Ais didn't stay for long, but this time she walked away instead of suddenly disappearing while Zarin didn't pay attention. Zarin appreciated her visits, as he had earned something each time.
He just had a few possibilities to look out for this time, but any new info helped.
A few minutes after Ais left, Eddie woke up. He joined Zarin in the dining room, where he was sitting reading the Journal about any information on Holmren.
"Ready to leave?"
Zarin's excitement rose upon hearing that sentence. He looked forward to traveling away. But, with the help of Eddie, who was much more knowledgeable about what he would face out there, he could do it without worrying too much.
Still, he didn't plan to not be on guard, as who knew what they would face out there. But he was confident that with his current Skills, he could even face the Demon Bear by himself.
So Zarin just nodded in response to Eddie's question.
"Ok, we should start then. It is still early enough that the guards wouldn't pay too much attention to us leaving. So we will leave for the east side, as there is less chance of facing any demonic beasts in that direction."
Zarin nodded, as he had in the past traveled a bit on the east side of the village, noticing it was quieter than the west side, which he mainly had been at. However, he was uncertain why the place was that quiet, as even non-demonic beasts looked like they weren't heading to that place.
"Is there any specific danger in the woods there? It seems to be strangely quiet."
Eddie had a wide smile on his face as he put his left hand over his right shoulder of Zarin.
"No need to worry about it. I have my ways to pass it with little trouble. Just stay near me, and follow what I tell you to do, and we will be fine."
Zarin once more nodded, as following Eddie's orders was already what he planned to do. Even if he knew some stories and information about various creatures because of the Journal. Those pieces of information weren't completed, and some could have changed after all that time.
Zarin knew that Lady Emlyn's father died close to a decade ago, and even if the info about the monsters couldn't have changed too much, the report on places could have. After all, as Ais told him, a town like Holmren had massively changed over the past decade. Even if its reason was shrouded by mystery, it didn't mean it was the only case of massive change in a town.
"Where are we heading?"
As Eddie had mentioned, Zarin was curious about their destination in trying to find Lady Emlyn's sister. He would be lying if he wasn't interested to learn more about that family, as the father was an Otherwolder, and one of the daughters had this strange aura around her. He wondered if that was the case for her sister, too.
He knew that Lady Emlyn's sister was the one that had gifted the Mana Battery and every enchanted tool that there was in the kitchen, so he had more reasons to find her. He still wasn't sure how difficult it was to gain these things in a large town, but to his mind, it shouldn't be something cheap.
"Hmmm… we need to find Artia first of all. To my knowledge, she had a place at Mren. It should take us a week to get there if all goes well."
Zarin wasn't familiar with the place's name, but there was something strange about its naming.
"What about Holmren? Is it far from there?"
He found it strange that their destination's name was very similar to the place he wanted to visit, so he was curious if they were close to each other.
"Eh? Holmren? Mren is Holmren… or at least part of it."
There was a brief surprise, followed by a clear suspicion in Eddie's eyes.
'Is it something that is known? Why does he give me that look?'
Zarin had mentioned to Eddie that he was an Otherworlder. Like everyone else, he thought that Zarin was just a passing traveler.
"Well, Holmren hadn't been a place since four years ago. The town got separated into two because of the two leading factions. It is now considered two separate towns called Hol and Mern."
While Eddie gave his explanation, he was still carefully looking at Zarin. Zarin didn't know why the suspicion was, but there was nothing he could do.
"What are those factions? I had heard of some stories of the place, but the stories were only when it was still small and united."
There was a brief pause where Eddie did nothing but stare at Zarin like he tried to find something on his face.
____________________
Unknown mana was detected trying to affect the user.
The user's [Mind] passed the requirement to restrict its effects.
Do you want to let the mana affect you?
YES/NO
____________________
Zarin never expected Eddie to try to do something to him, especially without him noticing. Eddie didn't even open his mouth or move a single finger this time. He just stared at him.
Since he didn't know what Eddie wanted to do, he decided to pick the no option. Fortunately, he could do so by just thinking.
As he did so, there was confusion in Eddie's eyes.
"What did you try to do with me?"
Zarin didn't plan to fight Eddie unless necessary. He was not afraid of him since he had a higher level, but it still was more beneficial to keep him as an ally.
"Who are you really? There is no way a person as young as you can be that powerful. I ignored your fight with Oriel, but maybe I shouldn't."
Zarin didn't know what to say. But he understood what Eddie had talked about.
He was a young adult human and had two powerful Skills to kill someone with a class with just one use. Even if a person was just low level, the difference between one with class and one without was the difference between an elephant and an ant.
That was why that guard, even if he was just level 3, had that great endurance to last long 'playing' with his lady friend.
But earning a class and getting levels was not that easy, especially for Mage Based classes that needed a person to study heavily in the Arcane Arts. Of course, Zarin had the cheat of the System handling most of the work, giving any knowledge he needed right when he learned a new skill. He just needed to trigger the learning of the Skill, which was much faster than the average person's way.
"*sigh* ok, I will tell you the truth. But you need to keep it a secret. You are the only person who will know the truth after I tell you."
So Zarin explained who he was. He didn't mention Ais or tell much about his past life and briefly explained what an Otherworlder was. Zarin wasn't sure if Eddie was familiar with them. After all, from what he understood from his discussions with Ais and Lady Emlyn, the existence of Otherworlders was far from public knowledge.
Ais had told him that he could share that knowledge with others but to be careful. Some men would be interested in experimenting on him if they found his background.
Eddie kept listening, and this time, his eyes didn't show any new emotion; he just kept staring at Zarin.
After Zarin finished his story, he waited for Eddie to talk, but Eddie instead went to sit on a nearby chair. He then started murmuring something to himself while he was in deep thought.
Zarin waited for him to finish his thinking as he understood that this new information was a lot. Eddie was a person who had lived for a long time compared to the average human and had seen and heard many things, so it didn't take him long to finish his thinking time.
"Your story is crazier than the average I usually hear. Do you have any proof, though? Although those Spells of yours were impressive, that doesn't prove to have the background you had mentioned. As far as I know, you could be a royalty that tries to hide. "
Zarin didn't know what to say in response, as he didn't expect Eddie to be so suspicious of him.
"How about this? "
Zarin opened his left palm, had it so that it would face up, and created 3 dice. Each dice was different from the others. The first was a blue six-sided one, and the second was a red ten-sided one. The last one was twenty-sided, half blue and half red.
The first dice had numbers on its sides, ranging from 1 to 6. The second dice, instead of numbers, it had lines of different amounts of simple lines on each side. Still, the number of lines on each side ranged from 1 to 10.
As for the final dice, instead of numbers or simple lines, it only had rune-looking carvings on two of its sides. The other 18 sides were flat.
The two runes were the incomplete [Rune of Protection] and [Rune of Concealment] he had unlocked. Even if his knowledge of them was shallow, he knew their basic look.
Of course, putting the runes on the dice like that did nothing, but Zarin thought it was an excellent way to show what his class could do.
As he looked toward Eddie for his reaction, Zarin noticed that Eddie's gaze was stuck on the 20-sided dice.
"It seems like your case is more complicated than I thought."