It was 7:30 am. I was with the others in the practice zone. The rest were practicing but I wasn't. I was lost in thought about the upcoming journey.
I sat on the chair nearby as I watched the others practicing. Lily was fighting the robot on the magma surface. Oliver took the challenge against the sharp sword held by the wooden hand. Xavier practiced to dodge and tackle the shock arrows coming at him.
I didn't feel like to fight with my shining Magnum strapped to the waist. Once everyone finished, I rose, awaiting their return. We exited the room together and saw Wade making his way to us. Wade Zaveri was the main manager inside the Headquarters and helped us in every way possible. After Rock Flames's death, his smile seemed to fade away but he managed to give a faint smile to greet us. Then he led us to the usual way, the path to enter the real world. We went inside the tube, the doors sliding open.
"Good luck out there, guys!" Xavier cheered. "DELTAs, I trust you. And I don't want to lose anyone else. So take care." Saying so, he pulled the trigger. Lily, Oliver and I were sent to the real world. I watched as Wade and Xavier's form outside the tube disappeared. We were back into the eighteenth floor of the Foster Plaza.
Yesterday, while going to the library, we had heard some people talking about fixing the building soon. But the progress wasn't seen. The roof was still open, the building half destroyed after Raptor's arrival. The police kept guard on the building but always allowed us to enter as we were the DELTAs. Everyone now knew us. We made our way down through the elevator. The cops looked at us and greeted. We smiled as we made our way to the Foster streets. Lily had gained a map given by Wade. It showed the path to reach Verix Woods. I doubted we'd survive but we had to try.
We went in the opposite direction though, towards Mount Drake because we need a friend's help. Lily's pet hermit, Sounge was somewhere in the grasslands with his friends. Lily again gave her loud and peculiar whistle, a sign for Sounge to look for her. In half a minute or so, Sounge and the other hermits came running to us.
Despite the tension in the air, meeting Sounge made all of us happy. Lily grabbed the hermit's ears and caressed him as Sounge made his delighted sounds. Usually, hermits aren't animals you should mess with. They attack you if they find you and the fact that you can die to them as they are animals and not Darknorians is even more disturbing. However, Sounge was lily's pet and the other hermits also knew us by now.
Lily instructed Sounge for the mission she wanted him to help for. Sounge being a loyal friend, remained silent until Lily finished. "So we need your help. Bring one of your friends in too." She said. Sounge went up to one of the hermits and made strange noises which would be their conversation. One of them walked to Sounge. The others retreated off to their beautiful grasslands. The two hermits came back, ready for some travel. Lily took Sounge for herself and as usual, Oliver and I sat together on the other hermit.
"According to the map, we need to go to south this time." Lily concluded, looking at the map. That was different. We had been to the north of Foster town, my Trouflet town, east where Saggron town was situated with the Forbidden Dungeon but south was new.
Rumors were around which stated south is the worst region of all. It had horrifying monster (probably where Raptor made his army of giants) and the climates were extreme. It was either rainy, almost hail, or it was a snow –packed area. We had thought about it and had some woolen clothes. All this was really similar to Earth and I wondered why Darknor was so similar to your planet.
Anyway, we began our journey south, away from Foster town. There was road ahead for some time until the hilly region began. We were now entering the danger zone.