8 Sinister Whisper
The place was drown in silence.
A very comfortable silence and Nate felt very pleased with this kind of silence.
His breath was heavy and laboured.
Plus, the shocked expression from both Jack and Grayson stunned him to no end, until it got unbearable for him.
"Why are you staring at me like that?"
Nate asked and Grayson stood there, still feeling tongue tied.
Only Jack managed a sentence.
"It was an Awakened Terror? How..."
Nate just sighed because, he himself was surprised.
He had a dormant core, which certainly wouldn't awaken after this trial.
It's after the second trial that he would fully awaken his power and potential, but right now the Cosmic energy was just trying him, to see if he can survive.
Once he manages to conquer this Nightmare, then, he'd be fit for the second trial.
His attention was immediately diverted.
New set of runes hovered in the air, obscuring every other sight around.
Collection: [1]
Collection Type: [Tool]
Collection Name: [Sinister Whisper]
Collection Ranking: [Tier 1 Awakened]
This was Nate's first collection.
Collections are special artifacts that contains magical properties and enchantments, and that these collections are given on good performance of the person in question.
An Awakened collection for a dormant person like himself.
He was already doing well.
Nate stared at the Name:
[Sinister Whisper]
And then, almost immediately as though he was controlling a system, another set of runes appeared.
Collection Description:
[Sinister Whisper] - "Tales of a long forgotten kingdom drown the entire space. But one part of it remained hidden in the space, never to be remembered again."
Nate paused for a while.
His mood a bit precarious.
He wondered if the Charm was a long lost tale left behind by the Sinister Guad.
'Maybe, the creature swallowed it... Good lord what am I even saying, this is just stupid, so stupid...'
He then concentrated on the runes and another set of information was highlighted.
Enchantments:
[Wailing], [Porosity] and [Hidden space]
[Wailing]:
"It's potential cry can reach so far that it attracts all living being."
Nate's face slightly wrinkled.
"Why do I even need to attract all living being?" He wondered, abandoning that enchantment, he entered the next.
[Porosity]:
"Can hold in an enormous about of water..."
Nate sighed.
What possible facet can he achieve with this enchantment?
It was all useless.
[Hidden Space]:
"Grants the wielder the power to jump between the future and the present."
Nate blinked.
Ok, while the other two enchantments turned to be useless, this one wasn't.
Now that he possess a collection in his wake, plus a collection that enables one to hide between space for mere seconds, he should be able to hide from the enemy for that few seconds.
Seems like, he was already getting the reward of his hard work.
Finally, he dismissed the runes and his vision of the entire world returned.
Then he remembered that two dudes were still smitten with shock.
But when he looked again, they seemed to be focused on something else and Nate didn't dare interrupt them.
It might be the runes...
Who knows, because while checking the runes, his sight, his hearing... everything was centered on the runes alone, so not even a distant cry or invading monster can alert them.
And that became one problem Nate had with checking the runes.
* * *
Nate, Grayson and Jack walked between alpine groves.
All three of them were bare.
Shirtless.
And that was because, they came across one stream that was flowing downwards to Erebus, the two were a joining fragment of one.
So, they bathed in it.
They discarded their shirts, cleaned their shorts and finally headed out, bare bodied.
And this, to avoid creatures trailing behind them at the scent of blood.
Some minutes later, they reached an alcove that sloped upwards and they started to ascend the slope.
Going upwards, the soft ground was suddenly covered in stone.
The hard stone carpeting the whole place.
Nate's brows creased.
They moved further up until, they suddenly appeared where they had made camp with the other slaves.
All three of them stiffened.
"We made it back here?"
Grayson asked and of course Nate was speechless.
"We've been circulating the Donau Plateaux the whole time?" Jack asked but words failed Nate.
Suddenly, they heard quick approaching footsteps and they immediately hid behind large boulders that had combined itself in one which proffered acceptable protection from been seen by the approaching someone.
It was the Arias.
The men in bright red armor paused at the ungodly sight of half mawed bodies, torn chains and...
In fact, the whole sight was awe-consuming and frightening at the same time.
All of the slaves were dead.
But Nate was not sure that it was all of them that died.
Some might have escaped, just like they have. While some had no such luck, resulting to the grotesque sight of their mangled bodies littered on the stone floor.
The stone cold floor was smeared in fresh blood.
And by now, the day was getting brighter. The cold almost already at bay.
It was neither deadly or warming.
So, Nate and the others seemed fine.
