‘Ugh...what just happened to me. No, it can’t be.’

Kan looked around to see where he was and he panicked. Although all around him was still darkness, this was that eerie darkness. He panicked because he had planned to go and investigate the village but now he couldn’t.

‘I wasted so much time. Those memories could have given me a clue!’

Kan was angry at himself because he wasted his time in the third set of memories. Looking around in those memories could have been a great help to him but he had wasted it. Some time passed and Kan eventually calmed down. He began thinking about why he passed out all of a sudden.

One reason popped into his mind and that was mana exhaustion. He had never experienced it himself but he had heard that it can happen to anyone who uses too much mana. If someone’s mana runs out then the body’s mechanism to recover is to put the body to sleep. Knowing this Kan was still angry at himself but also a little bit glad because this meant that he had been using mana. He has the ability to manipulate mana so he has a chance of becoming a mage locksmith.

‘I shouldn’t try using mana again. That was dangerous how I passed out like that. If I had use too much, I could’ve died.’

Kan had figured out why he passed out but now he had to figure out had to go back into those memories. The only way that had worked was to ask the Darkness so he tried it again.

‘Hey Darkness can you send me to that world again.’

A bright flash once again overwhelmed the darkness.

…….

‘It worked but i’m not in the cave anymore.’

Kan looked around and saw that he was in his home. Although some stuff have changed, he could never forget the warm and comfortable feeling that the house gave off. Familiar voices could be heard but Kan didn’t bother to listen on what they talked about.

“It’s quite the cloudy day isn’t it.”

‘I have to see and find clues on what day they attack.’

Kan floated out the house and towards the plaza. In the first set of memories everyone had already been at the village plaza when those men attacked. It would be unusual for so many people to get there so fast after those men just appeared, so Kan had thought that the villagers were already there to begin with.

Kan floated towards the plaza and his conjecture was correct, many of the villagers were already at the plaza. The villagers had set up stands around the area and were selling foods or items. This sort of event wasn’t unnatural because every 3 months or so, people from the capital would come to Clear View. The villagers would sell their goods or trade their items for other items.

Every 3 months a government official would come inspect and collect taxes from Clear View. When the official usually came other merchants would follow them because the official would have guards and all they had to do was pay the official to allow to follow them to Clear View. The official naturally wouldn’t refuse because the bribes were sent directly to his pockets while the more people on the journey meant that it would be safer from monsters and bandits.

‘The villagers are so busy. They are usually busy only when people come visit the village.’

Kan had narrowed down the month the black clothed men attacked, now he just had to narrow down the day. A single year on this planet had 12 months and 365 days and the officials would visit every 3 months.

‘There are 4 possible months that Clear View is attacked. All I need to know now is whether it was the 3rd month of Spring, 3rd month of Summer, 3rd month of Fall, or 3rd month of Winter.

'This type of weather could occur in any one of those months. I need more information.’

Kan decided to float down and listen to the villagers’ conversations. Anything he heard from them could be potentially a big clue in helping him save his village.

“Ooo. I’m going to get myself some capital dishes.” “Capital dishes aren’t nothing special. It’s all about the capital made knives.” “I heard that their knives can slice through meat like it’s a slime’s body.” “Did you hear about what happened last week.” “I want a puppy from the capital Daddy.” “I hope some hot chicks have come from the capital.” “Anyone want to buy some refreshing beverages.”

There was a lot of chatter going on in the plaza but one conversation had peeked Kan’s interest. All the other conversation was done out loud and was usually about the people coming from the capital but one conversation was done in a whisper. Kan would have never heard it but he had floated right by them when they started whispering to each other. He honed in on the conversation and floated towards them. His ear was practically right next to their mouths but no one could see him.

“No, I don’t know. What happened last week.” “What, you don’t know!? You see Jerry over there. He is an unlucky dude. A few years ago he had his fingers bitten off by a fish in the sea and last week he had his entire arm bitten off by a fish. No one is speaking about it because they don’t want to hurt his feelings.” “Damn dude. Jerry is one unlucky person. So what day did it happen.” “Oh, I think it happened on…”

A crash of lighting passed and the thunder roared. Everyone looked towards where the lighting had struck to make sure that no houses were hit by it. After the lighting struck the alarms rang and everyone panicked, unsure on what was happening.

“What’s going on?” “Why are all the alarms ringing?” “Someone find the mayor.” “Does anyone know what is going on.” “Look the water from the ocean is rising onto land.” “My god is that a tsunami.” “Everyone run!!!!!”

Kan looked at the tsunami in shock. In the other 2 memories he had seen there was no tsunami at all. These memories were different from the others that he had seen and during his moment of shock he saw the fishmen rising out of the water. He had never seen any of these types of creatures before.

“RUN!!!! It’s the citizens of the Kingdom of Sea.”

“GIVE US CLAIRE RENNER OR DIE!!!”

The fishmen had the exact same demands as the black clothed men in the other memories that Kan had seen. Although the events occuring was different, the reasons for attacking was the same.

‘What’s going on? This isn’t what happened in the other memories.’

Kan was confused. The situation was no longer as simple as he thought it was. No black clothed men could be seen but the most puzzling thing to Kan was that neither of his parents were here to fight against the fishmen. Time passed and Kan watched the villagers get slaughter one by one by the fishmen. No sign of Claire or Clive could be seen and sudden flash once again covered the world of memories. Kan was now again in the world of darkness and was even more confused then he had ever been.

‘Why did the memories change?’

Kan slowly began analyzing the things that had just occurred to him. This set of memories was entirely different from the other 2 and that something must have happened to Claire and Clive for them to not appear and save the village. Those fishmen had now appeared out of nowhere in this set of memories but they had the same objectives.

The problem was that Kan didn’t know what had triggered for the events to have changed so much. Kan also couldn’t make sure that a changed had also occurred in the 3rd set of memories.

‘Something must have happened in the 3rd set of memories to make the events change so much or maybe each set of memories is independent of each other. There was also that conversation that I couldn’t hear the end of. That may have been a huge factor in helping me save Clear View. AAaaa, I need more information!’

Kan made up his mind that he needed more information before he could come up with conclusions. He decided once again to dive into the memories.

‘Darkness can you please send me into the memories again.’