Chapter 5: The medallion

Opening his eyes and jumping out of his bed was Cyan that had just woke up from his weird dream.

He was dreaming that he got lost in huge maze and no matter how fast he ran or in what direction, he could not find the exit of the maze, even worse, the maze didn’t worked with any logic what so ever, he will walk in one direction only find himself in the same room over and over again, half way through the dream a dark emptiness void started to devour all the maze, Cyan tried to run from the void but in the end he could escape it, he was devoured by it, giving him a jump scared and waking up him, in a dark room.

[Cyan]: “It was all just a dream, then what about… the forest”

Even if Cyan wanted to pretend that waking up in the forest was a dream, his body did not allow him to.

After jumping of his bed he was feeling very stiff and all his articulations were in pain, his back was also aching like he has fallen asleep over a rock, turning around he had notice, that he has in fact being sleeping in a bed made of rock, well if you can call a bed a big rock over the floor, even a bed made of dirt would be softer than this, that is to say the floor.

In other circumstances it would be impossible for him to be sleeping in such circumstances, but being unconscious, Cyan did not have any say in this matter at all, he also awfully tired and that has allowed him to sleep over in this bed.

But even after sleeping for some unknown amount of time, his body still felt tire and in pain, maybe it was because he was sleeping over a rock that he didn’t get not enough rest? Or maybe this was Arlom way of punishing him for being stupid or he just wanted Cyan to wake up fast, whatever it was, his body feeling the consequences like he had run all day long yesterday.

[Cyan]: “Why I am sleeping like this…. I was being carry on by Arlom and everything went blurry and then I pass out, I don’t remember anything else after that, but it seems we made it in to his home, argh, my back is killing me, and my legs are so stiffs, sigh, whatever there are more important things to do, right now I need to find Arlom”

Looking around, even if was dark it was not total darkness, there was a source of light coming off from somewhere, after finding the source so he started to walk in the direction that the light was coming from while tumbling into the walls at the beginning.

At the beginning he started to slowly make his way until he could walk more naturally, then he finally arrived at the end of the hall that has opened into a large space, now the walls expanded to form a huge circular room.

This room was very well illuminated with an orange glow coming for the celling, forming weird glowing lines that illuminated the entire cave giving it an orange color to the walls.

Also the room temperature of this room was a lot higher than the one he was before, but that was minor thing right now, something else was drawing Cyan focus to the center of the room.

In the middle of the room Cyan could a seen table and two chairs, and Arlom was sitting in one of those, with his arms crossed and his eyes close, front of him was empty chair that was like inviting Cyan to sit down.

Cyan could only walk to the table, and after coming closer to Arlom he could now see clearly that Arlom left arm has in fact back, ‘He did really regrown his arm with a potion, sigh, I glad but at the same time this is too much to take, are you a reptilian? Do you have tail too?’

He was happy about this, for one side, a weight of his mind was lifted, but on the other side his questions only grew more, ‘he will definitively call me stupid like a hundred times over if I asked him about it right?’, Sadly for Cyan, he was not wrong about that.

Not waiting for Cyan to take a sit, Arlom started speaking to him.

[Arlom]: “So you are finally awake stupid child, it take you long enough, now now you must be very hungry, here eat until your stomach is full first, then we will talk”

Just by the looks of his face, Arlom could guess that Cyan was thinking a lot of stupid things not even 10 minutes after he wake up.

Arlom could not help it but to shake his head, ‘this is going to be very difficult’

With a wave of his hand food appeared over the table, it was something that looked like a big roasted pig, and it looked it was recently cooked, it was giving Cyan a very good smell, and it would surely be delicious to eat it right away.

Cyan could not helped but to gulp at the food displayed in front of him, and his stomach didn´t stood quietly, with a stomach roar, that it was an actual roar, he was giving a warning that he was in fact, very very hungry, and he need to be feed as soon as possible, not doing it, will carry grave consequences for him.

Cyan could not control his own stomach that has come to life like a new entity, holding his stomach back with both hands, it let out another roar to make clear his superior strength over Cyan and was like saying ‘feed me you stupid child’.

Well at the very least that was what Cyan thought of, ‘now I am even being called stupid by my own stomach, sigh’, but he sound forgot about all this, there is a time and a place, and now it was to talk.

Sitting down in the chair, he fixed his position into sitting position and still holding his stomach with a tight nod, he looked over Arlom, he need to ask some important things right now ‘there are more important things to care about right now than food’.

[Cyan]: “I have seen it three times already, but… are you using magic? Or is some kind of really advance device? Did I slept for a thousand years? And this how the Earth evolved into? nothing is making any sense to me, things appearing from nowhere, arms that regrown, strange liquids that can cure all of your wounds or cure my fatigue, fever and sickness, destroyed trees rid of the base that should be impossible for a person to do, endless explosions, people…. killing each other, a strange language that I can understand and speak without even understanding it, it is like is being translate in my mind.

[Cyan]: “Arlom… please I beg you, tell me what is going on, what is the date, what I got myself into, why I am in this place… how can I go back home?”

Cyan could not help to ask everything he was holding until now, too many strange things had happen in one single day, ‘where do I begin’ Cyan thought, but at the end he just asked whatever had come to his mind, the only person that he hoped, could answer his questions was in front of him after all.

Even before Arlom said anything in response to those questions, proclaiming his victory over the brain, Cyan started devouring the food in front of him, he could not hold it any longer, the tasty food was too tempting and he guessed that this conversation would take a while, he could hear what Arlom has to say while he eats his fill right?.

On the other hand, Arlom only watch him eat without saying word, he was planning to answer the questions that Cyan could had but he changed his mind and left him eat in peace, the questions that Cyan had asked where worse of what Arlom was expecting.

He was now reordering his responses, ‘Earth? Magic? To not even know about potions, sigh, this is going more difficult than I initially thought’ leaving a mental sigh that did not show up in Arlom face at all, he waited until Cyan finished his food, even if Cyan wanted to hear the answers while he was eating, a man eating his food should not disturbed by any reasons.

10 minutes later Cyan had eaten all the food in the table like if a mini black hole had taken over his stomach, now, a whole pig was in his stomach, which was unexpected for Cyan, and a new question was to be added to his list, why was the stomach not bulging at all, ‘where all the food go?’, he just sigh again, this was maybe the hundred time he had sigh in two days making he just sigh again.

Noticing that stupid look in Cyan face again, Arlom also did a mental sigh, ‘this is going to be very very hard’.

As for Arlom that mini black hole in Cyan stomach was the after effects of the green potion he has given him, it was a simple potion that helped people to regain their lost stamina by forcefully consuming their reserves, and had giving him two potion, he had made so much food especially because of this.

The after effect of the potion were that, they would be attack by a severe hunger and if they don’t eat anything soon they will surly die, well that was the cost of forcefully using the body reserves, now why Arlom has given such a potential dangerous potion to Cyan?, well it was because it was the only he could give him at that moment, and if something were to show up he could not have Cyan lying in the floor and also.

As Arlom concerned it, he has already started training Cyan body from day one, he needs to put his body to the limit every day, the monster kind has given then only 1 month window to Cyan to be acclimatized to this forest, so that reserve that the body naturally does on his own, needs to disappear, there is not place in his training for that, the ‘I will do my 100%’ would literally mean 100% to Arlom and no less.

If Arlom knew a way to make it 200% without permanently damaging the body, he would do just that.

[Cyan]: “I am full now, I never knew I could eat so much, thank you very much for the food”

Arlom nodded his head

[Arlom]: “Don’t mentioned, you can thank later after I answer some of your questions, but first what do you remember before we meet"

Cyan tried to remember and started the recollections the last thing he remember before showing up in this place.

[Cyan]: “I actually don’t remember that much, I had woken up in the morning and I was feeling very sick, so Mon told me to stay in bed get some rest, after drinking some medicine that Mon has brought for me, i went to sleep and that’s all I remember”

Arlom nodded his head.

[Arlom]: “As I had guessed, in resume you don’t remember how do you got in here, and you didn’t come here by yourself, that can only mean that someone else has brought you here using some kind of method, as far i can think of, I think that you entered using a gate, but, not one of the six known gates, you entered using the seventh gate to be more specify, and I also believe that the monster king thinks the same as me”

Cyan could not help but to interrupt Arlom explication

[Cyan]: “The seventh gate? Is there really another way to leave this forest?”

His eyes were like starts now, as far has Arlom has told him, there were only six gates, and if he wanted to leave this forest he would need to gather enough points, but…If Arlom was mentioning another gate maybe this was not like the others?

Now, this beg the question, why Cyan would be believing in what Arlom said so easily, when he himself had never seen no one of the six gates using his own eyes.

Well to explain that Cyan would had to explain himself as a whole, how do you explain sight to a blind man or music to a deft person, he didn’t know how, but, Cyan could see the true reflected in Arlom eyes.

And that’s was not the only thing reflected there, there sadness, anger, suffering, but there was also the memory of happiness and lastly there was hope.

This was also the reason why the Monster King eyes were so scary to him, there was nothing reflecting in them, but only a completely emptiness, a void, sucking all the light of his surroundings, just remembering those eyes would make Cyan start shaking and feel like he didn’t have any air in his lungs.

No, Arlom was not lying, he could see it as clear as day, of course this was just his feeling, his mother would tell him from time to time that trusting people blindly was not a good thing to do, of course his mother didn’t wanted for him to never trust in other people, but to do it blindly was not good either, to that, Cyan could only feel a little sad that his mother could not see as well as he did.

[Arlom]: “I will tell you all I know about the 7th gate, but first, let me finish. Now, as to why you can translated the language, that’s because the power of a Name, that someone has given you, you can be thankfully to Serah about that, she was the one that has given you her name so willingly”

[Cyan]: “So it was because of her, her eyes… sigh… did you really have to kill her? There was no other way?”

Lowering his head over the table Cyan could not help but to be between the sword and a hard place.

Arlom shook his head, preventing useless death? ‘Cyan you are still too soft’

Cyan already knew the answer to that question, but he could not bring himself to think that way, ‘her eyes were still those of a human being would posses’, Cyan mutter softly so Arlom could not hear him, Cyan could not bring himself to say that to the man in front of him, saying that was the same as slapping the face of the person that has just save you.

If Arlom had not did what he did, maybe both of them would be death, how can he judged the man that has saved him and was still protecting him, and even feeding him? Should he allow himself to be killed? Or starved to death? Not taking the life of someone will meant that, that person will come to hunt you again tomorrow, and maybe the next time you will not be able to beat him, wishing upon a start for a perfect world would not work, he was weak, but not stupid, he knew the answer, how could he not accept it.

In a multiple question test, if none of the answer was your own answer then what? Are you in the wrong? And everyone else that answer using one of those options is in the right? Cyan was not sure, but at least he was sure of one thing, he will not put his head in a silver platter to take, he would not allow other people steal his food and he will just starved to death, even if not a complete answer, it was Cyan own answer and nothing else, and that was enough to him for now.

Arlom had only given Cyan a few minutes to be immersed in his own thoughts before continuing talking, this was something that Cyan needs to get the answers from within himself, Arlom did not have all the answers after all he was no god.

Cyan raised his head with a resolute look in his eyes, Arlom could only nod to this, he could feel calmer about it, and at least Cyan was resolute to not being a carpet for other people to step on.

[Arlom]: “As for you to be able understand me now, I can guess you were very desperately trying to understand what going on, but, for you to display that power, your intentions needs to be aligned with the name and history of the other person itself, it is hard to believe that you didn’t knew her until yesterday, for you to utilized her name so easily you would have to be very familiar with that person you know, sigh”

Cyan shook his head

[Cyan]: “Please, don’t said it as I am just utilizing her… she only lend me her name, I will give her name back when I am able to”

Arlom could only shake his head to this… kid, but he could not help to smile a little to Cyan, but only inside his mind.

[Arlom]: “The best thing you can do is carry her name with you, and honor it, and never forget about it, I can only assume you must had some kind of connection with her, but to be able to understand her so easily, for how long did you talked to her to form such a connection?, as I thought you are not normal”

[Cyan]: “We didn’t actually talk, she was saying things I didn’t understood and… I just looked over to her eyes and that was it”

Cyan didn’t know how to answer that, how you would answer when someone call you abnormal? ‘I am not the normal here? Everyone else is… the strange one’, that’s exactly what an abnormal person would say, and that’s why he couldn’t said it, even if was right he was not right.

Even if Arlom face was not showing it, inside Arlom mind he was having his own doubts about Cyan ‘how powerful can your eyes be, to form a connection with her in such short amount of time and with just one look’

Arlom was already having suspicions of Cyan, how many kids of 15 years old do you know that can be so trusting? Not one, Cyan was not normal, how can a normal human enter this forest and reach the middle of it being as weak as him, this fact was abnormal in itself, but his eyes were the most abnormal thing of all.

‘I had seen those kind eyes before... but that’s…’

Arlom could only halt is thoughts at this point, it was impossible after all, there was not need to think about it, recovering before an expression could be show up in his face, he carry on with his initial talk like nothing.

[Arlom]: “As for all your other questions I don’t have the time to answer the questions that you will learn the answers eventually by your own soon enough”

Cyan was a little disappointed, ‘is this a novel for you to let me with such cliff hanger?’ he wanted to retort back at him, but that would not make Arlom change his mind about his previous answer, away and he would surely be called stupid.

Never the less, Cyan wanted to know something very import right now.

[Cyan]: “Can you just tell me a little more about the Seventh Gate, didn’t you say that there were only six gates? How come I enter using the seventh? It really was not possible for me to be sleeping for a thousand years in the middle of the forest or something, and something like the a name being used as power, how is that I have a connection with Serah even if we never had meet before?, sigh”. Another sigh left Cyan mouth hoping to get at least some answers.

[Arlom]: “Don’t become stupid again child, sleeping for one thousand years? This forest that has existed for centuries and it is full of expert’s hunters and monsters, they would not miss such an easy prey just sleeping in the middle of it, there is no doubt something has brought you in here recently with a purpose and put you in the open so that you would be easily found”

He was called stupid again sigh, but at least Arlom hypothesis was sound and had not even ended yet.

[Arlom]: “As to why I think you have a connection with Serah well if I am correct in this you will find out soon enough, I don’t know why there is such a connection between you two, but she is death now and there is nothing that can be done about that, but when you are prepared for it, i will tell you her history, it is not a pretty history, and as you are now, hearing it will only hurt your future development, remember Cyan, histories are not just old tales that old people say and names are not just one way to call a person, both of them have a meaning, never forget about that, you got that”

Cyan mind could only retort to himself ‘more cliff hangers you are the worse’… but he still got the message that Arlom was trying to teach him.

[Cyan]: “i… understand, I will never forget it about it”

Arlom nodded his head, even if Cyan have some stupid thoughts reflected in his face on the middle of explication, he at least can understand when he was trying to teach him something, but something was bugging his mind now, and Arlom could not help but to ask about it, ‘this kid is abnormal and stupid, sigh’.

[Arlom]: “Now, before we continue, let me ask you something important, for you to be so relaxed and for you be eaten with a smile in your face and without a care in your surroundings, fully trusting the food I put over the table, and not even checking it for to be poisoned

Cyan face grew pale now, where was the happy Arlom from before? Even if Arlom never show other expressions in his face, Cyan was already adapting into reading Arlom mood, but now that ‘happy-serious’ Arlom was replace with a ‘angry-serious’ Arlom.

[Arlom]: “Cyan, did you for any chance, thought that I would not hurt you? Or that this a hidden secret base? In a forest full of Hunters? Were the thing the most enjoy is finding and hunting preys? Or it was safe against Monsters? Monster like that Monster King that would follow any smell of blood thinking that, that trace would leap them to find a fun place where to kill their infinite boredom? How much more stupid can you get? Forget about the your name I will name you Stupid from now”

Cyan I mean Stupid, ghastly pale now, poison in the food? And this is not a hidden secret and safe place? But what really got into his never was… that he was given a new name out of the blue.

[Cyan(Stupid)] “You…. You are the stupid one, your sister is stupid your whole family is stupid”

Stupid could hold it inside him anymore, no, that outburst of anger was putting him in the process of looking more stupid at the eyes of Arlom, but this was it, Stupid could not take any more, he had stopped thinking, funny enough Stupid has forgotten all his pain or questions that were left unanswered, like a Stupid would do.

‘This….i…..so angry…arhg’ Stupid insides were spinning, he could not hold his emotions inside him.

[Arlom] “Listen well if you can Stupid, in this forest nothing can be hidden and there is no free lunch, eventually you will have to fight, flee, or die, for something, and if you keep screening like that they would find us faster than think, so you better shut your mouth up and listen well what I have to tell you”

Arlom has passed not from ‘angry-serious’ to a new king of face that Cyan has not seen before, ‘angry-angry’, even if, it was still the same expression than before that is, still being Stupid, he could still read it.

Cyan has realized now, that this was not the moment to get angry or to become Stupid, so he went mute, trying to suppressing his boiling emotions of rage, and other emotions.

[Cyan(Stupid)] “I will show you…. I will show you that I am not Stupid”

Cyan was clenching his fingers into a fist, if he wanted, he would throw this fist to Arlom stupid unchanging face for insulting him, but he knew now that thinking this way was wrong, no, it why he was being called stupid over and over again in the first place, making him even more angry for realizing his own stupid thoughts.

Cyan declaration and clear intentions of wanting to hit him but only holding his fist back make Arlom have some hope for the future.

[Arlom]: “At least you stopped getting more Stupid now, sigh, it will be a miracle if we can improve that brain of yours, but that’s a relive, if you had gotten more Stupider your brain would had jump out of your skull and beat you to death with a stick, unwilling to be carry by such stupid person”

Cyan was Fuming now ‘Arrrrrggggggggg why I am being call stupid, stupid stupid you are the stupid, being called stupid by such a stupid person you… that is it I must hit you even just once’.

Stupid was being force to his limits, he was getting ready to hit Arlom in the face but he suddenly stop, a new thought has pop up in that stupid brain of his ‘is like he is delivering provoking me, he want to be hit? No, that’s stupid why he would want that, unless that’s what he wants? But why he want me to hit him, wait, can I even really hit at this wall of muscles? I had become angry but I can’t hit him at all right? Unless he wants me to….you…’.

Cyan realize by now that this was beyond the range of joking or teasing him, Arlom was intentionally provoking him to get him angry and angrier, so that Cyan would try to attack him, he was being provoke to act like a stupid would a DAHHHHH moment hit Cyan mind, letting another sigh, ‘What number of sigh if this one, sigh’

Cyan regained his composure dissolving his fist and his anger, doing this was already a miracle, most people would lost their temper, and hot blooded kid would fly into rage if you keep calling him stupid over and over again, such was youth.

Cyan could now only think that this must be some kind of mind training?, ‘maybe Arlom has started training me from the start for me to not die in this forest?, if is like that then, I had lost my calm, I need to keep my emotions down, like Arlom, to never show them in my face, I need to think’.

Now that Cyan has calmed down, a moment of clarity has come to his mind after being pressured so much by Arlom.

He could remember that dark eyes guys words, ‘A war is coming, and 1 month, that’s right, he promised to keep other monsters and hunters at bay by one month, for this one month Arlom needs to train me, and Arlom has already begun my training without me knowing it’

This was it, Arlom was already training him into a machine by Arlom own words…but…

‘there is something else, he took me before we had meet with the monster king, he was already planning to training me from the beginning, even if he was hurt, he could easily carry me to this base from the get go, why he didn’t, no, instead he made me run like crazy, then he had given me those of those green potions… what all of this means’

Cyan could now raise his head that was fixed looking over his fist just before, and it was now fixed in eyes of the man that was in front of him.

He could see that Arlom was still sit in his chair and had not move an inch, and had the same exact expression as before, looking back at Cyan.

In his previous outburst of anger, Cyan had stood up from his chair without him noticing it, losing total control over his body, but Arlom as not move at all, like this was expected from the beginning.

In the eyes of Cyan was a question that he could voice out, ‘Then what I am to you? I am just a stupid kid for you?’

But Arlom could not bother to answer that question, his silence was like a reply by itself, ‘think about it for yourself kid’ and he take away his eyes of Cyan crossing his arms and closed his eyes.

This was Arlom giving his time to think, Cyan could only lower his head again to ponder about it.

‘After I had said my name your attitude over me had changed, you were so shocked, but, then after you had come back from your fight it had changed again, guess you had already realized that I am not your son, then, you said it was because I have the same name as him, but you didn’t knew about this at the beginning, and you still took the risk of coming closer to where I was, and there is also, of wanting to leave this place, and me coming for the seventh gate, then it is not just the name, no, it is my origins that are important to you…’

‘But then what about the monster king? And the 1 month of training’

‘The monster king talked about he could defeat the guards at the gates, I couldn’t read his eyes at all, but Arlom face was like saying that he was lying by the skin of his teeth’

Arlom was very proud of his unchanging face that didn’t give away his emotions to his opponents, but when the monster king himself, comes and start telling lies to a kid, even the master of one thousands faces would not able to hide their eyes rolling around to such black and white lies.

Even so Cyan could not stop pondering some more.

‘but, he was not lying about not wanting to leave this place, this place is like a paradise to him, then, this is also related to the seventh gate, to my origins, let’s say, if for whatever reasons, Arlom can’t use one of the six gates and he needs find another exit, if then, there is a unguarded exit from where everyone can leave as the please, wouldn’t that ruined the Monster King paradise? Arlom said himself, in this place there is no were to run, no were to hide, then the only answer is!’

Putting all of this together Cyan could only reach to one conclusion.

‘The seventh gate, I must be the proof that it exist, or I am related to key for finding it, Arlom is using me to escape this place and the monster king want to stop us, but why… didn’t’.

Cyan has seen it, in his way over the base, there were a lot of body’s it was not just Sera that has die that day, this forest is dangerous Cyan thought, the that has killed those people was the monster king that has clear a path for them, so if he was trying to stop them for leaving they why he helped them?

Arlom took notice Cyan was thinking of something, through his face and nodded his head, ‘sigh he is not that Stupid after all’.

Before Cyan could ask is his answers were correct with perfect timing Arlom interrupted him thinking to start his explication about the seventh gate, there was not need to discuss Cyan answers, in the future they would be proven to be true or false, either way he only need to move in one direction, into becoming strong so nobody would lead you by the nose.

[Arlom]: “Good, you better don’t disappoint me kid, your brain is your best weapon, if you don’t trained every day you will die, if you are easily provoke you will act like a stupid and die, if you stop thinking for a second you will die, also just for you knowledge, I did not put poison in your food this time, but I will next time you don’t check for it, it will still not kill you, but the pain you would feel, well it will not be very far from it.”

[Arlom]: “Now carrying with the other part, where I was? Ah that’s right there are only six known gates, but I think there were originally seven gates, now, why I think you enter that way is that’s is because you don’t have this”

Arlom lifted his hand showing what it was holding to Cyan, it was black medallion the size of a big coin, and in the middle were big red numbers like they were written with blood.

[Arlom]: “This medallion is given to everyone when they enter here, is linked to your soul, and nobody else would take yours, even the purest of souls would get a count of 1000 point to get, the monsters have some rules they follow when they kill each other, they will not waste time in taking your medallion leaving you alive, when I found you, you didn’t have any medallion on you, and I think I was the first to had found you, otherwise you would be already dead”

[Arlom]: “You appeared deep into the forest in the middle of a clearing that was not there the day before, in a bed that don’t exist in this place, without a medallion and nobody else noticing that you had arrived, if I had not being close by I would also not notice you.

[Arlom]: “Your very existence is the proof that the seventh gate really exist somewhere, and I plan to use that gate to escape this forest, also Cyan your name, even if it was just the name, you carry my son name, so if you are not an enemy I will not kill you, I will train you and use you to escape this place, don’t you think for a second that I am gentle man or I don’t have the heart to kill you, I had keep you because, maybe you are the last piece of the puzzle that I was looking for, but the bad news is that I think the monster king also has took notice of the peculiarity that is your existence and that’s why he took interest in you”

[Cyan]: “You mean that scary guy from before right? But first will you stop calling me stupid? And also about your son… is he in here?”

[Arlom]: “It will be stupid from my part to call you stupid all the time, anyway, Cyan, my son is not in here, and I don’t know where he is but, i plan to search for him after leaving this place, about the monster king is better for you to not know much about him for now, asking for his name was dumb move, don’t ask for someone name inside here if you are not playing to fight him to the death you hear?, now, your training had already officially started, you cannot refuse this, have in mind I only save you to use you escape this place”

Cyan face was pale, he was so close to being killed so many times in just a single day that you didn’t know where his bad luck ends and where his good luck start, but at the end all he cared was that he was still alive, and he need to carry on living, but there were so much things he did not know, he could only give one step to start moving forward, ‘not refusing? You are the only thing I have to hold onto, I will not allow for you to refuse me’.

Even so most of the answers he had think of were true, he was a little glad he has come to the right conclusion.

[Cyan]: “Arlom… no, Master, please allow me to be train by you, I don’t know how I got here, I don’t know what is happening, but I want to escape this forest too, please let me help you escape this place and let me follow behind you”.

Cyan has now realize that there was no free lunch in this world, Arlom has saved him, protected him and feed him, but, all this was only so he could escape this place, Cyan only option was to follow Arlom, Cyan was pretty sure he could not run away from Arlom anyway.

But what it really made Cyan to be willingly into following Arlom training was another thing altogether, the reason it was simple, when they meet for the first time Cyan has seen it, Arlom gentle smile and gentle eyes that were like crying a river full of sadness while he was narrating some unknown tale for him.

He could not understand at the moment what he was saying but now he thought that he understood, they looked like crying not for Arlom but for Cyan, sadness for Cyan to be in such a place, he has seen those eyes today too, sadness reflected on them when they looked at him, Cyan was sure that Arlom was thinking that killing him would be a mercy kill for sure, in those eyes he almost could see only despair.

But from the moment he said his name he also could see a minuscule trace of hope that also has appeared. That was the hope to find his own son, but now a new hope has bud, a new hope that was mixing with his other hopes, the hope of escaping this place, finding his son and in the process helping Cyan to escape his fate of dying in here.

What other fate could Cyan have after being thrown into this forest, Arlom has lied to him ‘Me finding you was not the plan of someone Cyan, you were thrown in deepest part of this forest where the most powerfully beings existed to die, there is no doubt about it, you should be dead, I can only help you so much for you to escape this horrible fate Cyan, the rest is up to you’.

After all Arlom doesn’t know where the gate is or how it operates, he cannot promise Cyan that he will also escape after all.

But Arlom unspoken words and mix of feelings didn’t escaped Cyan gaze.

‘A person with so much sadness and despair has not given up, such person will train me to survive this place, sigh, I am sorry Arlom but I can only depend on you for now, I can only promise I will do my best’

Arlom nodded his head, he also understood Cyan gaze.

With his confides restore Cyan would not help but to ask something that was in his mind, he couldn’t see if there not mountains on the surroundings, but even so, planes should exist right?.

[Cyan]: “Ar, I mean Master, can we just fly out of this forest?”

Arlom could only shook his head to this kid question

[Arlom]: “There is mana shield surrounding the whole area, and there is not gat in the shield, being in the air or underground, there only way to exit is using the gates.

[Cyan]: “Mana shield as THAT mana?”

[Arlom]: “What other mana there is?”

Cyan could feel his insides twisting, ‘I am totally in a fantasy novel, sigh, then that means!’, now the eyes of Cyan were shining, if there was mana then!

[Cyan]: “status!”

Cyan has said the legendary words, but…. Nothing happened, other that Arlom looking him with his unchanging face of ‘he-is-a-stupid-kid-after-all-serious’

But never the less Cyan didn’t give up.

[Cyan]: “status, options, inventory, window, show, Cyan, points, system, skills, panel”

Still nothing happen.

[Arlom]: “Are you finish?” Arlom could only shake his head to this stupid kid actions, at least he could laugh at them, which was a first for Arlom, to be thinking at laughing to something, of course even if his expression didn’t show it.

Cyan could now only give up, and deal with reality, but there was still proven that mana exist, he could be able to use on a later time, Arlom said he would be trained by him, he can’t wait for the time he can use magic himself, like Arlom was doing at the beginning, even if he was in a bad situation, a man’s dream was to able be to cast magic from his hands right?

[Arlom]: “Good, first take this, this is Serah medallion”

[Cyan]: “Ar, I mean Master you don’t need it?”

[Arlom]: “It has being a long time since I stopped using these medallions to decrease my points, now I am just throwing them away, but we can’t have you running around without one, that’s one of the reasons of why the monster king has put his eye on you, everyone in here protects theirs’s like their life’s because without one you cannot escape this place, and even if the monsters would never use it, their medallion is their pride and joy, they would never lost it, and the hunters need it to leave this place”

Arlom could only shook his head to this saddening true.

[Arlom]: “Also you cannot take the medallion of another person and make it look like yours, they will notice at the gates, they are bound to a single person, and if you are not that person it will glow red at the gates, if is yours it would glow white”

Arlom give it the medallion to Cyan for him to use as his, at the gates they will notice that it was not his, but if he stays away from the gates, nobody will notice it.

Cyan after holding the medallion for 1 minute and while he was appraising it, the medallion started to glow in a white light, and after 10 seconds of glowing, it returned back to normal black appearance.

But, this time the red numbers have being changed, before it was 0000000000001, then like an old clock, it scrolled the 1 down to 0, putting the counter 0000000000000 but it didn’t stopped there, it moved again, this time scrolling down all the numbers to horrible 9999999999999, this time it stopped for good and did not move any more.

Arlom jaw dropped as Cyan, what happen to the legendary expressionless face of Arlom? Well that was gone for moment.

As for Cyan, ‘it was supposed to be like this? What happened to the purest of souls getting only 1000?’, ‘I got some magazines under my bed but this is too much right? Is this a joke? What happen to me being an especial case and getting only 0’s like a hero in a novel so I can exit this place’

[Arlom]: “Cough cough, It seems that because you didn’t have any prior medallion this one has be bounded to you, but to get 10 billion points count, Cyan, work hard”

Arlom put his hand in Cyan shoulder trying to encourage him, but he was almost giving up in him, it looked like his internal thoughts has being read, God was just mocking him now, the endless sighs in Arlom minds where only match by Cyan now.

[Cyan]: “Wait master how the scores are set? How much was your initial score?, Master Master!, Master don’t stand like that”

Arlom remained in silent unwilling to answerer Cyan questions.

It actually doesn’t matter, they were planning to use the seventh gate to escape anyway right, so Cyan could forget about trying to use one of the six gate, it would be almost impossible any other way.

But there was something that Arlom, missed to tell Cyan, it was that, the medallions also has another function, the number doesn’t only mark the number of heads remaining but how much a medallion was worth.

For example, Serah medallion worth was 1 point, when they hit 0 they don’t go any lower than that, and if you didn’t exit the forest after 1 month after you marker hits cero, then you are consider a monster and you medallion would display ------------- instead of 0’s.

When a monster dies their medallion worth is always 1 point, the most head’s you hunt the lest you are worth to be hunted, is was a system that prey on the weak, and leaves the monster to roam free, in actually, Cyan medallion could get a free ticked out of the forest to anyone.

Getting 1000 points was kind of lucky for someone

Nobody knew how the initial score was calculated, but it has something to do to their crimes or theirs souls, nobody was truly pure, and even the most purest of people would get a score of 1000 at the very least, they tested it with every kind of people after all, and a lot of people thought this was a rigged game, that if you played you would get always a losing ticked.

There were two things that had never happened before, first was getting a score below to 1000, and the second was to get the score above 100 million, Cyan future was getting darker and darker.

Arlom was regretting giving the medallion to Cyan, he was actually experimenting to see if he really didn’t have any medallion, and in that case maybe this one would be bound to him, it was better that having him one with 1000 points that without a medallion drawing all attention even if it was already too late for that, but it was actually to reinforce his theory of the seventh gate, he was expecting to see the counter go back to 1000, but to be a full score of almost 10 billion.

The results where beyond his expectations, he was thinking that a having him with a medallion was less eye catching but it was too late now.