd looking berries,they look like little stars and are purple in color. They are about the size of a toothpick. I will pick them up but I am still not sure about eating them. Like with the presence at the entrance they also give me a weird feeling. I stored them in my pockets and continued exploring the forest.
After exploring the forest for about 1 hour I saw alot of animals and some weird ones aswell.
I saw rabbits,deer,a bear and some weird cat-type animal. I don't know how to describe it but it had 2 curly horns,it was yellow in color and it was about 1.5 meters tall. I wanted to come closer to it but it went away somewhere. Too bad.
The next thing I found was more of the star berries that I picked up earlier. I ate some of them because I was getting hungry, it seems that the berries aren't poisonous but they do give of a disgusting smell once you start chewing on them. I almost passed out once again because of the smell.
I sat down beneath a tree and went into a meditating pose. I want to see what kind of spirit was in my rapier. One thing I noticed about the rapier is that the snake-like pattern was moving faster and faster the more I tried to talk to the spirit. I think when it is fast enough I can talk to it.
I put the sword on my knees and looked at it. I don't know how to talk to it at all. I tried talking to it verbally.
„Hey,Heeey! Anybody home?“ No use. No movement at all.
I tried talking to it with my mind… It started moving a bit! Still…it's too slow. It isn't even fast as the time earlier. I tried talking more and more. But it only started moving a bit faster. I can't go on with this if the speed of the process is so slow. I don't have enough food to wait here.
With that I stood up and went to search for star-berries or a place where star-berries grow. I must admit that even though I can't stand the smell I need to eat something and I am not confident in hunting animals. I have a wound on my back it seems from that explosion in the black room. I can't really say it was black though because I couldn't see even 1 meter infront of me.
After about 20 minutes I picked up a whole lot of star-berries. I hope this will be enough until I finish.
I once again sat in a meditating position and put the sword on my knees. This time I tried to meditate and talk to the sword once again.
After a few minutes I went in a meditating state. I couldn't feel anything around my surroundings. I could only sense my sword. I tried talking to it once again. This time the pattern didn't move but I felt a stream of energy entering my body. I tried doing that once again. Another stream of energy entered my body. The stream of energy felt really cold and ominous. Like it would devour anything it touches.
„Are you done? I think you can hear me now , right?“ I heard someones voice.
„W-who!?“ It startled me.
„What do you mean who…I am the snake that cat-guy talked about.“ Cat-guy? OH, the arrogant voice is the cat-guy! Wait…that explains why I heard cat-like sounds when he talked.
„Are you the spirit that was imprinted in my sword?“ I asked. I was quite curious.
„Yes…and no.“
„What do you mean by no? I thought that the arrogant cat-guy put you in the sword already.“ I am confused right now. I don't know what the snake meant by no. Didn't the cat-guy put it already in? I am going to kill him as soon as I see him next time.
„ By no I mean that the process was incomplete. The cat-guy forgot one crucial factor! That is the Sword Gem that you should have. Do you have it here? I can finish the process if you have it.“
Sword Gem?
…
….
Was there such thing? I can't remember anything though.
„Sword gem?“ I asked.
„What? You don't have it? Is it possible that you really lost your memories? No,that's not possible. Only if you were mentally ill memories can be forgotten. But,even with that…the chances of that happening is 5%!“
Mentally ill? Nope, I am perfectly normal. Atleast now.
„I am a healthy person, but let's not talk about that I want to talk about the sword gem thing you were talking about.“ I replied.
„Ah,yes that should be our top priority. Let's see… I know! We can find the Sword Gem if you manage to summon me in the material world. I could sense it then!“ Summon? Material world? Hey,hey slow down a little I am having trouble following you. First what is the material world? Aren't we already in something like that?
„I can see that you are confused. About what?“
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„Well…all of it?“ I said. It sounded like a question. I hope he doesn't misunderstand.
„Is that a question?“ He did!
„No! Please explain everything!“ I said correcting myself.
„Alright. Listen up! I am going to tell you everything from the start. It might help you regain your memories too.
First I'll explain what a Sword Gem is. Sword Gems are special types of stones to be precise. They work as a medium between the Shadow World and Material world. We are currently in the shadow world. Usually beginners like you would use the Sword Gem to learn how to enter the shadow world. But you managed to make a way in by yourself. Well,it is not a stable way. It could crumble away any moment now. When you find the Sword Gem I will teach you how to enter the shadow world without doing such dangerous ways.
The next thing is the summoning ability. I can see that you don't remember it so I will imprint my own summoning ability in your memories. It will be a bit different than the original one but it is more suitable for summoning snake-type spirits. When you use summoning your sword will appear infront of you or in your hand if you have good control of your internal energy. Also there's spirit summoning but for that you need to stabilize the shadow world atleast a bit more. It will take you about 2 days to do that in your current state.
The last thing I will say before the temporary shadow world destroys itself is that I will give you a skill which you can use in battle. You will recieve information about the skill when you leave the shadow world. One piece of advice though…Don't use the skill when fighting humans….You might or might not go berserk and kill yourself with it aswell…“
That's a lot of information. Atleast I know now about the basics. First thing I am doing is going back to the place I was before entering the forest. The Sword Gem should be somewhere there.
After a few seconds the shadow world started falling apart. So this is what snake talked about. Actually I feel a bit uncomfortable calling it snake. I should ask if it has a name when we meet again.
I finally woke up from the meditating state. The first thing I noticed is that I am dying of hunger. How long was I talking to the snake? I think it was no more than a few minutes. Why am I so hungry then? My speculations might be right about that energy. It put a lot of strain on my body. But when I look at my body I feel a lot stronger than before too.
I stood up and chewed on some star-berries. I picked up my sword and started going towards the place I entered the forest.
But before that I got a weird screen appear infornt of me. It was black in color with white words. I looked at it and it said :
„achievement unlocked : 64th player to start gathering energy!“
Achievement? It seems that I got an achievement…but won't I get anything else from that?
As I thought about that I saw a new screen appearing. This one was even bigger than the last one. On this screen it said :
„ Skills unlocked : Snake Eyes – Allows you to see information about the target item/being. (Skill is adapted so it passes your spirit's attribute. Current attribute : Snake,Void)
- Blood rush – Body strengthening skill – possibility of going berserk : 20% “
Skills! Finally something I can use to battle monsters. But…now that I think about it,the acievement said that I am the 64th player to start gathering energy…does that mean there are others? Wait,no,I already knew there are others when I was talking to the cat-guy. He said something like that too.
I want to try out these skills. Atleast one of them. I know how to activate them somehow thanks to the information I got when the screen appeared. I tried using the 'Snake Eyes' Skill on the star-berries.
Another screen appeared near the star-berries. This one was blue in color.
- Name : Shiningberry
- Type : Elemental berry / attribute : fire
- Anyone with the fire attribute energy will gain a bonus in attack damage for 2 hours.
- Multiple intakes of the fruit can end up in mental damage and posssible death.
Well…I've been eating poisonous fruits,good thing I didn't continue eating them. I could've died.
With that I finished my trip in the forest and I went back towards the place I woke up…
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PS : Guys this is my first web-novel thingy and English is not my first language so I am still learning new words every day. So expect the novel to get better in future chapters.