"It looks scary. I don't want to go in there. Can we take another way to the mines?" Maya's words were shaky, her voice thin. She was expressing what Mark was feeling inside his heart.
But he could not act like her and express his fear. One scared person was a lot in this scenario, not to mention two would be a disaster at this point in time. He needed to be strong.
Tapping his wrist, he saw the map appear right in front of him and he gave it another thorough look. Most of the area was normal, however, the area surrounding the forest was shown in red and read as 'inaccessible.'
In games, these areas generally opened up as you progressed in skill and level and were made inaccrochable in the start since the level of monsters there were much higher. Following a similar logic, it was easy to deduce that those areas would not be safe right now.
He was not sure if he could use a train or an aeroplane to get toward the other side of the forest and make his way toward the mines from there. Not to mention the futility of his action.
The mines were somewhat in the middle of the dense forest. So no matter what route he chose, the forest was a must to cross.
"We have no other choice if you want to see your daddy. Won't you be a brave girl for me?" Mark asked, his tone indulgent. The girl was already scared and at this point was but an important NPC.
Her intelligence was questionable at best and non-working at worst. But she was the objective here so he had to take that into account.
The child nodded her head at him and for a second Mark thought he saw her look curiously right over his wrist where the screen was but surely that was not possible.
The manual said that the system was a function that was not accessible to all the players of this world. Only specific people could access it, mainly the ones who joined up the protagonist team and fought together.
Or those who were playable.
There was a list in the system he had briefly gone through but he was not sure that the child had been there or not. But for one thing, she was too young so surely not.
"I'll be brave. You'll keep me safe?" The child was sweet and her voice was so trusting that Mark could only nod at her. The smile that broke out on the child's face warmed his heart.
"Let's go. Keep close to me and do not leave my side unless I tell you to. There are many wild animals there so we need to be quiet" Mark took the child's hand in his left one while his right one was still bent.
The map was right in front of him and he could see some red and green spots blinking on it. The forest itself was huge, covering an impressive 4 km in diameter and their goal was somewhere around the 1.7 km mark from their current place.
The red spots were moving around at a rapid speed and they were blinking in and out of existence. The green spots were a little larger in comparison and were stationary and fixed. He had an idea what this could be but he should still check.
The screen menu had an option to check the current mission which he pressed and a split-screen showed up right beside the map.
______________________________
Mission perimeter: Reach the goal
Key elements: Red Spots: Enemies: Can be eliminated or run from
Green spots: Safety zones: Limited and fixed
Yellow spots: Special items only available in the mission period
Failure: Not reaching the goal under 4 hours of being caught by the enemy
______________________________
The basic perimeter than to reach the goal. It would not be easy to do, especially with a kid with him but at least they had the safe zones.
Mark was grateful he had opened up the mission description. He could not spot any yellow spot on the map and he would have likely missed it if he did not read about it.
There was no further information provided which meant that it would all depend on him.
"Keep and out for weird things Maya. They could help us run from animals inside the forest if we get caught" Mark was interested in those items but he would not risk his or the child's safety for it.
"Weird things like what?" Maya asked, her curious eyes turning toward him and Mark felt stumped. How could he answer her when he himself did not know what those special items could be?
"Well, just weird things. You'll know when you see them" Mark made that part up and it seemed to pacify the child. Good, a crisis averted in the form of more questions.
The forest was relatively quiet as they made their way deeper inside. The map had been a god sent as it marked the position of the enemies and even with their last moment, Mark made an excellent job of avoiding them and finding the safe zones.
But they were a mere 800 meter deep in the forest and already he could see the danger increasing. The deeper they went, the fewer green spots appeared on the map. The last 400 meters only had two small ones.
And the red spots were increasing in number which would make evading them nearly impossible.
To make matters worse, the yellow spot had not shown up on the map at all. Did they even exist or were they too small to be picked up by his map? He was not sure that he could get anything even if he wanted it badly.
"I'm tired. Can we rest?" Maya asked and Mark looked at the child. She did look tired, her feet almost dragging at this point.
But they could not stop right here for this was not a safe spot. But the child had been walking for a long time now and her exhaustion was understandable.
"Alright, get on my back then and I'll carry you" that would be the fastest way and he could see the child perk up at the suggestion. He allowed the child to get onto his back as one of his hands went back to support her.
"Wow, so that is how it feels? It is the first time someone gave me a piggyback ride" The child seemed unnaturally happy at the occurrence and Mark found it weird that this was the first time for her.
"Dad is often too busy with his work to pay attention and aunty is too old to play with me. But this is really fun" the child was taking it as a playing experience and Mark found himself not wanting to break her happy bubble.
He looked at the map at his wrist as he kept one ear out for any clues. There was no monster in the vicinity which was good.
The safe zone was in sight now which was a good sign. They were halfway in toward their destination and it had only been an hour at most. They could make it and maybe even before their time was up.
They had almost reached the safety zone before the map beeped. It was clear that the child had not heard it as she gave no visible indication but Mark looked more closely at it. There was a small, barely-there yellow spot not far from them.
He let go of his hand which was supporting the child and bent forward to not let her fall as he used his hand to expand the map a little. To his amazement, the map actually zoomed in a bit. Now it barely showed the green zone but he could see their location and the yellow spot's location much more clearly.
It was not far, but in an almost perpendicular direction to the safety zone. He had to make a decision whether to go for the yellow spot or not because once he reached the safety zone then leaving it would mean that the spot had been consumed.
It would be a futile attempt so he had to ask himself - was it worth it to go for the yellow spot.
On one hand - it would be an unnecessary risk on his part but on the other hand, the item could be really useful in future. The decision was tough but Mark decided to risk it.
There was no real danger between him and the yellow spot so it would actually be worth it to go for the item.
He hurried past the trees toward the new location. Much to his surprise, there were no dangers present on the way there, not even any close call. It was too much of a smooth sail to get to the yellow zone.
It was a small box and Mark did not hesitate to scan it to put it into his inventory. He would check it later. But something did not feel right here. The sense of uneasiness was growing inside him.
"It's too quiet. I don't like it" the child said as her arms tightened around him. It gave Mark a pause for the forest had never been this silent and unmoving before.
How had he even thought for a second that there would be no catch for free items? Of course, there was something he was missing and all he could do was run toward the safety zone.
Behind him, a terrifying road sounded which shook the very air. It vibrated inside his ears and the uneasiness turned into dread.
There was a monster right on their tracks and they would not be able to outrun it at all. They ran into a hidden boss.