“Be brave. Be wise. Persevere to achieve your goal”

CHAPTER 3 – Into the Ancients

Inside the world above, his body suddenly appeared on his bed. He was so conscious of why is he in his room and not in the game. He stood up and suddenly noticed he don’t have the helmet on. He looked at the window and saw the sky in a wonderful color of orange, blue and green. He told himself.

“Wow, it looks like the real world!” – Juan thought while admiring the sky.

Suddenly he heard a shout outside the windows, “Juan, let’s go and explore” said Dex.

Juan met up with Dex on their front yard. He looked at Dex from toes to head, smiled, and said "Dude, you look the same"

"Yeah, there is no option for character editing. You cannot change your appearance. By the way bro, let's look up each other stats."

"How Dex?"

"Just say - 'Show status', it will make your status menu visible to me"

"Show Status," both of them said the same time

Name: Dexter Santos Level 1 Age: 25 Health 200/200 Energy Magic 115/115 Psi 110/110 Faith 120/120 Qi 100/100 Title:

Descendant of Hunters

Stats Strength 20 Intelligence 11 Stamina 20 Spirit 12 Dexterity 13 Charm 18 Agility 17 Luck 15 Skills: None Protection Blessing of Dumakulem

"JUAN! What the hell is your stat?" - Dex shouted

"I don't know. I was just lucky I guess?" - Juan

"By the way, do you know Dumakalem?" curiously asked Dex

"He is the Tagalog God of Hunting, Guardian of the Mountains" - Juan answered

"Wow, our family is one of the early hunters. Nice!. But for you, who are these ancient gods of light and dark?" - Dex

"I don't know too. I'll do some research on them tomorrow. Good thing, there is no work tomorrow" - Juan

"Okay, let us start exploring! I already brought here some gears go get yours now' - Dex

Dex with a backpack full of random stuff like a knife, match, and bottles of water. He can't find other things like snack bars, candies, sugars, or salts inside their house. He also brought out his metal alloy baseball bat and his bike. He wore his most comfortable clothes - rubber shoes, shorts, and t-shirts.

Juan went out of his house with his Katana sword. He bought it from Japan. He also wore his rubber shoes, shorts, and t-shirts. Inside his bag are his notebook, pens, kitchen knives, and water container.

"Wow, you brought out that souvenir from Japan"

"Yeah, this is an authentic katana sword made with strong steel with gradient properties. It is soft inside while hard outside. It increases the toughness of the material while increasing the strength. Also, in my free time, I coat it with Titanium-base nitride coating to further increase the hardness and sharpness" - Juan answered boastingly

"Let us ride our bike, and explore the town first"

Inside the town, the streets looked the same as reality. The houses, sidewalks, and streetlights are the same. They also saw other players in their town. They tend to avoid those strangers and have minimum contact with some acquaintances. They don't know what those people's goals are so they put some precautions first.

They decided to go to the town's park. Reaching the park, they saw something out of the norm. Fairies! Many fairies are flying within the park. These fairies are little human-shape with wings fo either dragonfly, butterfly, or bird.

"Are they fairies?" Both of them muttered

A small and cute little fairy heard them and fly in front of their faces.

"Excuse me! We are the Lambanas. We are of fairy-race. We are one of the racest who follows the Mighty Bathala" said the small lambana with dragonfly wings.

"Lambanas are the creatures of the forest right? How come you are in the center of the town" said Juan.

"Due to Humankind expansion, our villages are destroyed, we tend to live inside a big cluster of plants and trees like this park here." - Lambana

"Oh sorry to hear about that. By the way, I am Juan, this person near me is Dex. We are new in this world. What is this world?" - Juan

"Oh! Divers! They said they will come soon! So it was today! I am Alice!" Alice exclaimed while she was shaking hands with two men.

"They??" Juan and Dex asked simultaneously

"They" she pointed his tiny index finger into the sky. "Those Gods from Kawalhatian, a plane for eternal beings up in the sky told us about you, visitors from another plane. We didn't expect them to be the human race. By the way, do you want to tour our village?"

"Really, sure it is our pleasure" - Dex answered

Juan, Dex, and their little friend Alice who was sitting on the shoulder of Juan pointed out the direction to their village in the cluster of trees in the park. In the center of the cluster, where the densest trees are located. A big tree was found. Around the tree are the houses of little lambanas tied on the branches of the tree. Alice flew out of Juan's shoulder and called the village elder.

"Lakan Amo, Lakan Amo! I brought some divers here! The prophecies are happening!" Alice shouted

"Alice, you're so energetic as usual. I already know what are they. The other villagers have already informed me minutes ago when they saw you talking to humans" said Lakan Amo. A mature looking little man with a pair of owl wings came out of the house.

"Hi visitors, I am Amo, the Lakan of this Village of Lambanas. Thank you for coming. Would you like to come inside the house for a cup of tea?"

"Yes, but how?" answered Juan. Suddenly Lakan Amo waved his hands and make two into Lambana-size. And a blue screen filled their vision.

STATUS UPDATE Size-reduction (30 min left)

Upon removing the screen, Juan and Dex are holding onto the hands of Alice and another lambana named Cynthia. They carried the two inside the village chief house.

"Hi Juan and Dex, again welcome to our village and my welcome to my house" Lakan Amo said

"How did you know our name?" Dex asked

"Only powerful being can read mind" Juan muttered.

"Yes, Juan you are right. Since right now I am more powerful than both of you. You do not have enough barriers to stop me from reading your status but not your mind. Only eternal beings can read the minds" Lakan Amo clarified

"How can we have barrier?" - Dex

"Simple. Be powerful. Said by Diwata Makiling" - Juan

"Right! As said by Lady Makiling, only being strong enough can you have someone stop reading your mind and status" - Lakan Amo.

"Oh Lakan Amo, since it is our first time here in Ancients, we would like to know more about it but since we are asking favor, we also would like to return the favor. If there is anything you need us to do we are willing to help you." - Juan

"Yes, Lakan Amo, what we do to you?" - Dex

"Hmmm, you can help us by planting more trees around the park. We have fruit-bearing trees' seeds in our warehouse. You can ask for help from Alice and her friend." - Lakan Amo

~Ting!~

NEW Quest Help the Lambanas to plant trees. Goal: 10 each (Makopa, Duhat, Dayap, Lanzones, Lukban, Rambutan, Balimbing, Longgan, Durian and Kamagong) Reward: Adventure Handbook

"A quest? We gladly accept it!" - Juan and Dex

-To be continued-