As Zane's consciousness drifted into the darkness he saw a slight glimpse of a dream. There he was walking along a garden path with a flurry of green leaves around him. As he surveyed his surroundings he saw lush greenery and lively sprites frolicking around. As he took a single step forward everything faded into nonexistence.
His eyes jolted awake and he suddenly felt something hit his stomach hard.
Meeting his eyes were roughly 20 men surrounding him and they were all around him hitting him with wooden sticks and throwing kicks left and right. He tried to move his arms when he realized he was being pinned down by four men. When Zane started struggling, one of them used all his strength and hit Zane on the head hard causing him to briefly be stunned.
Under the rising sun, Zane was getting pummelled continuously without mercy. His limbs were immobilized so he couldn't take out his sword from his storage ring and was just there being hit relentlessly.
"Hurry up!"
"Just beat the hell out of him, he's got nothing!"
"Come on! Hit harder! We kill him, we get food!"
Zane just took these hits and tried to struggle but just pinned down by these four men. He'll be in serious trouble if he doesn't get out of this position. He gathered all his might and just managed to break his right arm free.
He used his right arm and threw a relatively weak punch to the guy pinning his other arm. He then tried to summon his sword but realized he couldn't, they took his storage ring from him. Still hazy, he leaned up and took care of the two men pinning down his legs.
He got up but was still in the middle of the encirclement. His vision was still slightly blurry because of the earlier attack on his head but he was now starting to recover. He forcefully grabbed one of the wooden sticks from one of the men and just slid down bashing one man's legs, breaking them.
When the other ones saw the agony he was in, they started to move back and gain distance. With the lure of food in such a poverty-stricken area, they had to do all that they could so they could see the day's next light.
Zane started to gain his clear vision again within the time that the 19 men backed off. He gripped the wooden stick in his hand and it started to creak, the sheer grip strength that Zane has was enough to shatter it into two.
He jumped forward and widely swung his stick across three men. The impact of the two sticks colliding shocked the three men's arms. Unfortunately, Zane's own stick broke with the impact so he did a sweeping motion dropping them down and swiftly stomping down on their knees and elbows completely immobilizing them.
Having absolutely no time to react to what just happened, five men decided to just save themselves and ran away while the remaining 11 men took up their stances and started to fill in the gaps in the circle and simultaneously attacked.
Zane observed the closing circle and rushed through a particularly weak-looking area and grabbed the man that was on his way. When he dashed outside the circle, he threw the man he was holding into the people in the middle which blew them a considerable distance.
Now having time to breathe, he realized his injuries from earlier started to heal. Albeit slowly, it was still noticeable.
Three men were knocked down but two of them were relatively fine and stood up. At this point, two men decided to run away leaving only 7 men capable of fighting or at least standing.
Zane didn't bother on chasing them since he knew he could just find them later on with the help of the people here remaining.
Zane was angry about how they treated him, "I gave you food! This is how you pay me back?!"
Five of the men stood their ground and once again gathered around Zane and once again attacked him from all sides. Despite this last struggle the result didn't change as Zane grabbed two of the men going at him and slammed them to the ground completely immobilizing them.
Zane then simultaneously brought the other three men down ending the fight. Looking around him, he saw shocked faces and the women and children shivering from fear.
Zane then gathered everyone he brought down and put them in a circle. He asked one of the people who were conscious questions.
Zane asserted his position as he grabbed the man by the neck as he asked, "Where did the others go?"
The man was shaking as he tried to answer, "I-It wasn't me! Please don't kill me! It was him!" He then pointed to one of the people who still wasn't conscious.
Zane then stomped on the man's foot. The man screamed in pain and immediately tried to get away from Zane's grip but couldn't.
"That's not what I asked for. Now answer the question."
"T-They should be going to their hideout I know where..." The man was running out of breath as he was about to pass out Zane released his grip.
"Lead me to them."
Just before leaving, Zane ensured they couldn't move. He didn't have anything to restain them with so he first tried to find his storage ring since he had rope there.
Zane asked the man where it was. he then gave it to Zane so they managed to leave without any more injuries.
Zane noticed that the man was having a hard time walking so he ordered him, "Submit to me." Zane then proceeded to bring out the little silver orb he had to and brought forward.
The man had no other choice but to submit to Adam. He brought out the orb he had and gave it to Zane. The orbs merged together magically. A guard nearby went forward and brought out a pen-like item and wrote something on the orb and gave it back to Zane.
After observing the orb he has now, Zane put it back into his storage ring. He brought out a staff from the storage ring and gave it to the man to use as a crutch.
Their speed improved but was still relatively slow. As they were traveling, Zane realized just how bad people had it here. There were a lot of malnourished people all around him, there were screams from both women and children filled with fear and pain but no one seemed to care as if this was a daily occurrence.
After traveling they managed to arrive at a makeshift house. From outside, yelling could be heard.
"You said it was easy prey!"
"Ray you screwed us all over!"
"Shut up! I didn't know that kid was a freak!"
Zane went forward and knocked on the door. The voices instantly stopped and they slowly opened the door.
"Run!"
Zane immediately brought everyone down in an instant.
"I know why you're like this but it doesn't mean you are free of your sins."
"What do you want? Kill us, we have nothing!"
"I won't do that, instead submit to me and I'll end everything. I have food to give around as long as you follow me."
The men looked at each other and decided to give up. They all gave their orbs to Zane and another guard brought out a pen and wrote something on it.
"Rally everyone and bring them to where you ambushed me."
The men wasted no time and they all decided to follow Zane's orders since they were essentially forced to.
After getting back, he also forced the people he beat to submit to him and get their people to him. To those who had trouble walking, he gave staffs and ordered others to aid them.
After bringing everyone back, Zane saw all the people they were taking care of. They each had a few women and a few children that they brought. Without any hesitation, Zane brought out the food he promised and fed everyone here.
Zane walked in the middle of everyone and with an authoritative voice yelled,"Everybody, listen up! I have a few questions to ask."
He caught everyone's attention and they just stared at him waiting for the following questions.
"How do you feed yourselves?"
A man beside him spoke out, "The king usually gives food from time to time but isn't a consistent way to feed ourselves so we farm, forage or hunt."
"How many people are here?"
This time another man answered Zane, "There are roughly a thousand people in the inner area and twice that at the outer area."
"What do you mean? Explain."
"In the inner area resides us, the people who can't fight and just hope to survive day by day. Meanwhile, the outer area is where tyrants almost equalling the king's authority. It's also where most of the guards stay and supervise."
Zane then thought about it, why would the so-called king let his own kingdom fall to this degree? Even incompetent kings wouldn't let anyone have power nearing his but this one just lets anyone do what they want. What's going on?
"Then tell me, who has the most authority in the outer area?"
At this question, what answered Zane was dead silence.
"What's wrong?"
The men seemed to refuse to answer but a little boy broke the silence, "It's an Underworld Envoy."
Zane then took out his emblem for all of them to see, "You mean this?"
Everyone then shuddered as they saw this. No one in the entirety of Bram wouldn't know what this emblem represented and meant. Immediately, the men who attacked Zane earlier went forward and bashed their heads into the ground begging for forgiveness.
Zane then saw how powerful this emblem truly held and how terrifying Adam's influence was. Just being in possession of one meant you held status, authority, prestige, fame, and most importantly power.
All of their way of treating Zane changed and their manner of speaking and spoke out their pleas.
"I beg you, lord. At the very least spare one of my children!"
"Please take it out all on me just make their deaths painless."
"Lord, I'll clean the edge of your blade with my blood, please spare them."
Amidst their cries, Zane spoke out, "If you really want to repent then follow me, I'll bring this entire place down."
Shouts of many people pledging their loyalty towards Zane could be heard as it started to attract attention from everyone else around the area.
"Alright, first up is to get everyone in the inner area to follow me. Spread the word, if they follow me then I'll provide for their food. Go."
Everyone then ran and started to scream out Zane's words. They entered conversations and spread out his promise. Others went and told their friends all that was happening, some even woke up sleeping people and urged them to follow Zane.
Meanwhile, Zane was still standing there thinking about his next move when Adam appeared behind him with the same sly grin on his face.
"Interesting first move, gathering people first. I thought you were just going to stay here for a while thinking about how to protect that little group of yours. Truly amazing."
"I heard about one of your people being here, can you tell me what is going on?"
"Oh, that! Simple, that man is a failure. I want you to kill him if you have the chance. Though it isn't really that important as winning the bet, I'll reward you if you manage to do it.
"Killing him? Adam, I want you to know that I don't want to kill yet so-"
"Hahahahaha! So that's what this was about. Listen, you'll be fine when you meet him. I promise you it wouldn't be a problem."
"What do you mean?"
Adam ignored Zane's question and faded out in front of Zane's eyes. Zane sat down and sighed a breath of unease. Adam should've known about Zane's current ideals but what was it about it not being a problem.
When dawn came, many more people showed up and Zane went forward to collect everyone's orbs and had a guard write something on it. When Zane got his orb back it now had a red tinge on it as he kept it in his storage ring.
After giving out food as promised, Zane looked at his storage ring and saw that the amount of food he had would only be enough to feed the people he had here for a few more days. He had to figure out a way to get more food in a short amount of time.
He then remembered that they hunted for food so that was apparently the only way to get food in a short amount of time.
After eating, Adam chose a few strong men to go hunt with him. He asked where they could hunt and they led him to it. Arriving at the site, Zane saw that the place was basically foraged to the ground only leaving bark and dirt behind and the animals were so small that it was barely enough for a single meal.
Zane sighed and decided to go further in the forest.
One of the men warned Zane, "This is dangerous, we are already deep enough! Let's just move back."
Zane didn't listen as went forward without stopping. The men couldn't do anything as they were forced to follow Zane.
During the silent walk under the night sky, a rustling could be heard in front of them as a dark brown deer with scales showed up.
The men following Zane froze up as they told Zane, "T-This is one of the most dangerous species in this forest a Scaled Deer. They can ram people down in an instant, we should run!"
Zane didn't listen as he stared at the Scaled Deer and stood still. The Scaled Deer roared as it got enraged and ran towards them.
Zane took out the sword that Adam forged for him and ran forward slashing widely. His sword met the tough scales of the Scaled Deer but just barely made a cut.
One of the men beside Zane informed him, "People hunt them by stabbing through their eyes to hit their brains."
Zane nodded at the advice and jumped above the Scaled Deer and using his slim sword as an advantage he stabbed it through the eye and killed it.
After finishing the kill, he looked at the body of the Scaled Deer and decided that this would be a suitable source of meat.
"Let's hunt a few more for tomorrow."