Written by-Silver crown
Ch - 21 Some Rumors
Two people walked above their hideout door and sat down near the giant tree that was thriving above the Jinn hideout. They sat down and rested for a bit under the shade of a big tree. They didn't notice anything strange on the ground and started chatting in their language. The Jinn and Beta duo under them was still waiting to attack. They have already marked their target positions. They are in a position to jump out of the underground and incapacitate two people before they can realize the threat.
"Hoo...It's so tiring. What is wrong with those geezers? What kind of logic makes them think that this stinky place has a treasure." a man sitting on the tree root said.
"We wouldn't be laborious workers here if we can fathom how those in a higher power are thinking. I also don't want to be here anymore. Smell aside that death worms are so troublesome. In this swampy terrain, our movement is restricted. Where these worms can swim and move freely all over it."
"What are we? Sacrifices? First, we come up with Tree logs, stones, rafts, and hard ores. Everything we put in the swamp only lasted for a bit of time before they all crumbled into pieces. These worms devoured all of the things we put into their stomach." the other one talks while gulping down some water.
Jinn who was standing beneath them also heard their conversation. He communicates with Beta using sign language.
"When did the death worms reproduce so much? We've already lost half of our men in this task. I just pay my thanks to our ancestors for preventing these worms from swarming into our land. If not, we wouldn't be alive up to this day." the man sitting on the root said with a heavy sigh.
"Well, our duty will be over tomorrow. The higher-up decided that they will burn down this swamp. We only have to prepare some dry firewood and Black stones." the other person said.
Hearing that, Jinn discovered a crucial point from their conversation. A crisis is going to happen in this place. From his findings, the awful gas coming from the swamp has a property similar to nitrogen and methane. Which is extremely volatile. What makes the foul-smelling gas more unique and different from the above two gases is its other physical property. Before the gases slowly dissolve into the atmosphere, they bond and cluster together like a bubble during the daytime. The gas lost this property when it was cool, especially at night. Which is the reason why Jinn ran away from the foul smell at night. Although it can't be seen by the naked eye, the gas cluster together like a mushroom cap at the surface of the swamp in the daytime.
Just a tiny spark can put this whole area into a raging flame. The humidity and relatively low elevation of the swamp are the only two factors that prevent the mushroom cap from a fiery explosion from the heat waves radiated from the sunlight.
However, that explosion wouldn't kill all of the worms or dry up the swamp completely. The best result they can get by lighting up a fire is drying up the swamp's upper surface for some time.
Because the main source of water inside the swamp is coming from underground. The water is frequently seeping into the swamp through a small gap in the underground aquatic layer.
As soon as they lit up a fire, the gas cluster would explode with a blazing fire. According to Jinn's calculation, his current shelter location isn't safe from the range of explosions. Moreover, It wouldn't be a one-time blast. The whole area will be still on fire that will still be burning till gases coming from the swamp are consumed. To address this problem, Jinn makes a series of protocols in his program and calculates the favorable outcomes through different choices.
The best method was to evacuate this place. He needs to prepare the necessary things quickly for his journey toward the abyss. He has to leave immediately before their preparation is finished. Jinn was about to go back into his temporary hideout. He stopped his step and changed his mind after hearing some rumors that piqued his interest. To detect some valuable information with his program, Jinn marks them as Man A and Man B. The man's (sitting on the root) voice coming from the top of his head is Man A. The other guy is Man B.
The two men above talked about the strange things happening around the slave caravan.
"Instead of doing this work, we should be hunting that kid who attacked the slave caravan." Man A said.
"I also heard that news. What's happening? Ever since the blood moon appeared in broad daylight, we are hearing and seeing more and more strange things." Man B replied.
"Yes, how could a kid with a long blade appear out of nowhere and attack our caravan?"
"I heard that the kid killed five of our men and four scout ants before escaping with some injuries." Man A said.
"Do you believe that rumor? It's just a kid with a blade. And he slayed not only four scout ants but also five men. How could a kid overpower them? Anyway, let's assume that kid got them off guard then why didn't the rest of the crews didn't see him coming?"
"I think a fight broke out among themselves for a treasure."
"They just blamed their death on that kid who happened to coincidentally stumble with the caravan and escaped their grab," Man B said.
"It might be true but the rest of the crewmen say the same story. I think all of them aren't stupid enough to fabricate lies in front of Shaman. It's the same as lying in front of our ancestor's spirit." Man A said.
"Speaking of kids, a child ghost with bandages all over its body didn't appear as rumor said." Man A continued.
(it is Jinn).
"Ke, ke, Kee...Yes, even if a ghost really existed here, it will be gone by now. I think even a ghost can't bare it anymore. He has to keep smelling this stinky smell every day. Even though I plugged my nose, I really can't get used to this odor." Man B said while laughing.
"Ouch...why did you hit me?" Man B shouted.
"If a ghost can smell like we do, why would it be called a ghost? I think that one might be real. The swamp is a burial area for ant colony and people that died from curses of the gods." Man A said.
"#$$$, the f@ck why do you bring out those cursed words?" B yelled at his companion.
"You wouldn't get cursed disease if you said that word from your mouth."
"Besides, there are dozens of people who got remedied from the curses of the gods. They said they got cured after seeing that ghost kid in their dream."
"If he exists, we must find him. We have to catch him, whether he is a ghost or not. We only have a method to prevent the curse but not a method to cure it." Man A said.
Jinn listened closely to their conversation. He knew they were about him from the beginning. The topic they are talking about fits well with his recent doing. The four or five people they mentioned are all Jinn's test subjects. They are just some lucky few. In the early stages of research, most of the test subjects couldn't make it.
Jinn's body is very weak since his birth. In medical terms, he has oculocutaneous albinism. He has to dress with bandages all over his body. Just to minimize the environmental damage inflicted on his super-sensitive skin. Without a properly developed body immune serum, his hyper health care program couldn't cure his current condition. To fix his body constitution, He browsed some biomedical knowledge inside his memory log.
Although alien gen can store an insane amount of data, SCU doesn't give away all the accumulated knowledge of humanity from a person's birth. Instead, they used more clever a method. The initial data they put inside the alien gen basic periphery data depending on which field the gem's host will be specializing in as he progresses. For any further data about other fields and some cutting-edge knowledge, they put all of them into their respective archive network quantum servers like cloud platforms. Where the galactic populace is given access via the quantum network. Any kind of open-source data is free but some research and cutting-edge knowledge can only be obtained by purchasing with credit points.
So it can be expected that much of the information is vague. The topic of how to develop the body's immune serum and cure for OCA inside the Jinn's gem is just superficial knowledge written in a text document.
Another reason is this type of illness that is happening inside the Serbs city doesn't exist in the galactic era... Because with their current biotechnology, they can edit DNA and Genes to the stage of perfection inside the embryo chamber or in the mother's womb.
So, it was very fortunate that Jinn's memory log still has some records about it. In the past years, Jinn has performed some tests on weak and disease-infected people based on speculation. The project was quite fruitful. Jinn has developed an anti-body in the bodies of the specimens which can cure the infection. Although his OCA hasn't been cured, the antibody is already imported into his hyper health care program.
The two men chatted a lot of things but it was all about their daily matters. Since their conversations became irrelevant information, Jinn decided to stop ear-dropping. He decided to let the two men live for now. However, out of precaution, he left Beta standing on guard at the door before he went inside to fetch the necessary things for their journey.