"You tell me, why did you touch me again after loosening your grip against my throat during that fight?"
"What do you mean by that?" Ashton asked, feigning ignorance.
Chainy lowered his head a bit and subtly shook it as if he was nodding in apprehension to Ashton's words. He eventually raised his head up and looked Ashton directly in the eyes.
"Since you don't want to tell me what that was about, let's just keep walking. We have to get to a safe harbor before sundown." He reminded Aston again, now walking away from where he had stood still for a moment.
Before Ashton turned to walk after Chainy, he let out a small sigh that released the breath he had been holding in for a second.
"How did you know my name and the reason why I'm here? I never told you anything about that." Ashton eventually asked the moment he had caught up with Chainy who was upfront.
"I told you already, my intelligence quotient is 286."
"And that alone explains nothing about how you found that out."
Chainy rolled his eyes unbelievably as it seemed to him Ashton was a little bit slow to comprehend things which would have caused massive frustration to the people from his clan if he were there.
"Alright…" Chainy heaved, tilting his head to a side gesturing Ashton should walk beside him. Without much hesitation, Ashton quickly took his walking spot beside Chainy as he awaited his response.
"My clan's name is Alcatraz and we are special creatures whose final form is that of humans and evolving into a human happens only when you have attained a special feat."
"I have never heard of a clan like that." Callista chimed in abruptly folding her arms as she tried to see if she could pick some fault that might sell Chainy out as bad as she does not want the same thing that had possibly happened with William might actually unfold again with Ashton blinding trusting new people. But then again, Chainy seemed harmless and true.
"Do you have gradings in your clan?" Ashton asked as he kicked a stone that was lying in his path away into a foggy bush.
The crickets that were enjoying their safe harbor amongst the grass jumped out in different directions as the stone disturbed their settled peace for a moment and they found another escape into a new foggy bush.
"Of course there is a grading system in my clan." Chainy replied. "Ranging from the profoundly gifted to the exceptionally gifted, the highly gifted, moderately gifted, average intelligence, borderline intelligence, and profound mental disability."
"And you fall in which grade?"
"Moderately gifted. Humans like you are blessed with elemental abilities from heaven while the people of my clan are gifted with a wide range intelligence quotient which is a super ability for us." Chainy explained.
"Does that mean you read through my mind?" Ashton asked again, turning his head sideways to see Chainy's candid reaction.
With a subtle nod, Chainy confirmed Ashton's words. "I read your mind while you were asleep. For a moment I had thought you would be a potential threat to my journey here…" He paused, turning to face Ashton for a bit before he continued.
"...but then again when I saw the intent of your coming here was I wanted to make friends with you but, you're just a guy with a little squeezy anger issue who initiated a fight the moment he saw me."
Ashton lurched his hand at Chainy grabbing him by his shoulder. "You enjoyed that fucking moment you passed your damn waste on me and you expect me to stay calm?" He sneered.
"Oh, that…forgive my manners I should have told you earlier that my gesture is a friendly way we greet acquaintances in my clan."
"Well, we were not acquaintances then and that sure is a stupid way of approach." While gently releasing Chainy from his grip, Ashton said, "I don't think we are now."
"Why? Do you have problems trusting people easily?"
Ashton heaved a sigh exasperatedly kicking another stone that was on his path. "Did you not say you read my mind earlier? You should know the reason why I'm saying this."
"It was just for a moment…I mean, I read your mind for just a couple seconds and you woke up."
"Whatever!" Ashton heaved. "Can you still read my mind now?"
"No, I can't. You are in a conscious state right now which makes you cloud your mind from me…it's strange though because every other human I've met, I can read their mind in whatever state they are in."
A small smirk ensued on the side of Ashton's lips as Chainy laid those words out to him. A wave of calmness washed over him as he had just confirmed Chainy knew nothing about his ability and how he had harvested two skills from him.
"I bet killing Chainy would definitely make you level up faster." Callista said.
"Shut up!" Ashton chided at her as it seemed to him she had just read his thoughts. 'Oh shoot! She actually can read my thoughts.'
"I wasn't talking anymore." Chainy said, his tone softening as he turned to his side to see why Ashton had told him to shut up.
With a fake smile crawling on his lips, Ashton quickly brushed off that talk. Chainy shook his head and continued walking.
As they continued walking, no one tried to say a word to the other and the silence that ensued between them was becoming alarmingly dangerous. A lot of questions about Chainy's origin were going through Ashton's mind and he tried to ask him a few of them but then again he had to make sure he wouldn't end up spilling some secret about himself while trying to initiate a conversation again.
"So," Ashton eventually began to say, breaking the long silence that had unfolded between them. "Why are you here too?"
"Same reason as yours." Chainy gave his short and candid reply without hesitating. "But its for my father, not a friend."
"I heard only one pudding can leave this world and if two do, this world will be destroyed…does that mean the both of us will eventually become rivals in this world to claim the pudding?" Ashton asked again.
Chainy suddenly broke into an abrupt laughter as Ashton had said those words to him. For a minute, Ashton felt embarrassed to see him laugh at what he had said. What exactly was funny in his statement was something he couldn't fathom. He let out a long sigh and awaited Chainy's breakthrough from his humorless banter.
"Who told you that feeble tale?" Chainy returned with a question after he had stopped laughing. "Anyway, that is a lie, okay. If this world allows only one pudding to leave, then it would have destroyed itself a very long time ago."
"What do…"
"We've got company, Ashton!" Chainy suddenly said, cutting Ashton's words short.
Ashton turned to face the direction Chainy was looking at and far in front of them was a figure he could quite dissipate. At first, he had thought it was only one but as the figure continuously swerved towards them, Ashton finally realized it was not one figure but three.
"What are those?"
"Silpens…they are also halflings like me but far more dangerous." Chainy dropped.
As the figures swerved closer to them, Ashton could finally dissipate what they looked like. Their upper body part was like a human's form while their lower body part had the same features as rare creatures.
The centerfold creature had the tail of an anaconda as its lower body part while another had the part of a mammoth and the third creature had the body of an archaeopteryx.
"Who do we have here?" The centerfold creature began to say, it could be classified as a woman as her voice was as sweet and smooth as fresh vine.
"Miranda!" Chainy called at her which Ashton guessed was probably her name.
His eyes lowered against them like he had had a long time unsettled feud with her and all Ashton could do was ready his defense for battle as the situation seemed not that of a cost reunion.
"Chainy…I see you've come with a friend." Miranda rasped, sticking her tongue out like a maniac. "I bet he would make a scrumptious meal like your sister!"
"Come on bitch, let's end this once and for all!" Chainy sneered charging towards Miranda with great rage.
[Host, you were just referred to as a scrumptious snack.]
"I don't need to hear that from you either." Ashton sneered, readying himself to attack.
[A new quest has arrived]
[Harvest the energy core of the unholy halflings]
[Reward: A new technique]
[Hidden reward: ???]
"Here I come, bitch!" Ashton raged too charging towards the halfling who had called him a scrumptious snack.