As I looked inside the cave Willow crashed into, I smelt familiar scents from around our village. The cave is extremely well-lit. So this must be their base.
I see Maple run up to Willow the 2nd, whose body is slumped inside the cave and kick his body. “What the hell is wrong with you? That could’ve ended up bad.”
Willow starts to whimper out of sadness. He can’t understand the heroes song, but I guess her tone was enough.
“Maple go easy on him. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to find this place,” As I say this, I see the light decrease in the cave. I look at the entrance Willow rammed into, and I know that it has started to reform itself, closing up.
Seeing this, I walk near the wall and touch it, when I touch it , the wall feels stiff, ruff and rigid, but the more power I put into my hands, the softer it becomes, it’s even softer than the snow on Fimbulwinter, but as I apply more force the wall sucks me in.
“ORB!” Maple screams.
As I open my eyes, I see I am back outside. While standing there, I touch the wall again and end up on the other side. When I got back, I heard, “You’re okay.”
“When I touched the wall, I was spat out on the other side.” I have never heard of anything like this in Capti’s books. I know of substances that are both soft and hard, but not anything like this. When Willow blew the wall apart, it reformed.
Maple walks up to me and hits me in my back.
“Ouch, what was that for.”
“Be careful. You should take precautions with the unknown idiot.”
I thought this was no big deal, but as I looked at Maple, I see the genuine worry on her face. She has lost lots of people I guess she didn’t take kindly to this. “Sorry, Maple, I will be more careful next time.”
“Ok, Orb.”
So, getting on Willow the 2nd back, we charge forward at full speed through the tunnel.
-Break-
Φ “This is so unfair. Why do we have to be on pest control while everyone else is partying it up.”
“SHUT UP, this is all your fault; we wouldn't be here if you didn’t lose all the cargo back in Fimbulwinter.”
“How would I have possibly known that my singing would have attracted those monsters with six arms.”
“It’s simple, your singing is so bad that god needs to make you shut up somehow. Every single time you sing, something bad happens, and this time, it made those giant monsters not only kill all our mates but destroy most of our cargo. We should just cut off your tongue. It will be a great favour to not only us, but the world at large.”
“Take that back, you dickhead.”
“Why is the truth that hard to handle.”
Angered, I say, “Facts my ass right here, right now. I am going to prove it is all bullshit.” I start singing my lungs out.
Φ “SHUT THE FUCK UP,” I say as I punch the idiot. “My god, I thought my ears were going to rot.”
“Stop exaggerating. Now see, nothing bad has happened, it was all in your head you retard, now watch me sing again.”
As the idiot in front of me continues his atrocious singing, I hear increasing loud stomps. “Stop you, idiot, I think I hear something.”
But he ignores me and continues with his singing. I tried to forceable stop him but coming out of the tunnels in front of us was a giant five-horned beast, and from that beast, something jumped from it and landed right on the idiot’s face when I got a look at the person; he had red hair.”
“MY GOD, STOP SINGING,” he said as his feet landed on the idiot’s face. Now stomping his foot against the idiot’s face, he says, “Never open your mouth again. Your voice is a crime against humanity. How can a person’s voice be worse than Maples?”
“Hey, I thought he sounded fine,” I hear a girl’s voice say.
“That’s because you have no sense of anything music-related.”
After he finishes stomping the idiot’s face, he looks at me. I draw my sword quick, infusing it with spirit energy and try to slash him, but he dodges all my slashes effortlessly.
So, I decided to take a giant leap back and use my left hand to reach for the communicator in my back pocket. I need to contact the boss. We somehow have an intruder. This has only happened once, so no one would be expecting this. I bring the communicator close to my face, but as I try to turn it on, I can’t feel my left hand.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Looking down at my left hand, I see it has been cut off, and the wound has been frozen. Barely registering what had happened, I immediately looked up to see that the boy was not in front of me. Then I hear, “This doesn’t seem to be some kind of weapon or poison, so if he tried to use it in such a situation, it must be a communication device of some sort.”
I immediately turn around to see the boy looking at my communicator. I didn’t even sense him. Is he even using spirit arts? If he wasn’t, how could he make such a movement without it? After taking one look, I immediately recognise that he is a legacy.
That must be where the ice came from. I can’t waste any more time, so I put all my spiritual energy into my sword and go for his neck, but he stops my blade with his hand, and in a moment, it freezes and shatters. Seeing this, I fall back on my butt.
“Seems like I am getting a hand of this whole ice ability.” The boy walks up to me and says, “I am a bit lost, so give me some directions.”
I tell him, “There is a map in my right pocket. Take it.”
The boy holds the map in his hands, sits next to me and asks, “So, where are we.”
Using my good hand, I point to the spot we currently are at.
“Where would your base be.”
“In this big centre area here.”
“Thank you for this.”
“No problem,” I say with a forced smile.
As the boy stares at the map, he says, “Can I ask a few more questions.”
“Go ahead”. I don’t want to answer his questions; I want this conversation to end.
“You and your friend are quite visibly unfit, so how can you pull out those movements.”
“I was using spirit arts.”
“What is that exactly?”
“It is the ability to use spirit energy to become a superhuman. It makes you stronger and faster regardless of how in shape you are.”
“How did you obtain this.”
“Most of us was thought by the newbie Cole. I think his name was.”
The boy hair changes colour as he makes a very contemplating expression, then he says, “Why are you here? You look like you’re patrolling the area, but I am pretty sure this place is so well hidden that most people properly wouldn’t find this place.”
“We are looking for ignamoles trying to plug up the tunnels.”
“Well, they have a habit of constantly plugging up and digging holes so that checks out. Is there anyone else on the lookout close by.”
“No, it should only be my friend and me until you reach the base.”
The boy then squats in front of me and says, “Now have you seen anyone dressed like me recently.”
“No, I have never seen someone like you in my life.” I say, frightened.
“Your heartbeat increased for the first time when you said all that. It’s a lie, isn’t it.” The boy says as his eyes stare at me with lethal intent.
Bowing down in front of him, I say, “I lied. I am sorry, recently we have had lots of merchandise that has your aesthetic.”
“What was done with it.”
“We sold some of it while the rest is still in the base.”
“People or objects?”
The boy’s head turned red as he asked, this. I am in trouble. “People, but I didn’t do any of it because I wanted to. I just needed to make money by following the boss’s orders. I AM SO SORRY IT WAS JUST A JOB.”
“No need to apologise. We all need to make money somehow.”
“Really,” I say as I look up.
His fist smashes me in the face as he says, “GET A DIFFERENT JOB.” As I fall unconscious, I think that mom and dad are right; I should’ve become a farmer.
Φ “Maple comes down here. I got an update on the situation.”
When Maple comes over to me, I inform her of the situation. “So, they have been sold off. We were too late, but if only some of them were sold. There should still be many of them here, so we have no time to waste.”
Maple then climbs back on Willow as I strip one of the bandits.
“Orb, what are you doing.”
“This one is close to my size, so I am going to switch clothes with him.”
“Why?”
“If they recognise, I am from the village, they might use one of their prisoners as a hostage.” So, as I finish swapping clothes with that man, I climb on Willow, and we head off.
As we travel, a series of thoughts travel through my head. This map is one of the continent of Terrafide, which is the one we are currently on, though the map shows tunnel systems throughout the continent. Does this whole tunnel system spread that far?
Also, they’re already able to sell some of the people. I didn’t think we were far enough behind them for something like that to happen. I guess that the bandits who took the people already knew whom they were going to sell them to and went directly there, while the bandits I was smelling were carrying objects and now went back to base.
Spirit arts must be what Sequoia and everyone else was using. It makes the most sense—considering Cole is the one who taught them, I should have to fear that anyone here is better at it by than him. I hope this will work out. Please, God.
-Break-
Φ “Everyone get used to all this high-quality wine and food we have because we’ll be drinking this stuff for a while.”
As the screams of all my employees ring through the tunnel, I drink my wine. That job that Cole brought us is the best he has given us, yet it is good to be me. “This is the life.”
“Boss, you seem to be enjoying yourself.”
“I am just patting myself on the back for accepting that naïve kid into our ranks.”
“Speaking about Cole, he hasn’t returned with the last team we sent out. Do you think he might’ve run away again?”
“No, he will be back. He is a slave of money, and since we provide it to him without a doubt, he will be back. He lived with all those people for a year yet betrayed them and sold them to us.”
One of my men said, “Boss, speaking of those people, would we be able to have some fun with them.”
I draw my sword and swing it near his neck, but intentionally missing him, I say to him, “If any of you idiots touch a single one of those women and children, I will stuff a hundred swords up your ass. They are rare prime merchandise. Their worth is something you guys couldn’t make in all your life. You got that?”
“Yes, boss,” he says with a whimper.
“Good, now take these lupas and go to a whore house.”
“Thank you, boss, for your too kind.”
“Of course I am, now fuck off.”
As I sit back in my chair, I think to myself that I have made it. I have no fancy education or incredible skills, yet I have enough money and people loyal to me. I can get anything I want. This is truly the life.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!” I hear someone shout.
I look over to the screaming and see a five-horned beast running through the entrance of our base.