Ocelio summoned his soul power and spread it in the area nearby.
When he confirmed that there were no souls in the proximity he stepped in the forest. He continued to use his spiritual power to scout the surroundings, using his sense of smell to guide his path.
Countless odours were amassed in the forest, inundating him with information.
The carpet of grass below his feet and extending in every direction emitted a faint scent of radish, the trees had the strongest smell, a distinctive fragrance similar to liquorice.
Many other scents coming from beyond his field of view seemed to make him wary. He avoided walking in their direction, focusing only on tracking one smell.
He had walked about 30 steps in before stopping to examine the environment around him, he seemed distracted by all the colours and the unfamiliar ambience.
He grasped a brown vine hanging on a tree, giving it a gentle pull; he noticed there was resistance from the treetop. The vine extended beyond his sight, beyond a thick layer of green leaves, preventing him from knowing what was blocking it.
A bit later he noticed a small stack of light brown granules on the forest’s floor. He did not seem to know what they were but gathered them in his pocket.
He did not pick up everything he saw, he only stopped when he saw something that seemed to trigger his curiosity.
When he got close to the origin of the lemon smell, he froze. His soul detection had picked up a living being’s presence. He could not identify his shape, distance or strength. He was only aware that a living creature was in the area.
He inhaled the air with greed, there was no scent of a new presence, nothing that seemed to be dangerous.
He hid behind a tree and glanced around with a wary look. His red coloured iris seemed to spill into the rest of his eyes, turning his pupils and sclera into the same red colour.
In a large radius around him, he became able to locate every living being. A red sphere was hovering high above at the periphery of his field of vision, but there were at least 500 steps between them, he appeared to realise that his soul detection did not extend that far.
In a different direction, at a similar distance were a few other blood spheres of different sizes prowling in his direction.
He did not have much time before they came to notice his presence, if they didn’t already.
There was another blood sphere in his immediate proximity but he hadn’t paid attention to it, identifying it as the source of the smell.
All of a sudden, he froze. He gave a wry smile when he made an understanding.
He cancelled the blood sense and walked a few steps to his right.
There, under a canopy of trees, hidden in high grass was a lone flower with white and pink petals.
It seemed to shake in a gentle rhythm as the wind toyed with its petals.
He looked on with a smile at the scenery of the flower growing in the middle of a field of yellow grass. He made a step with the intent to get close to it.
But right when his foot landed on the grass, a surprising scene took place.
The flower rose in the air in a flash, revealing a brown plant with 4 short roots that dug itself from the ground and fled in high-speed.
Ocelio stood frozen, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at the direction the magical plant had fled in. The high grass had hidden the plant’s body but when it dug itself from the ground, he had seen how the plant seemed to have a head from which the flower grew from.
And the plant head had two eyes, a pair of lips and a face!
All of a sudden, Ocelio started giggling, he held his stomach as he fell on the ground in laughter.
[Raaarr!]
A fierce bark from a dog-like creature forced him to reel back to reality; he threw himself back, rushing to hide behind a tree as the dogs chased him.
The tall, brown four-legged, scaled creatures dashed to surround the tree, releasing a tumult of barks in his direction.
Yet, when they got close to Ocelio’s last location, they found nothing but a lone tree. Their dark brown snouts rose in the air, producing sharp “ni ni” sounds as they sniffed the air.
Ocelio used the three steps to run as fast as possible to the forest’s outskirt. The aura of the Void Rabbit shrouded his body, cancelling all sound, smell and presence within it.
[What was that?! Why were they so big? What is this world?]
He seemed panicked, the next second, the Void Rabbit’s camouflage disappeared from his body, making his steps echo in the surrounding.
He ran for 10 minutes at full throttle yet he was still surrounded by trees. His eyes glanced around in nervousness. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead; he came to a stop under two trees intertwining each other. His muscles appeared taut, ready to bounce away at any sign of danger.
While examining the area, he saw a green tree in his line of sight, plump brown fruits grew from its dark branches, the scent coming from them entered his nose, lighting up his eyes.
He gawked at the fruits, they appeared appetising and ripe, making him gulp his saliva in an exaggerated manner.
He glanced in the direction he had fled from; his spiritual energy had already been depleted to half but he still used it one last time to scan the area.
When he was sure there were no one around, he made cautious steps toward the tree.
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The dark branches twisted in strange ways, some aiming for the sky, others creating an arc that fell toward the ground.
He didn’t seem sure of what he was doing but he tried reaching for one of the round fruits.
It fell into his hand with ease, bouncing once in his grasp before coming to a stop, the liquid within made the skin of the fruit distort as it was a water balloon.
The fruit was bigger than his head and seemed to be heavy, the muscles from his arm contracted as he carried it against his chest.
Instead of eating it, he appeared ready to leave with his harvest. He gave a last glance at the large green tree, but right when he turned his body, he saw a silhouette from the corner of his eyes.
Then, his whole vision turned white.
A second later, hundreds of vertical lines came to occupy all his field of vision, they moved up and down in a quick rhythm.
He didn’t seem to know what was going on nor where to look at. He closed his eyes but the strange phenomenon did not show any change.
Then, a red horizontal line the size of his nail appeared on the far left.
He watched with a nervous face as the red block crashed against a white line. Everything disappeared and he was back in front of the tree.
The first thing he did was drop the fruit in his grasp, his foot sunk into the ground, about to launch his body to his left. However, he did not jump away. He stared in surprise at the beautiful lady with short red hair that had walked out from behind the fruit tree.
The fruit he had released exploded on the ground, the green liquid within stained his dark trousers and shoes, yet he seemed too astonished by what he was seeing to pay attention to this.
Noticing his expression, the woman made a playful smile, she crossed her hands behind her back as she took slow steps backwards.
The white shirt she wore looked too tight for her size, outlining the shape of her large, firm breasts. A skinny khaki short hugged her thighs, revealing her milky white legs under his stare.
Her green eyes examined him with just as much attention, her smile turned into a grin as she turned to show him her back for a passing moment, right after which she took shelter from his hungry stare behind a tree a short distance away from him.
Ocelio’s face exposed the emotions he felt, in particular when she turned around, his blush reached his ears but it did not stop his eyes from reaching her lower half, following the movements of her hips before her curved butt vanished from his sight.
He was still staring at the tree, his body relaxed, the thought of leaving seemed to have disappeared from his mind.
All of a sudden, a delicate hand extended from behind the tree, in her grasp was a white shirt. He appeared dumbstruck as the shirt fell to the ground in a slow drop.
Her hand returned to hide behind the tree, leaving him with nothing to watch but a discarded piece of clothing.
Ocelio continued to glare at the shirt, then his feet moved. He began to run, using his sense of smell to their full capacity.
Right before leaving, he had sensed something wrong in his brain. A thread of spiritual power that did not belong to him. Without delay, he crushed the thread with his spiritual power and fled the scene.
His face was pale, he appeared terrified of what had just happened. His heartbeat continued to bang in his chest at a chaotic pace.
[The shroud, why isn’t it working?]
It was only now that Ocelio appeared to have noticed that his camouflage was no longer activated.
He kept summoning the Void Rabbit’s power, yet no aura came out of his body. It was as if the Void Rabbit’s power wasn’t responding to his call.
Left without a choice, he began to rise in the air, dashing forward at a breakneck speed. An instant later, joy flashed on his face.
[There!]
He took a sharp turn on his left and dived straight back to the ground.
He released long, tired breaths while standing on the grass outside the forest’s edge.
Some gatherers had noticed his rushed arrival but none dared to bother him, except one person.
[Sir, are you alright?]
Militades, the city official came to greet him with a worried look on his face. He appeared to have noticed Ocelio disappearance and sudden retreat from the forest.
[Yes, how long until we finish?]
[It’s almost done sir; we can leave now if you wish.]
He continued to stare at the forest, there was no sign of anything or anyone having followed him but his shoulders remained tense.
[No need, finish your mission and we’ll leave.]
After sending the middle-aged man away, Ocelio bit his lips in anxiousness.
If he had not excellent control on his spiritual power, he would not have noticed the foreign spiritual thread that had invaded his body.
He looked to be still thinking about what he had witnessed, without knowing what would have happened if he had walked to where the woman was hiding.
All of a sudden, his eyebrows creased, he paced on the outskirt of the line of trees, appearing to be counting the gatherers sitting on the ground plucking up grass or trying to cut the vines stuck to the tree.
He saw someone dug the ground as if looking for treasures, his bucket by his side was already half full with crystalline rocks.
[24…where are the rest?]
He counted them another time, this time he found 23 of them.
His face did not show any change, it remained expressionless.
He came to stand not far from where a silver-haired woman continued her search for precious resources. The bucket that was hanging on her back was empty apart from a few strands of grass.
His attention alternated between her back and the line of grey trees extending beyond his vision.
From time to time, his eyes would dilate, turning a shade lighter as he scanned the surrounding.
Yet, he didn’t appear to find any clue on where the gatherers had gone to.
[It’s time! Gather! Come close! Stop everything!]
Milidates’ voice came from nearby, all the gatherers stood up and started to assemble in front of him. Ocelio stood to the side, watching their expressions as if searching for something.
Milidates seemed to have also realised what was happening as fear and panic swirled in his eyes.
[Where Matheias? I saw him just a minute ago.]
The gatherers also looked to have noticed that some of them were missing from their group. They looked around, searching for their friends.
[Cepheus was foraging right beside me, did he went to take a piss?]
[We’re leaving! Do not look back at the forest, do not talk. We’re returning to the city.]
Some of them appeared to have understood that those who are missing would not return, their faces shifted to terror as cold sweat started to soak their clothes. Others still had confused looks.
[Why are we leaving them behind? Cepheus, come back, we’re leaving!]
A young man wearing ragged clothes shouted in the direction of the forest as if he wished to warn his missing friend of their departure.
[Shut up your idiot! You’re going to get us all killed!]
[Anyone who opens his mouth from now on and refuses to follow orders will be treated as a criminal and dealt according to the wilderness laws.]
At Militades’ words, all of them became silent. They glanced at each other with fear and anxiety.
The silver-haired woman was among them, she looked even more panicked. She appeared the most afraid of death.
Ocelio walked at the front of the group with the city official following his steps. The return journey was uneventful but all the gatherers now looked plagued by thoughts.
The reality seemed to have sunken in among the gatherer’s group, that 11 of them had disappeared and would not be coming back.
No one appeared to have noticed anything strange during the day, no scream, not a single sound coming from the forest. Only the noise made from their hands plucking the grass and digging the ground had been heard.
The pace was a lot quicker on the way back. Instead of holding the wall in the dark tunnel, they held the hand of the person in front of them.
After what had happened, they seemed to seek comfort in each other’s presence, in particular, in a place where if any of them disappeared, they wouldn’t be able to notice it.
At this moment, even though Ocelio was only 17 years old and yet to be considered an adult by his old world’s standard, the expression he wore on his face was one an adult made when he became resolute on the path he chose for himself.