"Ori...en?"
Jack heard his own hoarse voice as his eyes reflected bewilderment. He looked at the small figure that was peacefully smiling at him despite being knee-deep in spider carcasses.
"Indeed, that is my name."
'Orien's' smile grew brighter as if the boy was glad to be recognized right away.
"So... What happened to you, Sir Jack?"
"I..." Jack opened his mouth to speak, but it was only now that his mind began to sharpen.
The rejuvenation brought about by his ingestion of Cave Spider blood allowed him access to clearer memories. Images of his dreadful journey so far flashed in and out of sight.
It had all started with the battle at the Coral Pavillion.
'When I lost my left arm,'
Jack was injured, brought into the Arthime infirmary, and then allowed to heal. Apple and Lady Karire had been with him, but with the Rank 2 Evolver's natural healing and Lady Karire's stockpile of resources and patterns in her tower, the two were up and running the very next day.
Meanwhile, Jack was no longer capable of fighting at the same prowess he used to display.
Thus, he was allowed to rest.
But when a maelstrom swept the Arthime territory, flooded and wiped off of the map with the great seaside city of Avina, rest was simply impossible. When the rapidly moving waters invaded his room, Jack thought that he would no longer see the light of day.
He didn't expect to wake up deep underground—and inside an expansive labyrinth with hundreds of twists and turns at that.
It was then a desperate struggle for survival from there. The main thoughts in his mind were to run, run, and run away. All the while he kept fighting and fighting as if the world was against him.
Everything had been a blur.
Jack wasn't even sure how he survived the months without a proper meal.
Without even a proper glass of water.
'Gnawing on spider meat and drinking their blood...' Jack gagged as his thoughts reached such a point.
Spider Blood flowed back up his stomach and out of his mouth as traumatic memories resurfaced and the scent of death choked his lungs.
Jack then felt a small hand on his shoulder.
"...It seems like you're not in the right health to tell stories. Would you like to relocate, Sir Jack?"
He could only nod in reply.
.
.
.
With how weak Bladesman Jack was and how his injuries had only just started to close, Athelei had to drag the young man's body over the sea of spider carcasses.
It didn't seem like a comfortable journey.
Athelei dragged Jack over rough exoskeletons, pointy limbs, and pools of blood. But it seemed like the latter was already numb to it all. Not a single sound came out of Jack's blood-stained lips.
"Haaah," Athelei was winded by his exertions.
The glows of a Hunter Mystic Pattern and white Tangible Will had only faded when he stopped inside one of the labyrinth's many rooms. Bladesman Jack now had a pillow made out of stone brick and the cold labyrinth floor as a mattress.
"To think he could fall asleep throughout that..." Athelei scanned the state of Jack's body.
He looked at the young man's missing left arm, slashed right eye, blood-stained hair, and missing legs. The holes in Jack's flesh were filled with jelly-like blood clots that were sizzling softly as they healed his wounds.
"These injuries are astounding. A regular human should already be dead, and yet his shallower wounds are already healing..." Athelei muttered.
The angel's eyes flashed with awe as he glanced at the floating multi-coloured screen visible to only him.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Jack Grey
Health: 3/17 (Maimed. -4 Total Health)
Mana: 0/2
Energy: 1/11
=o=o=o=o=
Strength: 19
Defence: 23
Dexterity: 17
- Race: Mutated Human (1% Slumberweb, 49% Cave Spider, 35% Human, 15% Crystalline)
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
"Sir Jack is just like me some time ago," Athelei smacked his lips as he released a bit of fog to further study the young man's changed body.
"We are both mutants of the human race. It's just that his path is somewhat... different."
Athelei noticed the nature of the changes that had occurred and is still occurring to Bladesman Jack. He saw how the Cave Spider blood in the young man's stomach was absorbed in a peculiar manner. He analysed the discoloured patches on Jack's skin and took note of its similarity to an arachnid's exoskeleton.
"Contamination," the angel announced to no one but the air in front of him.
"He's slowly being turned into something else..."
Sooner or later, Jack would no longer be human.
"If that's the case, I wonder what would happen if I fed Sir Jack an Emerald-Essence Peach?" Athelei felt a lightbulb spark to life above his head, "Would he retain what is left of his humanity through an evolution? Or would all things spiral out of control due to my whims?"
Unfortunately, Athelei had left those peaches back inside the room with ancient records. He had no way to test such an idea at this moment.
No way to test fate.
Going back to that room was possible of course, but there seemed to be a limit to his current spatial abilities.
"Once a day... It takes a day for my wings to recharge and a week for a single feather." Athelei muttered, "I also can't take people with me..."
He sighed. The curiosity that bubbled within him died down.
"Then I guess I will have to wait."
His fingers then touched the White Jade Earrings that hung on his ears. A few thoughts came and went but in the end,
"My earrings would only hasten his change... Now that I think about it, should I ask Sir Jack what pathway he would prefer?"
Evolution or complete contamination.
Athelei wanted to know what decision the young man before him would make.
.
.
.
{[ Atlantis ]}
Deep beneath the ocean floor, where an underwater city lay.
"He still hasn't returned?" Lotus Weizhe raised his eyebrows as he read through the report in his hands.
It had been days since the young Orien had gone missing, and not a single person in Atlantis knew where he went. They did not believe him to have died outside the city, as the child was an intelligent one.
But at the same time, he was also nonexistent within the walls of Atlantis. None of the beasts nor the humans saw him anywhere.
"Assuming that boy is still alive... Just where did he go?"
Suspicions aplenty flashed through Weizhe's mind and the image of a winged Nightwalker even appeared for a split second.
"...And how did he do it?"
Every citizen of Atlantis was practically trapped. The most they could experience in the outside waters was during their expeditions. It was only when they mapped out the area around their beautiful city that they could experience the outside waters, but even those short trips were chock-full of dangers.
Just the water pressure could kill them. Without their inventions, the beacon-like Mystical Pearls, they wouldn't even entertain the idea of leaving.
What more were the many beasts that roamed these depths? If not for the tamed Ulthasiair and Atlantis' natural defences, they would have been shark food a long time ago.
With these thoughts in his mind, Weizhe could only sigh.
His gaze moved to the group of Adventurers in front of him. They were about to go on one of those dangerous expeditions. A mysterious ruin had been unearthed, and digging it up was their goal.
Thus, with a firm tone and resolute gaze, Weizhe roared his command, "Set off!"
"For ourselves and for our city!" Weizhe unsheathed a ceremonial blade, "For Atlantis!"
"""For Atlantis!""" The Adventurers and fighters cheered in reply.
RHOAAAAAR!
Ulthasiair was sending them off as well.