The road was bumpy because of the amount of pebbles and cracks on it, while the combination of the smell of gasoline with the sun hitting really hard was making the boy quite sleepy.
Aren was sitting behind this pickup truck, with the hood of his raincoat up to protect himself from a possible sunstroke.
I really need a shower, it can't go on like this.
It has been a couple of days since he followed the forest path that led him to a road in the middle of nowhere, around him there was only a desolated desert, no trees or water, just the main road. His morale was still high, probably because in the past he already experienced situations where he had to limit his rations to increase the chances of survival.
It took him another couple of days for someone good enough to stop and give him a lift, a few vehicles passed and ignored him but luckily one of them stopped. He never saw this kind of cars, but they seemed pretty undeveloped compared to the ones he was used to.
The good samaritan was a nice old lady, she was short with very tanned skin and from what she was carrying she was a farmer, probably going somewhere to sell her products. She tried to speak with Aren but the language barrier was an issue, but she tried anyway to make herself understandable with hand gestures and that's how Aren was not sitting on this truck.
"This was pretty close. We got lucky with our water and food rations. I had barely enough to survive another day or two", he said checking what was left in his backpack.
[Your Majesty managed to prepare properly for this trip, plus the path out was really easy to follow], said Val while the SENTINEL glowed under the coat's sleeve.
"Actually, I was wondering. Can she hear you? Your volume seems pretty loud to not be heard."
[The system is set to have the audio frequencies to be directed directly to you from the inside. But it is possible to use the external speakers. Do you want me to activate it?]
"No no, I think it is fine. So it's literally like having a voice inside of my head. Anyway, I was wondering, are you keeping track of where we are going?"
[Yes, Your Majesty] the virtual map opened floating in front of his eyes, the map was updating itself while the car was moving, slowly unveiling areas that were not visible before. At this point they were pretty far from the forest and they were headed south.
[I am also combining the samples of language from the cabin with the conversation you had with our driver. They seem to follow the same pattern, so I am automatically keeping the dictionary open until it learns the language.]
"That's very smart, good catch Val. And please, continue to have initiatives like these. All help is welcome in this journey."
They kept going and and had another couple of hours on the road, including a couple of breaks at some gas stations, apparently those cars were still using gasoline.
I wonder what happened to the patent of clean energy that I was going to share to the world.
Aren thought about the hard work that took him and the research years to develop, but he decided to not focus on the negative part of his past for now.
Nothing is really lost until I have the idea in my head.
Finally they reached their destination, it was indeed a city. It was pretty lively despite being a small place. There were no skyscrapers but a lot of small houses made of concrete, wooden doors and windows. As he expected there was a street market in the city centre, and that's where their car stopped.
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As they arrived, Aren started to help the woman with carrying the boxes while she was preparing the stand. He also offered her some coins but she gently refused, being actually surprised by his gesture. Aren then waved goodbye and started to wander around.
It's a shame I didn't get to know her name. But now it's my chance to have a look around and gather some information, better use this chance properly.
There were a lot of people so it was pretty noisy but easy to not gain much attention, he just had to keep his hood up, because he knew that his silver hair and eyes were pretty noticeable. Looking different in a foreign land wasn't really the best way to stay incognito.
He realised that it was a street market, quite a busy one. The woman was setting her stand in an area with other food sellers, while the street continued with other kinds of products.
He could spot people from multiple ethnicities scattered all around, possibly some of them were traders, coming from different areas as well to sell their goods. He looked at how trading was done to understand the currency system, and he noticed gold coins which he didn't have. But what caught his attention was a bookstand, he wondered if there was anything that would give him a hint on where he is.
He came across a map which was quite big, the seller tried to gently talk to Aren to bargain despite him not being able to understand.
Let's see if with this I can figure out where I am. Or at least if it's my home world.
[Your Majesty, I think I gathered enough data to be able to translate, maybe not all the words but the sounds and characters. Do you want me to activate the live translation? It will pick all the important sounds that you need to hear], Aren nodded and suddenly in front of his eyes some sort of text appeared, it was adapted to Aren's language. He was able to read what the person was saying, and it was amazing.
This would have simplified a lot of diplomatic meetings in my previous life.
"Maybe you are interested in having a look at some adventure books? Feel free to browse there" and the seller pointed him to a box on the table.
[Don't worry Your Majesty, everything that you see, is scanned in my memory and can be reproduced, including the map] Aren felt uncomfortable at the idea of pirating those things, but he wasn't in the situation where he could afford to spend money as he wished.
So he browsed some books hoping to find something but nothing, so he went to another kiosk that seemed like a regular grocery stand. He bought things like toothpaste and toothbrushes, since up until now he was reusing stuff from the lumberjack.
Suddenly a loud noise distracted everyone's attention, there was a ruckus from one of the kiosks at the end of the street. He went to have a look and he noticed that it was the woman that gave him a lift.
He rushed to her and calmly observed the whole situation. There was a group of people wearing leather jackets with a logo, it was a skull with crossed swords behind it. Their intention didn't look good and judging from the scene, they had already trashed other stands which explained the noise from before.
"Give us our money, it's part of the protection fee?" The man with long black slick hair asked her, while the group behind him was standing and laughing. There were five in total, two women and three men.
"Protection for what? From you? I just arrived and even if I had anything, I wouldn't give you shit!"The old woman was fierce, but she was clearly trembling, her hands were shaking.
"This is not a request, old hag! We are the Dune Reapers, you might have heard about us" added one of the women behind.
"You are bandits! That's what you are! Wait until the knights hear about this" screamed one of the men whose kiosks were trashed. The bandits started to laugh in unison, and Aren could see how the rest of the people looked down.
"Which knights?! The king forgot about these lands and his knights are pretty busy protecting him from the war! It's all up for grabs and we are here to grab!" The man that looked like the leader, grabbed an apple that was on the floor and gave it a bite, he unsheathed the sword from his belt and pointed it at the old woman, while walking slowly.
"We are all armed, and we observed this village for a while. No one here is armed or can fight back, and even if you try, I am an Adept!" Once he said those words, a purple glow came out from the back of his hand. It was shaped like a cobra showing its fangs.
"An emblem!" Screamed the people who started to back out. The old woman fell on the ground and started to move backwards towards her stand.
At that moment Aren looked around, in search of something specific. Once he looked at the target, he moved swiftly to the clothes stand and grabbed a black scarf and a pair of big round sunglasses. Everyone was so focused on the scene that they didn't notice him moving around. The next thing was going behind the food stand and starting to grab everything that was pointed or sharp, kitchen knives, forks and even a machete. He dropped his bag in a corner, wrapped the scarf tight around his neck and covered half of his face, and then lifted the hood.
The old woman's back reached her stand, looking for something under the table.
"We gave you a chance. This is on you" his next step was stopped by a sudden pain on his arm, he looked at it and noticed some blood dripping down the arm. A kitchen knife was stuck on his upper arm. He looked around but he couldn't notice anyone that could have thrown it.
"Who did this?! Come out, you coward!" The crowd started to look around as well, but the bandits were already taking out their weapons, a couple of short swords, a crossbow and mace.
It was so fast that no one even noticed, a fork ended up between the eyes of one of the men, instant dead. Few seconds later another kitchen knife went straight behind the neck of one of the women, she felt on the floor without even noticing.
There were three of them left. The man with the emblem started to scream and the projection of a purple snake started to wrap around his arm. His comrades were looking around, trying to catch whoever attacked them from the crowd but nothing was on sight. Due to his size Aren was able to move really smoothly between people and hide in plain sight behind any surface.
The leader pointed his sword to the crowd and the cobra started to wrap its body around the blade.
"Strangle!" At his command the sword flew from his hand and started to move around the people, it became an extension of his arm which was still connected through the energy of the emblem. The cobra was crushing them in that purple energy, and at the same time the blade was cutting through the people.
The blade returned to the bandit and the people who got cut suddenly fell on the ground in agony.
"This is a paralysing poison, let's see how long you will keep hiding!" He then pointed the sword to another group of civilians. And at that moment Aren had to come out and put himself in front of the people.
The other two bandits started to run towards him, hoping to catch him by surprise, but in that moment he quickly threw to him a handful of sand, which blinded them temporarily.
His other hand was already holding the axe which he swung horizontally directly to them, slashing their abdomen in one hit. They instantly fell on the ground, holding their internal organs without any good result.
It was just the leader left, and Aren was ready to use the Dark Dragon's power but he needed to find the right moment for it.
"You are going to die for what you did!" The snake elongated again, with the sword going for a straight hit. Aren kept a defence position and managed to deflect the hit with the flat side of the axe. But the sword suddenly turned back, trying to hit Aren's back, but at the moment of the impact, the sword was deflected again, but this time by his dagger which he was holding on his back.
He trained the last few days to be able to hold the axe with one hand, he wanted to be sure to be able to use two weapons in case it was needed, it wasn't effective but yet it was enough for now.
"You little piece of shit!" The cobra emblem glowed more intensely and a purple steam started to come out from the blade. Aren knew that it was probably poison but he didn't know what the effects were. The snake ignored Aren and went directly towards the crowd. As fast as he could he took off his coat and threw it to the blade.
He jumped on it, using his weight to pin it down. The poisonous mist started to come out but the jacket was dissipating a lot of it.
"Run away!" he screamed, but he realised that he couldn't understand him.
The blade beneath him started to wiggle around, and Aren was focusing on maintaining his balance while also trying to hold his breath.
At that moment another snake came towards him, it was another blade which was controlled with the other arm. Fortunately he managed to deflect this one but he had to let go of the other sword which shredded his coat and retracted back to the bandit.
They were now in front of each other, with the man controlling two snakes at the same time. There was no escaping, it was just a matter of taking him down as fast as possible, before the poison would take effect.
Time to use it. I have two hits at my disposal and I need to make them count.
His dark emblem started to glow, and both of his axe and dagger were wrapped into this dark energy. This time the energy was dispersing less, thanks to his daily meditation and training. His eyes were glowing and the sunglasses couldn't hide it, he was crouched, ready to dash.