Inside a cave.
Arman was sitting on a boulder, with a bonfire infront. And to the sides of the bonfire, two logs of wood were erected. And on the pillars, another log was laid. And a piece of meat was hanged on the log. Arman kept firing the bonfire to increase the temperature.
He was slowly cooking food for himself.
"Is it okay to take a break, we have to reach our destination as soon as possible."
Arman asked the Flame king as he was concerned.
But the Flame king tried to express that he isn't wrong in delaying the journey.
"The beast I talked about, it's strength increases during the winter and lowers during the monsoon. And now it has been only twenty days since the monsoon has started in this place. Meaning that it has lost only a part of its strength. So we should arrive at that place as late as possible. Initially, I was planning on taking you to that place during the month of autumn. But you wanted to get stronger using some shortcuts. That's why I brought you to this place earlier than planned."
Arman was by now completely annoyed by Flame king's long lectures. They seemed quite boring.
"Listen, I am not in the mood of increasing my knowledge. So shut up."
And from a distance, Someone wearing a sweater appeared in the bushes.
It seemed that it was a woman.
It was Eveline.
She held a device in her hand which displayed a timer counting down.
3... 2... 1...
And the device automatically switched off.
What she was using was a device which could detect powerful existence. But this was a paid service, which charged millions per hour.
And on top of that, there were many powerful people in the surroundings.
So it took her more than eight hours to find Arman.
She clenched her fists tight and started crying, as she had lost all of her money.
And now that her bank account had declined, the device shut down.
"So Arman, make use of this time and start training." The Flame king patted Arman.
"Yep, I will." Arman replied.
"But today, we will do a different type of training."
Arman couldn't understand the Flame king's words.
"I will teach you a new type of swordsmanship. Which will greatly increase your battle prowess."
Arman became happy to hear that he was going to learn something new today.
"Alright, then what are we waiting for? Come on, teach me!"
The Flame king stood up from the place he was sitting.
He slightly touched Arman's forehead with his index finger.
"What are you doing?" Asked Arman.
The Flame king's finger became illuminated.
And the temperature in the cave started to increase.
At the starting, Arman didn't feel anything.
But later, a gentle warmth entered Arman's forehead. Arman felt extremely comfortable.
And slowly slowly, the air began to heat up. And in no time, Arman's forehead started to shine red hot.
But as Arman was the Flame king, high temperature couldn't harm him.
[New folders have been detected, processing them]
And then a notification popped up.
And after confirming something, the Flame king withdrew his hand.
Arman was left in awe, as he witnessed this beautiful event.
"That was great, but now will you teach me the technique?" Said Arman.
"I have already taught it to you." The Flame king whispered.
"Oh, that's why that notification popped up.
You transferred the information to my brain using your powers. Is it like a USB cable?
Now tell me how do I access it."
"Try to open up your management window."
And Arman did so.
[ Welcome
Name: Undefined
Grade: Undefined
Phase : Pre-assimilation stage]
[As you are not completely assimilated with your powers, you can't access them completely. Once it has been confirmed that your ability to cope with the powers is increased, the assimilation will progress]
[Current progress: 28.79%]
And then the Flame king asked Arman.
"Did something change?"
"No."
The Flame king thought for a while.
He then sighed in relief.
"As expected."
Arman, who was growing curious, asked the Flame king.
"Tell me, what are you thinking?"
The Flame king replied calmly.
"Till the time you don't reach at a hundred percent assimilation, you can't access anything. Be it skills, stats, weapon information etc. Even though I know it, I wasn't a hundred percent sure, so I tried it once. Nevermind, just let it go."
"Then what about my technique?" Asked Arman.
"Forget it for now, once you reach 100%. It will automatically get unlocked."
The Flame king said it as if it was nothing for him. But Arman had many hopes to learn something. So he wouldn't let go of the Flame king so easily.
"No, I want it and want it right now!"
The Flame king kept on denying and Arman persistently kept asking him for the technique.
And Eveline, who was sitting about a few hundred metres away, was looking at Arman through a pair of binoculars.
She was writing something.
She said while thinking a lot about it.
"One thing is for sure, there is someone with Arman. And only he can see that person.
Meaning that this is a sort of illusion, where he hides his existence."
She thought a little more.
"Then that person should be very strong, as normal people can't cast such a big illusion."
"Okay! okay, okay! I will teach you another technique."
After listening this, Arman, who was sitting on the Flame king stood up.
"First summon a sword."
Arman did so, and fire gathered in Arman's hands, it took the shape of a blade.
And it was a scythe again.
"Someone who can't summon a sword wants to learn swordsmanship." The Flame king taunted Arman.
Arman was very angry, but his head was lowered with embarrassment.
He tried it once again, and a sword appeared this time.
He didn't talk much and stood infront of the Flame king.
"Alright, I am going to teach you this will improve your efficiency in all weapons and in barehanded fight too".
"Ohh."
"First, I will teach you how to hold the sword.
The angle at your elbows should be a right angle.
And your shoulders should be 60 degrees to your chest.
It will be hard to do this, but you will learn it with time.
Try to supply your fire to the sword."
Arman tried, but he couldn't maintain the supply for more than ten seconds.
"So let's continue our journey, once you have learnt how to supply the sword with your fire while holding it in this position, I will continue the training."
Arman extinguished the fire and they again set out in their journey.
And Eveline too took down her tent, which was put behind a cliff, so that Arman wouldn't see it.
The Flame king took out a map from his pockets. He showed it to Arman.
"We should be... around here. And this is our final destination."
The Flame king pointed towards a point in the southeast.
Arman then used his compass.
"Alright, southeast is that way. So let's keep moving."
But the Flame king shook his head side to side, in disagreement.
"No, we will have to go toward southwest first."
Arman couldn't understand the Flame king's opinion. Why go to a place completely opposite to the direction in which the destination is located. He enquired.
"But why?"
The Flame king then said.
"It's not as simple as you think lad. In order to survive Duncan's guardians, you need something that counters his powers."
"Who is this Duncan now?"
Asked Arman.
And Flame king again went on with his long and boring lessons.
"An evil Vampire who was just passing by.
In his journey, he stayed on earth for about five years. After that, he left this place, in search of what he was looking for.
After he left, his followers built a temple for him. And just like Duncan, his followers were also evil. And a few centuries ago, they relocated their temple. Thus, the temple was abondoned. But it still has some energy with affinity towards Duncan in it."
"But this doesn't explain why we need to go southwest rather than southeast."
The Flame king was now annoyed by Arman's ignorance. He thumped his own forehead and shook his head in disappointment.
"Give it a thought Arman. Duncan stayed here for five years. Yet the tribes living in the vicinity of Duncan's temple are surviving without any problem. Meaning that they have
something that can help you fight Duncan's guardians."
Arman seemed to understand things by now.
"Ohh, that explains it."
And soon he realised one more thing.
"Wait, did you say something about 'fighting Duncan's guardians' ?"
Flame king gave a wierd smile.
"Kid, it isn't possible to become strong without taking any risk.
Try to understand." He exclaimed.
"Now please tell me that the 'beast' was a lie." Saying so, Arman looked at
the Flame king.
"No, the beast is a truth."
Arman himself was in a complete disdain.
Fighting a strong beast and some guardians at the same time?
"You liar! You cheat!" Arman took a deep breath.
'I shouldn't take this as treache, I should use this like an opportunity!'
"Okay, I will co-operate with you only if you help me defeat the guardian and the beast."
At this, the Flame king, who seemed to be suppressing his anger said.
"What do you think of me, kid."
Arman looked at him with a confused gaze.
"Pardon?"
"Trying to cheat me, the Flame king and your respectable predecessor?"
Arman started to sweat.
"What... What... What are you talking about?" Even his words experienced turbulence.
Had he been a little more smart, by now he could have figured it out that the Flame king saw through his trick.
The Flame king thundered. "You want me to kill all the guardians and the beast while you rest, don't you? And you were trying to cover it under the name 'help'?"
Arman started to sweat even more. He had no other choice, other than displaying the truce flag.
"Southwest, right." And they set out towards the southwest.
Around 1P.M.
"How many hours more?" Arman, asked with a hollow voice, as he hadn't eaten his lunch yet.
"We have almost reached the spot." Replied the Flame king, who was going on quite easy, unlike Arman, who was doing the bitter suffering.
And then, Arman got hit by a ball. And he fell on the snow.
Thump!
The sound of him falling to the ground rang out.
He stood up to see a few boys surrounding him, with hopeful eyes.
It was certain that they had come for their ball. many of them doubted that this uncle infront of 'em would give away the ball so easily. After all, they had hit him with the ball while they were playing.
But Arman couldn't afford to offend, or get a bad impression of himself. After all, he came here to ask for help. So that he could raid the Duncan's temple.
So je controlled his anger and rubbed the hair of one of the boys
"What's your name, cutie?" The boys became very excited and happy. Because, Arman's expression and words didn't display that his angry with the boys. Infact it said that Arman even took a liking of the boys. So now they won't have a problem getting their ball.
But the reality was quite contrary to this.
Arman returned the ball to the boys and walked in the village.
And as usual, like all villages, Arman could see bustling streets, people bargaining for their bread, children playing and so on.
Among the crowd, an old man was sitting under an old banyan tree. Arman approached him.
"Excuse me, grandpa."
"Yes, what do you want from me." Asked the old man.
"Can I know where the village head lives, I want to meet him." Arman asked hesitantly.
"Why do you want to meet the village head? Tell me, I am his father." The old man asked.
"It's related to the Duncan's temple."
The old man was tacken aback. "You are not the only one."
Arman didn't understand.
"Excuse me?"
The old man stood up and walked a distance. Unlike others of his age, he was quite fit and strong.
"Come with me."