Entering the Forest
Despite being cut out from the outside world, the economy of Euthopia was excellent. Even people who didn't work were entitled to 3 meals a day at free restaurant spread across Euthopia, so he was really confused at what he was seeing.
Six young women in their early twenties were wearing revealing outfits while smiling seductively in front of a decorated building.
At first glance anyone could tell that this was a brothel.
Ray believed that prostitutes did what they did because of the hardships they faced, not being able to eat and survive, having no other option but to take up that line of work.
He never looked badly or down on them as he felt that they did what they had to in order to survive.
But now, he was seeing prostitutes and this confused him.
'Aren't they receiving their daily meals. No....., the look on their faces...…, they might actually enjoy doing this.'
One of the prostitutes noticed his stare causing her seductive smile to brighten.
"Looks like that young man is interested." The attention of the other prostitutes shifted to him.
"Hmmmm, not bad. He has a nice body build."
"He didn't have to wear a hoody."
They began approaching him while swaying their hips seductively, and Ray who saw this, started walking away.
"Come on, don't be shy." One of them voiced out.
"We promise, you're going to have a good time." Another said out loud but Ray further widened the distance between them until he was out of sight.
"His loss." The one who had sighted him scoffed
"No. I actually think its ours."
"Maybe you're right."
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After some minutes of walking aimlessly, observing the environment he decided to check out the forest. He had studied the geography of this town so he knew the routes and location of most things, which was why he hadn't gotten lost after going around and about. Although he got a little confused at some points.
So from here he knew where the forest was.
Minutes later he arrived at his destination. It wasn't a large forest, at most having a 20km radius. The trees weren't so high either, at least from his point of view.
He contemplated whether to go in or not.
Glancing at the watch on his wrist he saw that the time was 4:56pm. "Hmm, I guess it's getting late." He decided not to go in.
After taking one last glance, he walked away.
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Somewhere in the forest,
A man dressed in a hooded cloak stood behind a tree with a smile on his face. "Well, well, I guess it's time we meet."
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Ray arrived in his room some minutes later. He didn't meet much people in the ground floor when entering. It seemed that the security had done their work.
This apartment building was top class and couldn't just be accessed by anyone, especially the higher ten floors. Even the so called brother of the man who runs this town couldn't just come in and do whatever he pleased, if not Ray would've had a lot of people awaiting his arrival.
What had happened earlier must have been a fluke.
He sat cross legged on his bed and closed his eyes. His sensei had taught him this. It was a special type of meditation which could be done by aberrants to keep the A-genes suppressed, hereby reducing the chances of an A-scale increase.
This was one of the reasons why Ray had such a low A-scale.
It was a simple yet complicated and difficult procedure. It was like a reverse flow of using abilities. Instead of just producing your abilities through the A-genes, the user has to use the abilities being produced as a sort of suppressor against the A-genes.
So rather than have the genes spread further into the body and increase the risk of him going through a mutation (changing into an abyssal), he keeps it contained.
This made the A-genes in his body more concentrated, and this could also give him as much power boost as someone whose A-genes multiplies.
This was very difficult and many aberrants would die to get an information like this although not all would be able to do it.
Ray wondered how his sensei was able to have such a technique in his grasp or even more confusing if he was the founder. But he never gave an answer whenever he asked so he decided to drop it.
After half an hour of doing this he decided to sleep.
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The next day,
Ray's eyes flickered open.
Even though this room was comfortable with every thing needed for a good night sleep, Ray felt nothing could compare to his room in the dojo.
"Maybe I'll move there after this mission," he muttered with a yawn while checking the time. "I overslept a little."
He got up from his bed and began preparing for the mission. It took him about 40 minutes before he was finally ready.
Just as he was about to sheathe the sword into the scabbard he heard a knock on his door.
He stared at the door in puzzlement. 'Is she done?' As a young lady he was expecting her to take longer.
He walked towards the door and opened it, greeted by the sight of her.
'*sigh* I better get used to this.'
He had to admit that her beauty continuously surprised him. She was dressed in shiny silver and emerald fitted longs sleeved shirt and trousers, with silver light boots. With a silver cloak which was some centimeters away from the ground with a hood.
Her white and aqua hair fell elegantly and her enchanting emerald eyes stared into his.
Ray's thoughts only lasted for a second.
"Are you sure you will be able to fight comfortably with that cloak?" He asked.
"It won't be a problem." She replied. "We should get going."
"Yeah." Ray closed his room door as they both walked towards the elevator and out of the building.
Thankfully, only six people with the exemption of the receptionists were present in the ground floor.
"So you know where the forest is?" Ray asked as they walked casually on the street.
"Yes. You don't?" She looked at him in confusion, she remembered him being hell bent on learning the routes of this town.
"It's not that. I don't want anyone knowing where we are headed to so I was hoping you could fly there why I follow a hidden route."
"Don't you think me flying would draw more attention?"
"If you fly high enough they'll think you're a bird or something," he shrugged.
A sigh escaped her cherry lips as wind began swirling around her causing her cloak and hair to dance gently which was a sight to behold.
Five seconds later she took to the sky.
"It seems like I was right," he said, remembering the figure who had saved the woman.
Without wasting anymore time, golden aura wrapped around him as he streaked away and in less than five minutes he arrived in front of the forest to see Sylph standing with her arms crossed.
'Too bad I can't fly,' Ray smiled wryly.
Although that was for now. He hasn't fully comprehend his abilities so he doesn't know what awaits him in the future.
"What do you think?" Ray asked, standing beside her.
"The forest isn't so large, roughly forty kilometers square. And the abyssal is deep within towards the east." She pointed her finger at the direction.
"Huh!" Ray was surprised how she knew the abyssal's location.
After contemplating whether to give an explanation or not, she decided to go with the former as there was no harm in doing so. "I use wind vibration to pinpoint the location of living things. But I'm not good at close range detection, so we won't rely on it when we get close."
'That's a handy ability.' He said to himself. "I see. Then we better get going."
She nodded in affirmation as they both walked into the forest.
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They walked in silence through the quiet forest which was quite unusual.
Unlike how a normal forest would , they weren't much animals here, only some birds, squirrels and burrowers were present.
'The abyssal had either killed 80 percent of them or they had a mass migration after some where killed.' He frowned.
Ray hoped it was the latter and by the look on Sylph's face she was having similar thoughts.
As they walked, Ray observed the environment and he was picking up some clues.
He saw some dead animals corpse and by the injuries they received, along with the markings on the trees and ground, he was beginning to narrow down the type of abyssal they were going to face.
"Can you still sense it?" He noticed that she was using her abilities because of the wind current.
"Yes. But we're getting deeper so it's becoming more difficult."
The more the amount of things surrounding her the more difficult it became to use her wind sensing.
They kept walking deeper into the forest while doing their own thing, until...…
"ROOOAARRR!!!"
A loud sound echoed as they both shifted their gaze to the source, which turned out to be a large tiger.