Chapter Three: Journey to the West
Name: Dusken
Innate Name: -
Rank: Seeker
Level: 0
Spell Cards: -
Scrolls: 1
Material Cards: -
Talent: Abyssal Star (locked)
Side abilities: [Child Of the Abyss]
Innate abilities: -
Legacy: None
Dusken's gaze was fixed on the scroll tab, which had changed from nil to 1.
This was his first time ever receiving a scroll, but that didn't mean he wasn't familiar with it…
He was just exhausted; pain wracked his senses which slowed down his thought process. His fatigue was both physical and mental; only his sheer willpower was keeping him standing, and the hellish desert landscape didn't help at all.
Focusing his drained mind back on the screen in front of him, the strings of words on the soul script shifted, displaying the information about the scroll he had received on the ethereal screen.
Scroll name: [Way of Grace]
Scroll rank: Awakened
Scroll level: 1
Scroll description: [A treacherous creature travelled the lands of the Neverending desert for months, preying on the weak and hiding from the strong. It was a vile, hypocritical, and intelligent monstrosity that feared death and acted cautiously until the day it overestimated its ability and chased after a devious ten-year-old. Challenging the creature to a battle, the scheming young child won and the treacherous, vile and intelligent creature who had roamed the desert for months met its end under the hands of a level zero]
Dusken made a weird face.
'That is not too much. Yeah I'm not moved at all'
Scrolls were magical equipment granted by the Calamity Codex to humans when they slay living entities. It wasn't a consistent thing since it mostly depended on luck.
Still… the description was very well written, making Dusken want to cover his face in embarrassment. Shaking such thoughts from his mind, he decided to examine the scroll's inscription. The words in the script changed once more.
Scroll Inscriptions: [Pathfinder]
Inscription description: [This scroll is inscribed with a special eidric, enabling it to guide one to their destination].
Dusken's eyes flashed with an imperceptible glint.
'I'm not seeing things… or am I?' He rubbed his eyes, but the words of the soul script remained unchanged.
'Using this scroll, doesn't this mean I can find the location of the god's palace with relative ease?'
His emotions were unmistakable: excitement, happiness, and joy.
He decided to go over it all once again, with a calm, steady and analyzing mind just to be sure.
However, as he went through all the information again, black lines began to form on his face as realization dawned on him.
It was especially so after reading the description of the scroll: chased after a devious ten-year-old, chased after a devious ten-year-old; these words resounded in his mind over and over again, causing cold sweat to roll down his creased brows.
His worry wasn't due to the way he was described but because there was more layered, shrouded information hidden in this description.
He raised his head and glanced in Kyle's direction, complicating thoughts raging in his mind; the red-haired boy laid his back on the small boulder; the looming shadow shielded him from the tormenting sun above. It seemed that using his side ability took a heavy toll on his mind.
'Why wasn't Kyle in the description?'
This thought brushed his mind, as he realized that only him was in the description.
There was a possibility that maybe it was Kyle in the description and he was the one who was not mentioned, but that was not possible because the beast had been killed by him while Kyle only assisted.
Does he possess another side ability that had prevented the creature from minding him perhaps?
Now that he thought about it, the monster had pursued only him when Kyle had increased the temperature; he had chalked it up to the fact that the creature was stupid, but what if he had been wrong?
What if there was something deeper, darker and sinister going on in the background?
There was also the case of Kyle's expert control over the heat, had he really never used his side ability like he had proclaimed?
'Argh! Curse it, my brain hurts'
Dusken ran his fingers through his white hair, grimacing. Some doubts began to creep up his mind, what if he was just overthinking things?
Kyle lifted his head and gazed at Dusken, his bright green eyes reflecting confusion at the prolonged stare.
Dusken immediately averted his gaze as he forgot what he was thinking about and focused once again on the floating screen in front of him.
With the help of the scroll, he could easily locate the god's palace, face the trial and successfully return to the real world, but he had to find a safe location first.
'What a bother,'
Letting out an internal sigh of frustration, he walked towards the corpse of the creature. He pulled out the bone pierced on its head, as viscous liquid began to pour out of the wound.
He bent down, trying to avoid staying in the path of the blood flowing from the carcass of the beast, and began carefully cutting into the creature.
Kyle stared at Dusken from behind, confusion plastered in his gaze.
"W-what are you doing?" Kyle's voice travelled through the soft, hot breeze, reaching Dusken's ears.
Pausing his action, Dusken glanced backwards at the wincing Kyle.
"I am storing the remaining flesh and parts of the creature that are edible," after lingering for a moment, he added evenly: "If you have something else to eat in this desert, you can go try it out."
Without waiting to see Kyle's reaction, he turned back to continue cutting the creature.
He handled it masterfully, like someone who had done this many times - which was true.
Children of eight years old were not only taught about combat in their training; things like this were also included in their schedule.
Dusken, first of all, tore open the creature's chest where a small golden-coloured jagged crystal lay; it was engraved with runes that made it seem like an exquisite work of art.
This was a core shard, a fragment of a runic core. It was similar to what was called a beast core in the video games he had played back on Earth.
Dusken stored it in the pocket of his robe; he couldn't absorb it - not until he became a level one awakened, perhaps.
It wasn't long before he had mostly collected all the meat that would be enough for them to eat for a few days; just as he was about to cut one last slice of meat, his bone weapon pierced something inside the beast, causing a black liquid to trickle down the creature's corpse.
Taking a deeper look at it, it turned out to be a poison sac that had been mistakenly pierced open by his bone weapon.
Kyle instantly stood up.
"Don't go any closer," he shouted from behind Dusken, fear evident in his words. Dusken stared at him, his glance carrying the obvious meaning that Kyle should elaborate.
Taking a deep breath, Kyle shakily said:
"I don't know how such a thing appeared inside of this creature, it is supposed to be impossible,"
His hand pointed at the creature's carcass, he still wasn't getting to the point and this unnerved Dusken, noticing his icy cold glare, Kyle hurriedly explained:
"This is a soul-devouring poison, I had read of this poison before in my clan's library. It slowly kills a person by making them unable to walk, then devours their flesh and, finally, their soul. It is a very vile and tortuous process, and the poisoned individual would rather wish for death instead of facing this poison; it is supposed to only be found in demon snakes from the demon clan." the horror in his voice was unmistakable.
Dusken's eyes flashed as dread crept up his heart; he instantly understood what Kyle meant. He immediately distanced himself from the creature, so as not to be touched by such a vile poison.
'So dangerous' Dusken said inwardly.
If this poison could only be found in demon snakes and this creature had it, this could only mean one of two things.
The first was that this creature was somehow a mixed blood between creature and demon.
The second was that this creature was lucky enough to swallow a poison sac of a demon snake without being killed by it.
From the two above options, Dusken was inclined to believe the latter more, simply because his soul script had said that it was a creature, not a half-breed.
His eyes flashed with cold calculation as a ruthless plan solidified in his mind.
'I won't hesitate' this thought flashed in Dusken's mind.
He didn't care whether he was wrong or not, but he was someone who wouldn't linger when his life was on the line.
He glanced at the frowning Kyle, a resolute look briefly appearing on his face before vanishing completely.
***
Sometime later, Dusken had relocated and rested enough, he was now ready to move. He had torn part of his robe and used it to wrap the raw meat that was harvested from the creature.
He decided to summon his scroll and check out how to use it.
Despite this, he was still grim on the inside as he knew that it wouldn't be an easy journey to the god's palace.
Stretching his hands forward, he followed a tug at the back of his mind and imagined calling upon the scroll.
Suddenly, gold particles began to swirl around his hand; these particles were visible, and even Kyle could see them.
A shocked expression appeared on Kyle's face as a sharp glint ran through his eyes.
A small golden space was being formed in front of Dusken, and without hesitation, he thrust his right hand into it and grabbed something.
He pulled out a white scroll from the golden space, and the space began to shrink and disappear.
This was a scroll, his scroll. Dusken had always had hope of getting some, and now he had one of his own. In the hierarchy of society, the strong ruled over the weak and thus, this was just his first step to power.
Excitement was coursing through his veins, for he knew that one day in the future, he would have multiple of these; even spell and material cards would be at his disposal.
He concentrated on the white scroll in his hands while slowly unfolding it; on the inside was a kind of symbol that looked similar to a rhombus.
The rhombus had many smaller symbols drawn within it, designed in an intricate, artistic and careful manner.
This gave a sense of dark beauty and attraction to the symbol. These symbols were called Eidrics, they were languages that carried special effects.
The moment Dusken had the thought of using the scroll, the symbols changed, and although he knew what was supposed to be done next, hesitation was clear in his eyes.
He had heard many tales about scrolls, their magical effects and also the cost; sometimes, it may be a heavy price, too huge a fact that it may lead to death.
Even so, after lingering for a few moments, he clenched his fists and with a hardened jaw, he softly muttered under his breath.
"God's palace, locate the god's palace." His voice was a bit hoarse from the exhaustion and pain.
The symbols began to slowly shift and twist, as if coming alive, he suddenly felt something draining his already weak mental energy.
'C-curse it,'
When a person hasn't reached level one and has not awakened, they can't use magical energy, and thus, their mental energy would be drained instead to use either their side abilities - except passive ones - or an inscription.
Dizziness was beginning to overcome his senses, but he struggled to stay conscious.
'Persevere, persevere, persevere, Dusken persevere!' he chanted inwardly while gritting his teeth.
The symbols on the scrolls flew out of it and gently floated in the air as they formed words that he was familiar with: the four cardinal points.
North, East, South and West. The symbol forming the West was glowing red, indicating that the god's palace was in the West.
'F-finally,' he stumbled almost falling to the ground.
The symbols slowly went back onto the scroll, and he immediately dismissed it making it disappear; fatigue was written all over his face as he inhaled sharply.
He had heard of how draining it was for a non-awakened to use scrolls, but now that he was experiencing it first-hand, he understood that it was no easy ordeal.
He was still quite surprised that the scroll had easily located the god's palace, but the drain on his mind was severe, so it was as expected; he let out a heavy sigh as his vision blurred.
He knew that more dangers awaited him in the god's palace since he was a target to be eliminated.
A crooked smile twisted his lips as he looked towards the west, which turned out to be his right.
The desert still stretched on endlessly under his blurry gaze, he remembered a phrase that was mostly used on Earth when people were travelling west, and then he mumbled to himself.
"So, it's a journey to the West, huh! So cliché."