CHAPTER 44: THE COMPOUND
"Am I… dreaming…?"
Ramie was gazing at the sky, in the far distance, where a man that was dressed in white cloak was actually fighting a giant dragon.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The dragon was releasing one destructive energy beam after another, trying to hit the man, who was flying with great speed, dodging the relentless attacks.
Every time one of these beams hits the ground, an explosion with destructive might that didn't lose out to nuclear bombs would bloom at the place, creating a mushroom-shaped cloud of white flame that would engulf an area of few tenths of kilometers. The deafening booms and the shock-waves would spread even further.
Ramie was exceedingly baffled by this sight…
The last thing he could remember – was losing his conscious after suffering a severe injury from the wind mage. Now however, he was floating in the middle of a huge crater in the ground. More ever, the crater was basically a sea of flame and molten lava. Yet… he was floating there, perfectly fine, even though half of his body was submerged in the raging fire.
Looking around, there were many craters. Ramie guessed that these were formed due to the intense battle between the mage that was dressed in white, and the flying dragon.
"I'm definitely dreaming… I know that now. But, why can't I wake up…?"
Ramie concluded that he was dreaming, because even despite the far distance, he could still make out even the expression of the magician, and he could even zoom in and out on anything in his field of vision.
He was sure that he was dreaming, even despite how realistic the scene looked. Of course, he didn't rule out the possibility that he was hallucinating. However, regardless of what this was, and giving that there was a strong enemy lurking on him and the others, he wanted to wake up, to face off that vindictive wind mage.
Closing his eyes, and focusing his will, Ramie hoped that this action would wake him up from this dream.
To his surprise, his vision grew blurry, and distant. 'It actually worked…!'
Overjoyed, Ramie focused more and more. And as a result, his vision blurred even further.
However, and before everything completely fades, Ramie started having a distant inexplicable feeling, a one that made him feel that this wasn't a mere dream, that this was actually happening, that… the result of this face off between the mage and the dragon, was going to impact everything, and every one.
However, before he makes sense of this feeling… everything vanished from his sight.
…
Opening his eyes, the sight of white ceiling greeted his vision.
His memories were a bit hazy and muddled. So, momentarily, he closed his eyes, to give his mind enough time to sort its things out.
As memories started drafting back to him, one after another, Ramie's eyes snapped open, violently. Then, jumping up from the bed, he started scanning his surroundings in apprehension.
'Where is the enemy..?'
The last time he closed his eyes, things were a far cry from being good.
"My arm…!"
Looking at his left arm, it was there, without as much as a scratch on it.
"How is this possible…?"
He clearly remembered his arm being blown off by a spell. Yet, here it is, intact..!
Ramie was stunned.
He was now in a bedroom. The walls were new; the bed was new, everything was clean and new here. It was as if this room was only recently built, and every object in the room smelled new.
'Where am I…? Where is this place…?'
His bewilderment was only growing now.
The last thing he remembered was losing conscious while a very dangerous enemy was lurking on them. Yet now, he woke up in a bedroom!
Cautiously, he opened the door, and started descending the stairs.
He discovered that he was in a small, recently built house.
The house was clean, and everything inside looked new and shiny, making him puzzled.
Checking the house, no one was inside, making him wonder on where Lance and the rest were?
Walking to the entrance door, he felt the life energy aura of a person approaching from the outside.
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Ramie stopped in his track, took few steps back, and prepared to a possible confrontation.
As the door was pushed open, a man walked in.
"… You're awake…!"
The man who opened the door was none other than Lance. More ever, he appeared to be stunned to see Ramie.
Seeing that it was Lance, Ramie immediately asked: "What happened with that wind mage? Where is this place…?"
Lance sighed in return; the look of surprise was still in his eyes: "Don't worry about that, young fellow! We aren't in any danger here. Also, there are few things you need to know. But before that, let's go to the kitchen. You have to eat something. After all, it's been a while since you last ate anything!"
And so, Lance took Ramie to the kitchen, poured him meat stew to eat, and proceeded to explain things to him.
Minutes passed by…
The meat stew was basically few pieces of meat that were boiled in water, without any other ingredients. However, that was not the reason why Ramie didn't touch it, but it was the stunning news that Lance was informing him with.
"This…!"
If it wasn't for the seriousness in Lance's tone, Ramie would have suspected that Lance was joking with him.
Basically, the nightly confrontation with the wind magician had taken place a week ago, and not yesterday!
After which, that man did not give up on exacting revenge on them. Apparently, he attacked them again while Ramie was unconscious, and had almost killed all of them, if it wasn't for Reem taking part in the fight, and using her defensive spell and buff spell, which tipped the balance of the fight to their favor.
After which, and failing to accomplish his goal, the black-clothed man took advantage of the fact that Ramie was unconscious, and he shot him with three spells to complete his unfinished business.
Lance told Ramie that if it wasn't for the summoned beast sensing his aura, they might have buried him along with Jeffry, thinking that he was dead. After all, the wounds were so severe that they didn't think anyone can survive them.
Anyhow, with such lethal wounds, none of them had any hope for him to live for long. They even prepared another grave for him, after finishing burying Jeffry. However, and luckily for him, the wounds on him started healing at frightening rate. Hence, he survived the burying part.
Hearing this, Ramie gulped down few times, nervously. After all, he was really too close to being buried alive.
Anyway, following Reem's request, the summoned beast finally lowered his head a bit, and allowed them to mount his back. Thus, and using the azure gazelle king speed, they were able to finally escape that vengeful man.
After escaping from that dangerous crisis, they crossed the border back to their country, and after some time, they found a remote residential compound, which was inhabited by around a 100 family.
Luckily, those people allowed them in.
Lance told him that all of this happened a week ago. And during this time, the tissues at the site of the cut on his arm were actually healing and growing at inhuman rate. And it went on until a completely new arm was formed.
This made Ramie even more shocked with the monumental vitality his bloodline had provided him with.
'This bloodline can actually regenerate complete limbs…!'
In Ramie's mind, the drastic morphological change that he had gone through, suddenly no longer seemed that important at all! He was actually feeling happy now that he has gotten this type of artifact.
It wasn't weird of him to think as such. After all, it was undeniable that he was alive thus far only due to this bloodline.
At any rate, hearing that the arrogant beast was the one to discover that he was still alive, Ramie was beyond grateful for that haughty beast now. After all, without him, he might have ended up been buried alive.
'So, we're staying in the compound now…!' Ramie started thinking.
The housing crisis was an everlasting problem in country. And this compound was only one of the many new housing projects across the country.
However, this particular compound was a rather failed project. As for the reason… it was obviously due its remote location that was located in unpractical long distance away from the city, which meant that for the inhabitants to get access to schools, the market, their work places, and other facilities… they'd have to cut a long distance to the city to get access to these basic services.
That was the reason why in this residential compound, only small portion of the residential units were actually occupied by people. And that was only due to the very low coast they were offered at.
Anyway, that was before the descent of the crisis. As for now, the biggest disadvantage of this compound 'Its secluded location,' had actually turned into its biggest advantage!
As a result, these people were almost completely isolated from the outside world. Thus, they avoided the unstoppable beasts tide. However, in the compound, and aside from him, Lance, Neil, and Reem, there are 19 warrior and 5 magicians with variant levels, which meant that they still faced their share of troubles, fought beast's attacks and got cores, hence managing to level up.
The highest level individual among them was a warrior that had reached the second level, while the five magicians were still in the first rank, with variant levels of artifacts.
From that point, it was obvious that these people had already gone through trails of blood and death, and had suffered casualties. So, although their distant location had excluded them from the un-survivable initial beasts tide that had overturned the cities; they still got a whiff of the disaster, which showed them a glimpse of the horrors outside.
After conversing for a while, Ramie's expression turned bitter, as he said.
"So, they did see my appearance!"
"Am afraid they did…" Lance replied, with a sigh.
"So, as long as I stay away from them, and do my share, they're OK with me staying in the compound?" Ramie asked.
"Yes." Lance nodded.
In short, when they first came here, the Lv.2 warrior, who was something of a leader around, and the rest, saw his appearance.
Apparently, that didn't sit well with most of them. Some of them thought that he was possessed with a beast… while others though that he was a beast disguising himself as human.
They had almost chased them all away as a result.
Luckily, three of them were magicians, while one was a warrior. Not to mention the strong summoned beast with them. So, giving the size of help they can lend in such terrible times, the Lv.2 warrior wasn't as stupid as to chase such a significant force away. As such, they were granted entry with the condition that they take up a residence a bit further from the residents.
This compound was composed of a 900 residential unit. And being a failed project, only around 100 were bought and occupied by families. As for the rest of the units, they were empty.
Before the calamity descends, the occupied units were scattered throughout the compound, but now… for the fear of beast attacks, the entire population relocated and clustered together in one side of the compound, for better protection.
As for this house that Ramie and evidently Reem, Lance and Neil were living in now… it was apparently a bit further from the gathering, not very far, and not very close.
Ramie couldn't help to smile bitterly at that, which given his dark-green nose-less face, wasn't something pleasant to look at.
Seeing that Lance was trying to not show any change in his expression, Ramie felt even bitterer. Thus, he added a mental note to always conceal his appearance.
Actually, he was feeling very grateful for Lance, Reem, and Neil for not abandoning him, and for staying here, outside the cluster of protection, just for the sake of taking care of him.
'It seems that I owe those three a favor...'
Also, he even felt grateful for the 'leader' and the compound residents for letting someone 'so suspicious' inside the compound in the first place.
After all, aside from his humanoid appearance, he probably looked even more horrifying than the beasts, especially with those eyes of his. In fact, he did have the bloodline of a beast, which meant that the current him, was in reality, part human, and part beast.
"It's a good thing that you woke up this early. When they allowed us in, the leader gave us few conditions to follow. The first one is that we have to defend the compound in case of beasts attack. Second, we have to do our share of the daily tasks."
"Tasks…?" Ramie inquired.
"Well, this compound was fed with water through a pipeline from the city. However, now that there is no water supply in the city, naturally, there is no water supply here. So, to solve this problem; the compound sends an expedition to the nearby river to load water and then bring it here once every two days. We have to take part in protecting the load along the way."
"As for the food problem, it is solved with a daily mission of hunting. We have to take part in that one as well."
Having heard that, Ramie couldn't help to ask: "Food? Do you mean wild animals…?"
After all, there are around 300 individual here. Although they were around 400 individual prior to the crisis, however, after some attacks, a round 100 unlucky soul met its demise.
Anyway, the remaining 300 were still too many mouths to feed.
Lance smiled to him: "Actually, having stayed here for a week, we found that the beasts come in many types, just as Reem's summon had said."
"There are actually herbivorous beasts, and not just carnivorous ones. For example, this meat in the stew on the table; it came from a beast that had the size of an elephant, and is exceedingly similar to the buffalo animal! By the way, you should eat it. It tastes similar to cow's meat… only more delicious and nutritious. Seriously, go ahead and try. After all, there is no alternative source of food here."
Hearing so, Ramie leaned toward the stew and sniffed: 'it really smells fragrant!'
Ramie was very surprised. Immediately afterward, his stomach started to rumble, and drool began to gather in his mouth.
Inspecting himself, he could see that he looked much thinner now, which made sense. After all, having fully recovered from such severe injuries, and even regenerated an entire arm. Not to mention that he had slept for a week without eating anything… It was obvious that his body used up a lot of energy during this while.
However, giving the situation when he last blacked out, and waking up in unknown place, he couldn't afford to pay attention to minor issues such as how hungry he really was.
Anyway, now that he knew the situation. And knowing that he was in a relatively safe place, the deep hunger was soon awakened like a raging monster. And his stomach voiced out it protest loudly.
Picking up the spoon, and tasting the stew, Ramie was stunned.
"How is it possible for anything to be this delicious…?"
In response, Lance gave a wide smile to him: 'You should have tasted it when the compound still had salt. Anyway, have you checked the new information that all of the magicians seem to have received...?'
…