"How about I let you choose for me?" Noir suggests in a whisper since he couldn't strain his vocal chords.
A few moments pass before the voice responds again.
{Player has forfeited his choice. Gaia has decided to choose instead for the player.}
{Gaia has chosen Soul Gift as a reward.}
{Searching for viable Gifts....}
{A Sentient Gift matching player's adaptative capability is selected.}
{Initiating Integration.....}
A tattoo appears on the back of Noir's neck which he doesn't realise. Noir only feels a prickly feeling appearing there. He looks around himself to see whether anything has changed. But nothing seems to have changed.
"Excuse me, Is there some sort of problem? Is that all there is to it?"
{Integration completed. You are welcome.}
'Nope, I don't think so. But if she says so, I can't argue with her, can I?'
Noir thinks to himself as if in retrospection.
'Anyway I can just wait for my death here again. Atleast this time there isn't a bloody noose choking me.'
That was when Noir hears some sort of disturbance out of the tent. Trying to get up, he knocks down a cup near him making a huge clunking noise.
"Did you guys hear something?"
This time, the voice came from outside the tent.
'So there really are people here. Should I call for help? Maybe I should. It is not appropriate for me to die without having given this world a shot at life.'
"Help, somebody HELP" Noir calls out aloud loud enough for others to hear.
A group of people enter having heard his voice. Among them was Adam, who looks surprised and a bit glad to see him alive. Even though he had seen Adam many times via the vision in the Great Void, he cannot help but be mesmerized by his apperamce.
Anybody who looks at Adam for first time would think of him as a fairy prince from the land of snow. Snow white hair along with a pair of blue eyes, the brightness of which doesn't lose to blue sapphire could charm any lady of her breath.
Noir couldn't be bothered by the looks of Adam as the pain on his body flared up.
A person wearing a green gown, most possibly a medic from the group runs to Noir's side and checks his condition.
"It is a miracle. Wasn't he dead when we checked just 10 minutes ago? Either way, he is still alive.
However, almost all his bones except his skull and spine are broken. He must be bleeding internally too.
Everybody stay back."
All of them except the medic stay away from the bed while the medic prepares for his performance.
He removes the cloth covering the whole back of his left hand to reveal a tattoo of line drawing underneath. The tattoo is that of a some sort of cane which almost looks like it has life. The tattoo glows white while holographic image of a wooden cane floats in the air from his opened palm.
A white orb revolves around the holographic cane in an orbit. The orb glows more brightly while the cane emits a white shiny fog. The medic guides the fog to fall upon Noir.
The fog seeps into the body of Noir where more wounds are located and gets concentrated there. The internal wounds around the region starts to heal within immediate effect.
'Even though I have seen people perform a skill from the Great Void, this is the first time I am experiencing it.
I can definitely feel my pain decreasing. But it seems that there is a limit to the skill too.'
Noir deduces it from the fact that his bones has not still healed completely. He still could not move his limbs completely without hurting himself. He tries to sit up but in vain.
"Zeno, don't stress yourself out. How do you feel now?"
Adam asks while coming closer and checking upon his improved condition.
'Do I have to take after the kid's name too? Will there be anything left of poor old me Noir at this rate? It seems I should start calling myself Zeno too.'
"Yeah I am feeling lesser pain now. It is a good thing you guys were near at this time."
Noir, no.. Zeno replies after thinking to himself.
The medic who was guiding the fog starts to pant after the skill was called off. Even though it may look like simple, his mind has to have certain amount of mental power to maintain the skill.
"His bones are not completely healed. My assistant will mould a full body cast for young uh,., Zeno here. Don't worry, atmost 2 or 3 weeks, I think within that time, you would be alright.
I suggest you all to leave and allow my assistant do his work. Young Adam, we will talk about the treatment costs outside."
The doctor sends the rest of the people outside while dragging Adam with him. Adam before exiting, notions to Zeno to not say anything more.
'It seems Adam doesn't want others to know what happened in the dungeon? Is it to protect me or to hide something he has done? Either way, this isn't the best time to think about it.'
Zeno tries to remain more silent and calm as measurements are taken for preparing the full body cast.
~3 hours later~
A young boy of snow white hair and blue eyes walks out of the Refugee Tent dragging a small cart. On the cart, you could see Zeno with his ash gray hair and black eyes fully covered in a cast made of a substance similar to plaster of paris, except for his face. He was lying motionless to not bring much strain to himself. Many pedestrians walking nearby would look at the weird phenomenon and comment on it to pass their time.
A normal person would be embarrassed in this situation but Zeno is not. The same can be said for Adam also. Since Zeno cannot move by himself too much, renting a vehicle would be the most apt decision. But both Zeno and Adam agree that it is a waste of money so hence decided to go with this as an alternative.
"I didn't think you would agree to it this easily. It seems you have grown a bit."
Adam comments while dragging the cart along the road of the Reedley Village.
Zeno doesn't respond as he is engrossed in capturing the view around him in his mind.
Lying down, he is greeted by the view of buildings and streets modeled after Middle Age Europe. Men and women walking down the streets could be seen wearing shirts & pants and gowns made of cheaper cotton respectively.
The streets are not organized into a network and moreover they are just made up of stones. He could feel the bumps in the road even though there is a cast protecting him. Main mode of transport that could be seen are basically carriages powered by energy stones. Moreover the streets are quite busy as it is evening time.
The houses are clustered together with no pre-planning. Most of the poor live in shacks as in a colony, while middle class citizens take up a house in the middle of an expanse of land where they grow their crops. The rich however stays in the inner section of the village.
The outer wall protecting the whole of the village has two entrances, one in the direction of dungeon while another in the direction of the nearest town.
As they moved from outer to inner section, he notices the clothing of people getting replaced by suits & black pants for men and long frocks or floor length tunics for women. Carriages run by energy stones, equipment powered by energy stones could be seen frequent here compared to outer section.
They passes a turn in the road and reaches the destination they had in mind - their home.
It is a two storey building with a well nearby situated within a large compound. Since their father was a well known hunter within the area, he was able to amass a small fortune to gain a house and a compound for themselves.
"Are you alright?"
Adam asks after dragging the cart upto the from door and lowering the back of it.
"Aside from the fact that I am covered in this, I am alright."
Zeno answers lying upside on the cart facing the house.
"Don't worry, the joints around the cast are not made that rigid. You can still move around if you take your time. I will get a wheel chair for you if you need one."
Adam comments while helping Zeno move into his bedroom. The former lays down the latter on the bed and sits on a chair dragged close to the bed.
'This guy seems good enough. Even though his brother, especially step brother did something stupid and brought trouble for himself and others, he doesn't even get angry at him. If I met people like him in my former life, I would have cherished my life a little bit.'
Zeno thinks to himself while remembering his former life as Noir.
"I want to ask you a question. I know you know the answer. And I want you to answer me truthfully."
Zeno asks Adam, turning towards him.
That was when Zeno noticed Adam looking at him with a face full of sympathy, guilt and sadness. It seems he already knew what Zeno was going to ask.
It felt unusual to see the strongest youth and one of the top powerhouses of the village showing emotions in front of others, even though it is his brother.
"What am I suffering from? It isn't from some disease, is it?"
Zeno enquires to clarify his suspicion. In the dungeon, the black fog coming off of kid Zeno didn't look like any sort of disease to him. It looked like he was being possessed or something. If it has any sort of relation to the Great Void he was in, and if Adam knew something about it, he wanted to know what it is.
Adam doesn't reply immediately and continues to look at him as if he is remembering someone he lost in place of Zeno a long time ago. After a few moments, he goes back to his prince like demeanour. His face turns completely serious, maintaining a stone cold expression and asks with a bit of chillness in his voice.
"Have you heard about demons, Zeno?"