.
.
*blink*
Claude opened his eyes.
He stared at the interior of the dark room that he'd been staying in all this time.
It was the exact same surroundings as the one he'd seen yesterday. In fact, it was the exact same surroundings that he'd seen hundreds of thousands of days before yesterday.
He was currently seated on the floor leaning against the wall of a 3x3x3m cubic space.
Claude had thought that after the guys who experimented on him had stopped visiting, the subsequent days would have been a lot more bearable for him.
He then realized that he was dead wrong.
If not for the nature of his constitution, even an Immortal would have long since died painfully either by starvation or through experiencing a mental breakdown in this place. After all, other Immortals weren't exactly unkillable.
Truth be told, Claude had long past the phase of him hoping to be discovered. He had even lost track of the time that he'd spent imprisoned in this bunker.
After the first ten or so years, it became that the only times he ever opened his eyes were when he'd heard the faint sounds of activities that reached out from beyond the bunker.
They could be a short thumping or a soft rustling that had barely managed to reach his ears every now and then. But those sounds used to always become the source of his hopes during the early days of his imprisonment.
Claude was about to close his eyes again as per usual, but strangely, the sounds this time didn't stop after a short while.
In fact, they seemed to be slowly getting louder as time went by.
'!'
The moment he realized this, Claude couldn't help but to widen his eyes reflexively.
.
.
"This is way beyond our pay grade..." A low-pitched voice resounded underground, hesitations could be heard through his tone.
"Speak for yourself, I am a 2-star rank officer." Another voice jokingly answered in reply.
"Dude, you just got promoted last week. And secondly, I seem to remember our mission being issued by Sector-01! That means it was even questionable whether our commander will be enough for this, let alone you!" The first voice talked back in annoyance.
"I know..."
Knowing it was no longer a time to be joking, Rex swiftly changed his easygoing attitude and stared beyond the relatively large hole leading deep underground that he was standing on.
This hole seemed to have been revealed because of a landslide that had happened in the area around it.
Two people were standing stiffly in front of the large hole. The two looked like they were either in their late twenties or early thirties, they were wearing a weird combination of traditional leather armor and futuristic-like metal plate and shoulder guard while carrying a sleek-looking steel rod.
When they'd first discovered the man-sized hole that had been uncovered by the landslide, they had proceeded in digging and clearing out the rest of the rubble to investigate.
However, what was then revealed in front of their eyes had given them quite a shock. Inside the hole was a wide extended tunnel going underground, with traces of man-made structures from the Old Era.
The Old Era!
To them and other people of this generation, it was like finding an ancient ruin where legends and myths had taken place.
However, this discovery was not the main cause of their worries.
"Is this really a ruin from an earlier age? It does look like the entrance was hidden because of a cave-in previously." Rex continued,
"Dio, What do you think?"
"I think an Old Era ruin would be the best case scenario for us. Because if this underground tunnel goes further down..." The nervous voice, Dio, trembled as he spoke.
"It'll be a whole new ecosystem! Yeah..." Cold sweat appeared on Rex's forehead as he replied.
The two's nervousness were justifiable. Ever since the start of the New Era, mankind had been reduced to the bottom of the food chain.
Every Biome in the world seemed to have turned and become the extreme versions of themselves.
Tundras became blighted with frequent ice storms while also turning ever more mountainous each year.
Plants and beasts started to mutate and grew out of proportions with great plains transforming into wide forested areas surrounded by gigantic cliffs and enormous trees.
The whole of humanity had to join hands together and struggle just to carve out some small regions within the least inhospitable ecosystem to survive.
As Rangers who trod the land to maintain the delicate balance of this forest ecosystem. To them, the scenario of a new underground ecosystem mixing together with their current one would bring about nothing less than a great catastrophy to their entire civilization.
"..."
"..."
Silence ensued for almost a minute between the two people.
"The mission report from Sector-01..."
Dio started to talk after another couple seconds, causing Rex to turn his attention towards him.
"...Disclosed the information of four 3-star rank officers who were reportedly killed-in-action by an unidentified reptilian creature during exploration."
"If, that creature really came out from within this tunnel..."
"Stop." Rex halted Dio from continuing his line of thought.
"Either way, this isn't something that we can try to venture out on our own. Let's cover up the place and report back to Sector-07 after the commander returned..."
*clank*
"...?"
Before he could continue to voice out his order, a clear and audible sound of metal resounded from within the tunnel.
"Is that...?"
*clank* *clank* *clank*
"A beast?" Dio quickly asked in a hushed voice.
"No, it was a rhythmic knocking sound. Three at a time, and from the same point of origin..."
*CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK*
The next moment, the voice suddenly got louder and clearer.
""A human!""
The both of them exclaimed at the same time.
They quickly took up arms and readied themselves before going inside the tunnel to reach the source of the sound.
what blew away their earlier hesitations out the window was the fact that there's a chance somebody might have been trapped inside the tunnel.
As Rangers, it was their duties to ensure the well beings of the people and their own comrade-in-arms. That, and the fact that the people inside still survived meant that there were no immediate danger in their vicinities.
.
It didn't take long before Rex and Dio finally reached the source of the sound.
*clank* *clank* *clank*
with the rhythmic knocking sound guiding their way, it took only a little while before they found out the exact location of the noise, not that far from the entrance.
The knocking sound too, as if knowing that the people it was desperately calling for were steadily getting closer, also started to loosen up in its intensity midway through.
When they finally reached the source of the sound, what greeted Rex and Dio in front of them was a thick detached bunker with a single heavy steel door at its center wall.
"This..."
*clank* *clank* *clank*
The large sturdy bunker in front of them still kept on making the same sound at a regular interval.
"Somebody inside??" Rex shouted sternly while facing the door.
He was not about to bust open the bunker without any confirmation.
.
.
'!'
Upon hearing the familiar language spoken by the other party, Claude also responded immediately by forcing out a reply.
*cough* *cough*
"Here! I'm here!" A hoarse and dry voice resounded from across the steel door.
The voice that replied to them carried hints of unfamiliar accent in Rex's and Dio's ears, they couldn't seem to pinpoint the region that it originated from.
"State your name and origin!" Rex continued his inquiry.
"Claude. My origin... Is slightly more complicated."
"..."
Seeing that the other party didn't try to lie on a simple question like his origin. Rex deduced that the guy was either not from around here, or completely honest to a fault.
Both were good enough reasons for him to help out.
"Dio, hand me the vibration heat blade, I'll try to cut this door open." Rex gestured to his side.
A split second of questioning look was flashed before his eyes, but Rex just responded with a simple nod.
Shortly after, he was handed a black metallic dagger by Dio, Rex twisted the handle of the dagger with both hands triggering a strong vibration that adorned the edges of the blade with intense heat, causing it to glow with a shade of crimson red.
Rex carefully wielded the dagger, slowly moving it towards the joints of the bunker's door, where they were sliced off cleanly and effortlessly as if cutting through a block of butter with a hot knife.
*SWISH* *SWISH*
*CREAK*
The thick steel door was then yanked out of its place without much difficulty, revealing the interior of the bunker.
.
Within the bunker was an empty room.
It was an entirely empty room devoid of any objects or decorations, save for the one person who was living in it.
The person had the looks and figure of a man upward of 30 years old with a rather defined jawline, broad chin, and chiseled face.
Combined with his short black hair, thin stubble beard, and his lean muscular figure shown by his bare upper body, he seemed to exude a rather masculine impression to both Rex and Dio.
"..."
Meanwhile, Claude was leaning against one of the inner walls in a trance. He was overwhelmed by the rushing breath of fresh air and the illumination that shone upon him through the other end of the bunker's door.
Although it was to be noted that they were still underground. Compared to the stale air and the dark damp atmosphere of the room inside the bunker, the 'opened' door bring to him the feelings close to ascending the heavens for the current Claude.
"...You alright over there?" Rex suddenly chimed.
From the two's perspective, they couldn't possibly imagine the duration of which Claude had been imprisoned inside the metal box.
And it was understandable, Claude's current appearance didn't truly fit a captive who'd been imprisoned for any length of time.
The short hair, clean fingernail, and well-groomed thin stubble beard weren't exactly things that could be maintained for several days at a time, much less longer than that.
"Ah...! Right, of course... Thank you both."
Claude came out of his dazed state in time to reply the two men with a smile.
"...So, how'd you end up inside that bunker?" Dio asked curiously.
"That's... A really long story. Truthfully, I don't even know where I am right now, so..." Claude replied as he walked out of the bunker for the first time in his life.
He looked left and right trying to assess his own situation just like what the two in front of him were doing.
"We're in the area around Sector-07 of Ecosystem-01. Within the boundary of the Forest Biome: Eden." Rex replied in earnest, trying to gauge the reaction of the man in front of him.
"..." Alas, Claude could only blink his eyes silently since the information presented to him didn't help his understanding of the situation at all.
Rex had also noticed Claude's reaction. The information he had spoken had already included a very large scope of the human civilizations that he know of, and yet Claude seemed to still be as clueless as before.
'Is he from outside the Biome?' He pondered.
To the side, Dio had also noticed the same thing, which prompted him to ask further,
"You're kidding right? You must at least know something. Your age? How you end up in Eden?"
"Those, I genuinely don't know." Claude shook his head, he was telling the truth.
"I do know where I'm from, but I truly don't know where this is or how I end up here."
"Where are you from?"
"Europe."
"Eur... What? Is that outside of Eden?" Dio was flabbergasted.
Rex gently massaged his temple, anticipating the headache that was to come by bringing this peculiar man out.
*sigh*
"So you're pretty much an amnesiac right?" He shook his head as he sighed.
"Amnesiac?" Claude pondered for a while before continuing,
"Sure, that would certainly makes things easier." He nodded.
"Easi..." Dio was close to blowing his brain when suddenly a shout was heard from the entrance of a tunnel.
*stomp* *stomp*
"Rex, you're here! Our encampment is under attack! Come quick!"
"Attack!?"
Rex and Dio instantly responded to the shout and picked up their weapons before running towards the entrance.
'Fast response...' Claude thought silently.
"Claude, is it? Stay and keep watch at the tunnel's entrance, try to cover it up if you can! We're gonna fetch you later!" Rex yelled out one last order before turning around and continuing his run.
Claude who was left behind nodded and began to jog towards the entrance, albeit at a much slower pace than them.
*THUMP* *THUMP*
His heart beat loudly with excitement and anticipation. This was his first time outside since a long, LONG while.
*step*
"...!"
The first impressions he got after coming out of the tunnel can be summed up into a single word.
'Magical.'
The sunlight hit his face after bypassing hundreds of interweaving strands of leaves and thick foliage. Towering trees the height of buildings filled the surroundings as far as the eyes could see, with even larger mountains and hills thrusting out from within the uneven landscapes.
Clear river water leaked out from the gaps between cliffs formation creating lines of streams that flowed down towards the foot of a mountain.
And in the far distance,
*ROAR*
Standing over even the tallest of trees around it, a four-legged reptile with a very long neck roared into the sky before continuing to eat the leaves of the trees surrounding it.
"Is that... a dinosaur?"
Claude widened his eyes in marvel of everything he had to take in. At the same time he could feel one of his eyes twitched slightly at the ridiculousness of it all.
'How long was I imprisoned for exactly...?'