Chương 11

I sat as comfortably as I could. My back was resting against the wall and my legs were outstretched in a relaxed manner. My leg still felt sore, though the only sign of the injury earlier was my torn, blood-stained trouser and a slight redness where the dagger had slashed. I wish I had a bed here. And pillows. Nevertheless, this was as comfortable as I would get, so I closed my eyes and started focusing. My mind went back to Omar's first spell and the feeling surrounding him at the moment.

He said he felt something in the center of his chest when the spell activated, though that feeling went away once the spell was complete. I also remembered how the air felt charged with something whenever he used his spells. When Madelline used her spell, I was focused on the goblins so I couldn't remember feeling anything different, but I distinctly remember the air felt soothing when Marcus used his healing spell. Mana changes the environment… according to the spell's effect, I think.

Does that mean that mana is present everywhere, just in a dormant state? Or does mana come from within the chest as Omar explained when a spell is activated? I'll try and make sense of it. I tried feeling for anything remotely out of place within my chest. I even placed my hands and tried to feel whether I could feel a new organ or something, but it all seemed familiar. I couldn't sense anything no matter how hard I concentrated, despite trying for what felt like half an hour.

I opened my eyes and noticed it was much darker now, the sun continuing its slow descent. Refocusing, I closed my eyes again and this time I tried to see if I could sense mana flowing within me. I knew I had mana, my status confirmed it, so either it was in the central chest area or it was flowing within my body like blood. Despite my best efforts though, I could feel nothing. I couldn't even really feel blood flowing to be honest, let alone something different. Sighing, I tried something different.

I attempted to sense mana surrounding me. In my focused state, I could feel a very light breeze flowing from below the door, but that's about it. Do I need a spell to activate it? I didn't think that was plausible though. My observation so far leads credence to the theory that the System doesn't follow a rigid structure. If at first you don't succeed… Lucas POV I was still simmering as I went straight toward Ben.

Luckily, Alex was okay, but even if it had been anyone else, I couldn't imagine just leaving someone to die. Helping someone in need is never the wrong thing, my father's words echoed in my mind. Words that I have largely lived by. I know Alex is much more cynical and rational compared to me, and he could see the 'logic' in them running away. Still, that doesn't change the fact that they ran. Ben's group lost seven people! No one else was hung up on the deaths, and why would they.

It wasn't like people knew each other here. It was just like listening to a few deaths on the news, sad, but irrelevant. Instead, everyone was more focused on the fact that the group was attacked. The sentiments largely had shifted towards people staying indoors now, a fact that was all too obvious as I exited the longhouse and stepped into the far emptier square. Most of us had simply had a leisurely stroll through the forest before reaching this area.

No one had realized the severity of their circumstances till they had come face to face with mortality. It's going to be much tougher getting anyone to leave this area now. I stepped forward, trying to locate Ben in the darkening evening. I finally spotted him in front of the right longhouse, chatting with a few others. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Probably re-telling his story. I moved toward him as someone stepped beside me; Sara.

"You're going to talk to him, aren't you?" she asked. Though it was said as more of a statement rather than a question. Seeing no reason to hide the obvious, I nodded.

"Good. I'll support you. We need to address this" she stated. I paused, turning to look at her, surprised. I didn't think she would support me, instead I thought she would stop me.

"Why?" I asked.

"It's not because of what happened to Alex, that's your friend. No. It's because if we don't address this, it will set up a dangerous precedent" she explained.

"We can't allow anyone who abandons their team to be seen as someone who returned as a hero." Good point. I hadn't thought of that.

"But that raises the question, what do we do? We can't punish him, as he went back immediately with his team when he realized that Alex and Omar were no longer with him."

"Punish who? Ben?" she asked, incredulously. At my nod, she had an expression of disbelief.

"Really? You're talking about punishing Ben? I was going to ask Ben for the names of the people who ran away as soon as the goblins ambushed them. They are the ones who caused the deaths, not Ben." … She's right. My friend being in danger clouded my judgement, but I can see now that the real blame lies with the ones who ran off at the first sign of danger. They are the ones who can't be trusted. I gave a nod to show I understood, and we started heading towards Ben again.

He saw us coming and excused himself from the people he was speaking with and headed over.

"Hey, how's Alex?" he asked.

"He's okay. He's resting inside" I answered"Thank God" Ben said as his shoulders relaxed.

"I'm glad you told me to listen to him; that's the only reason we are all alive." I noticed Sara's gaze immediately sharpened at that.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, Lucas told me before we left to listen to Alex if anything happens. I didn't think anything of it, but luckily, I chose to trust Lucas's judgement when Alex asked us to stop. He noticed… something and got us all to arrange ourselves in a circle with our weapons in hand. Even after the six of us were surrounded, he was the one who came up with the plan to get us out. I owe him my life" Ben finished. Sara said, "I see" as I saw her eyes became calculative. I could see her re-assessing Alex in real-time.

Sorry buddy. I know you like to stay out of the limelight, but the cat's out of the bag now. I couldn't say I was surprised. Going with the flow and blending into the crowd is much easier when things are organized and everyone behaves a certain way, but out here? In the Chaos? We need someone like Alex.

"You can thank him when you see him later. I wanted to ask…." Before we could continue our conversation, we were rudely interrupted by a System message. Alex POV Still nothing. I opened my eyes and let out a long breath. No matter what I did, I couldn't sense anything. Either this is much harder than I imagined, or it's impossible without a spell or skill. I'll still believe it isn't impossible, for now.

Sitting in place for so long had made my body stiff, so I got up and stretched, a pang of pain springing up from my back at that. Ouch! That back is going to be sore tomorrow, I thought, looking at my 'bed' for tonight; the floor. Speaking with the others, I had come to learn that the System Store was bare minimum with just essential stuff like food rations listed at outrageous prices. The System doesn't give a shit about comfort. I walked toward the window and looked out.

The sun had set now and the moon had yet to rise, plunging the forest into an eerie darkness. There were no light sources anywhere. Suddenly, I heard the bell sound and a screen appeared. Ding! System Clarification: Safe Area'Safe Area' designation indicates a region of statistically reduced threat density within the Tutorial environment. Absolute safety is neither implied nor guaranteed. Users are advised to respond appropriately. Clarification? Why is the System issuing a clarification?

This sounds like it made a mistake and is trying to make things clearer, but why? I read the words again, statistically reduced threat density… that implies that this isn't an actual 'safe area'; it's just safer than its surroundings? My mind went back to when I arrived in that clearing. The danger could be felt there, but as I moved towards this area, the forest started becoming calmer.

Even today, we moved for about twenty minutes before I felt a shift in the air, and didn't the other groups come back without an incident? That shows the forest is dangerous, but this area is as safe as it can be inside this forest, is that what the System is saying? But why the clarification? There has to be a reason for this message at this exact moment. My mind went back to everything that happened today.

The clearing, the snake, the walk through the forest, the rabbit, the goblin, reaching here, meeting Lucas, the walkthrough, the group discussion, the talk with Lucas, meeting Sara, separating into groups…. The talk with Lucas! I realized as a chill went down my spine. Shit!