RB Chapter 48 Shattered Shackles
The little critters, insects and what not couldn't be heard in this grove. The trio proceeded in silence except for when Baguma used his blade to slash at the undergrowth blocking the way.
Eric was bringing up the rear since Elec was completely useless in a fight. He was someone who wasn't suited for combat.
The trek took up until around 4:00pm. The sun was setting but since the forest was dark, they couldn't see it.
Their luggage had simply been the ATP capsules which contained powdered ATP. They had many of those and they were acting as food.
"This is the second damn capsule I have taken! Shouldn't we like, hunt for some meat?" Elec grumbled as they sat down next to a stream. It was only about 30cm in width and the source couldn't be seen as it was a long way off.
"Do you know how to hunt?" Eric asked. He was squatting near the stream and was scooping up water with his palms to drink. It was only after Baguma had told the two boys it was safe.
Elec had drunk it but his face had taken on a terrifyingly ugly expression as if he was drinking something disgusting.
"Why aren't you the one doing it, you are my servant, remember?" Elec asked as he sat on a rock.
Baguma had told the Boys to stay here so that he could scout out the surroundings.
The place was dark as the the sun was in the midst of setting. It had at least been a little brighter when it had been hanging in the sky.
Plus they were also forbidden from creating anything that would give off light.
Elec was glaring at Eric. He was unhappy that his father had been chamy with him.
"Heh! Why aren't you going to hunt? You should know your station, you are just a servant!" Elec continued.
'What's wrong with him?' Eric wondered. He didn't like it when Elec snapped.
"Baguma ordered us to stay here. His orders are more important." Eric answered nonchalantly.
"Than mine?!?! I am your master!" Elec shouted. He stood up and walked towards Eric.
"Let me tell you this, you are a disposable pawn. I hold your life in my hands. Is it so hard for you to comprehend?" Elec towered over him from behind.
After that speech, he pulled his right leg back and kicked his butt, causing Eric's face to land in the stream.
Eric had predicted the attack but in order not to enrage him further, he gave in.
"Tch!!" Elec clicked his tongue and went back to sit on the rock in frustration. That guy always didn't fight back. That made him more angry.
'I swear...!!!' Eric's two palms dug into the soil in the stream. He was enraged! Truly enraged that he couldn't fight back!
"Haaa..." A sigh made the boys jump in vigilance as Baguma walked out of the darkness. Even though they couldn't clearly see his face, his blue eyes wreathed with tiny electric sparks gave him away.
"I am disappointed..." Elec's face turned pale, but nothing could be seen in the darkness. Baguma was looking straight at him.
"...if this is the way you act towards Eric when am not here. And it all boils down to one thing, you have a weak mind. Its something which I was hoping to improve, but..." Baguma shook his head.
"From now on that watch which I gave you as a control device is deactivated." The moment he uttered that sentence, the watch which had been on Elec's left hand gave out a sizzle before dying out with a puff of black smoke.
He screamed as it faintly burned his hand.
"This is the wilderness, you should never shout. I believe I told you this before, right?" Baguma's gaze became piercing causing Elec to clamp down on his open mouth.
"I am going to teach you how to be strong! Starting from now am not going to intervene when a beast attacks unless it has mastered energy channeling. I will be in the shadows tomorrow. You are going to continue deeper until you exit this grove." Baguma said.
"We will take turns being on watch at night." Baguma jumped up onto a tree after that. The height he had leaped was about 5m!
"Once your cells acclimate to the wilderness, you will be able to do it too. Now climb up!" He ordered with crossed arms.
The boys obediently climbed awkwardly. It was their first time climbing a tree.
They slid multiple times but Baguma didn't try to help. They had to learn of everything themselves!
This world was cruel and with the coming turmoil, they had to have the skills to survive.
All the trees in the grove released an oil like substance which coated their stems and branches making them harder to climb.
After multiple attempts, Eric paused to think of the next course of action.
Baguma's destruction of that guillotine, which had been hanging over him, had made him feel relieved. Now he was sure that that thing of linking his DNA to that of Elec had been a lie. Even though he had an instinct to protect the boy, he hadn't been blindly loyal. He was loyal when he had just been born, but he had somehow started to feel like those chains of loyalty were unravelling.
He was now thinking about what to do about this tree in front of him calmly. Elec, just like the idiot he was, was still clambering up only to slide down again and again.
Eric had his eyes light up with multiple arcs of electricity due to finding a solution.
He went near the tree and held onto it, his fingers piercing through the bark. He held onto the holes and supported himself by making more holes. His feet dug into the stem just like his hands. He had finally found a solution.
Right now, they had just come to the conclusion that clothes were truly useless in the wilderness unless they were made with tough fibres.
Baguma's clothes were a tattered mess simply hanging on his body. If it weren't for the Symor on his body, he would have had his private parts peaking!
The two boys were luckier as they hadnt yet had their clothes reach that state, but they still had some holes and dried blood.
Elec had copied Eric and now they had finally managed to climb up. Their clothes were covered in the fowl smelling tree oils but they had no choice but to stay in the clothes.
A grimace was currently the only expression available on Elec's face. It was perpetual, after all he was used to cleanliness. This was simply torture!
Eric on the other hand understood what this adventure entailed.
"Before turning in for the night, I will teach you the basics of energy channeling." Baguma declared as the three sat side by side on a thick branch at the top of the tree.
They had continued ascending after the initial climb, breaking through the gloomy darkness into the starlit sky!
The boys had had their breaths blown away as the gentle breeze and twinkling stars washed away their fatigue. Just looking at the stars made it seem as if they had just accomplished something important.
"What a beautiful view!" Even Eric, who was usually reserved had commented so.
"Close your eyes and try to feel the energy inside your body, visualise it to be flames or electricity, whatever you want it to be..." Baguma paused as the two boys closed their eyes and tried out what he was telling them.
Eric felt as if he had sunk into an empty space in his mind with only the silhouette chart of his body in view.
He could see that his cells were releasing a little light which combined to form a bright light which was coming from the silhouette.
He focused on one cell and saw a bright spot of light within it. The human cell had managed to evolve a storage space which stored ATP coupled with the ATP synthesizing abilities of the mitochondria.
What Eric was looking upon now was that storage space as it was releasing the most light, therefore a lot of energy was being stored.
He saw that energy and first started to see if he could move that which had settled in a single cell.
The bright light exited in the form of a strand and made its way to another cell. He continued and passed it through thousands of cells until it reached the cells inhabiting the right index finger.
Now he was lost about what to make it do so he had to give up and open his eyes.
"Did you succeed?" Baguma asked the moment he opened his eyes.
Eric saw that Elec who was in their midst still had his eyes closed.
"I managed to move one of my strands of energy to my fingertip but, I didn't know what to do with it." Eric honestly admitted.
'Wow! That was fast!' Baguma's eyes lit up.
'Could it be because he has the DNA of that lifeform too?' Baguam speculated.
TRIVIA
The human body has the mitochondria which synthesizes ATP, but in these supercells, due to the discovery of synthetic ATP, they had to evolve a storage space where they could store the extra energy which was injected. That space came to be known as the 'Teleka' space.