The interior of the camp is mostly a wooden living room. Everything there is made out of wood safe for the cushions and the sofa around that place. The maid motioned me to sit down on the sofa while they grab something for me to drink.
"So, what's your name?" I asked the maid who's bringing me some warm drinks.
"My name is Marulk," they replied. I kinda hoped that knowing their name would gave me a slightest hint of their gender. But nope, I still have no idea.
Not wanting to press on any further, I made myself comfortable and starts inspecting the inside of my bag. There's a bunch of stuff that really didn't make sense to me, so I hoped that Marulk here could tell me.
"Hey, Marulk, you see... I kinda lost all my memories and I have no idea what half of my bag's content is." I took out an odd looking water bottle and showed it to Marulk. "Any idea what this is? I think it's a water bottle but..." the bottle squirmed a little in my hand. "Yeah, take all my nope."
Marulk picked up the water bottle and their eyes widened in recognition. "This is the Living Bottle," they said in slight amazement. "It's a class two artifact. If I'm not wrong, it drinks a small amount of water from the bottle and secretes nutritious liquid in return."
I grabbed the living bottle from their hand and inspected it closely. Then I noticed that the bottle mouth resembles an actual mouth and I am Not Okay with that. "Take it, it's yours," I handed them the bottle before they can say another words. "No, I don't want it. I don't grow up, I don't need nutrition."
The maid looked at the water bottle and gulped a little. "I will have to ask Lord Ozen about this..." they muttered while putting down the bottle on to the small table in front of me. Then their eyes widened after finally realizing what I just said. "Y-you don't grow up?"
"I don't age, at least I think so." I replied simply, though I don't know exactly why, the creator seems to be pretty adamant in keeping me twelve for eternity. If you think that he has some disturbing taste, then yeah, you are totally correct. "By the way, Marulk, since I told you a bit about myself, why not tell me more about yourself. Starting with your gender."
Marulk blushed and looked down a little in embarrassment. "Umm... I wasn't... born a... girl..." he said in a barely audible whisper. One look at his outfit tells me that he's not really the one that gets to say what he should be wearing. "But, I don't mind really..."
We looked at each other for a moment. "Well then, can you tell me more about this." I pointed at the whistle I'm wearing. "Yeah, this ain't some ordinary amnesia. I really forgot how to human."
He blinked owlishly for a moment after hearing that one. "Well... There are five whistle categories. The red whistle, blue whistle, moon or purple whistle, a black whistle, and the highest ranked white whistle." The boy explained. "The red whistle are..."
"Okay, no need to get so detailed." I cut him off. "Now, how do you get a raise?"
"Well, the red and blue whistles were trained by a moon whistle instructor." Marulk explained. "The moon whistle is gained by doing numerous tests and are usually an apprentice of a higher whistle such as black or white. The black whistle on the other hand is a person who has made numerous achievements such as retrieving countless class one and special artifacts, or getting a ground-breaking discovery of the abyss."
"What about the White Whistle?" I asked when Marulk seems to have stopped his explanation.
"I don't know," Marulk replied. "I really don't know, there's only a handful of living White Whistles out there and most of them lives far down below in the abyss, way below the depth limit of most delvers."
Ah... So there are depth limits... "How far is a black whistle's depth limit again?"
"Up to the Fourth Layer, the Goblets of Giants." Marulk replied. "Below that is a point of no return due to the curse of the abyss. Only the White Whistle who has no depth limit could venture that far down deep below."
"The curse of the abyss?" I asked, remembering Habo saying something like that earlier.
"They're the symptoms that manifests when you try ascending the Abyss. The curse gets far-far worse the deeper down you go." Marulk explained. "In the first layer, light dizziness and nausea, in the second layer the headache gets worse followed by the numbing of limbs, in the third layer there will be a powerful vertigo and hallucinations."
I blinked owlishly after hearing that. "what about the fourth and fifth?"
Marulk gulped a little as if remembering something. "Fourth layer, bleeding from every orifices and extreme pain. Fifth layer, complete sensory depravation followed by self-harming and confusion. Sixth layer and below, loss of humanity or death. Thus making the fifth layer, the point of no return."
"So, no one is allowed to go below the fifth layer then?" I asked.
"Only the White Whistle since they have no depth limit."
Hmm, White Whistle seems to be some major badass in this world. "Well, enough about whistles and curses, let's talk about exorcising my bag from anymore creeps." I took out an ordinary compass out of my bag. "What is this?"
Marulk looked at it for a moment. "A compass... I don't think there's anything special with it," I nodded and put the compass back into the bag.
Then I took out my machete. "I killed a Corpse Weeper and a Category Five Nope with this, is there anything special with it in particular or am I just that good?"
"I think you're just very skilled." He observed the machete more closely. "It's also breaking apart, I think you should consider getting a new sturdy one." He added.
I nodded a little and put the machete away from my bag. Then I took out my grappling hook gun. "What about this?" the boy took the grappling hook gun and looked at it closely.
"It's sophisticated, but I don't think this is an Abyss artifact." The maid said before giving it to me. "Though the rope seems to be emitting strange light, you might wanna ask Ozen more about it."
Again with this Ozen. "You're talking as if I know who Ozen is, who is that?"
Marulk didn't respond, instead his face paled as he pointed to the direction behind me. I gulped a little nervously as I slowly turned my back around.
Right behind me is a very tall woman with monochromatic hair and pitch black emotionless eyes. She wore a dark brown suit with an overall badass design and a white whistle with tiny horns.
My badass readings are going crazy and I know for a fact that this woman right here is the last person I wanna mess with.
"Funny you should ask…" the woman said in calm and composed tone. "I am Ozen the Immovable, I am in charge of the Seeker's Camp."
I stood up from my position and bowed down respectfully towards her. "Thank you for the hospitality Lord Ozen."
Ozen gazed at me for a moment, her eyes and mouth slowly bearing similarities with that of a black hole. "Haios… that whistle around your neck, are you sure you deserve it?"
I gulped a little after hearing that. "Well I uhh…" I glanced at my living water bottle. "I did gather some sweet artifacts and maybe some more inside my backpack." I rummaged through my backpack looking for some stuff.
Then I took out a pouch full weird pointy things out of my backpack. "Here! This looks weird, this gotta worth something right?"
I can hear Marulk gasping followed by a resounding thud behind me. Ozen on the other hand seems to be deeply amused by my discovery. She gave me a big smile before grabbing the pouch out of my hand. "This changes everything…" she muttered while taking out an individual pin and observing it closely.
"So you know what that is?" I asked her.
"Of course… This is the thousand human pin, each pin grants the user the strength of a thousand men…" she looked at me for a moment. "I've personally collected 120 of them, it is quite amazing you could find even five of them."
One hundred and twenty… just imagining someone using all those pins, they'll be nothing but godlike in terms of raw strength.
"Do you use it Lord Ozen?" I asked her.
The woman stretches out her arm revealing numerous pins attached to her arm. "All 120 of them…" she said with that terrifying grin on her face.
It was then that I realized just what kind of monster is standing in front of me right now. If this is what it takes to be a white whistle, I shudder to think what the rest of the white whistle is like.
"You know, sending you off right now would be such a waste." Ozen said while handing me the pouch. Then she walked towards Marulk who looked extremely petrified behind me. "Marulk, teach her everything you know. I will dispatch the raiders to teach her the basics of delving."
The boy nodded mutely as the white whistle walked away without saying another words. "Ha-Haios Sama, please follow me," he said while walking towards the inner part of the seeker camp.
The two of us walked through the wooden corridors of the Seeker Camp. Marulk is at front, giving me a tour of the whole building, from the toilet, the guest rooms, to Ozen's personal chamber where no human must ever step foot in.
Finally, Marulk led me to a room where I will be staying. He also prepared a bunch of books about the basics of delving and the abyss in general.
"Is the room to your liking Haios-sama?" Marulk said as I put down my belongings into the room. "I will be in the observation chamber if you need me."
Marulk stood in front of the room, waiting for me to say something. "Yeah, there's something I need." I told him while walking closer towards him. "Can you help me with that?"
"If it's within my…" Marulk gasped in surprise when I suddenly embraced him into a hug. "Haios-sama?"
I let go of him and put both of my hand on his shoulders. "I might be a gazillion years older than you, but can you please stop treating me like an adult?" I sighed a little and looked down. "Please be my friend… is that too much to ask?"
Marulk smiled and shook his head. "No, it's not too much." He gently grabbed both of my hands. "I would love to be your friend Haios… san."
I exhaled a breath of relief and walked back into my room. "So, Marulk kun," I grabbed a book and gave him a sheepish smile. "This is extremely embarrassing, so please don't laugh okay."
Marulk nodded comfortingly. "Don't worry Haios-san, I won't laugh."
"I can't read," I whispered in embarrassment.
Surprisingly, Marulk just nod understandingly and grabbed a simple book. "Do you want me to teach you how to read?" he asked while sitting down next to my futon.
I sat down next to him and nodded a little. "If you don't mind…" I muttered. "Sorry about this," I added.
Marulk took out a pen from a small pouch that's hanging from his maid headband. "It's all right Haios-san…" he wrote some weird symbol on a piece of paper. "This is called the nether glyph…"
With that, I spent the rest of my day being taught how to read by Marulk.