33 The town which grew out the mountain

"What are you talking about?" Aiden glared at Lyla, "What is with the friend? Why am I not a human?"

Aiden did not have a memory of what Adi did when he was unconscious. So it was natural that he could not understand the sarcasm of Lyla.

Lyla glared back at him, "Didn't you call your S-graded beast and that devil to save you?"

"Why do you think I did?" Aiden frowned, "Who gave you the idea that I could even do that?"

"Who?" Lyla's sudden outburst startled Aiden, "That thing said to me. And he's the one who took all the people away from here. He's the one who did this to Enric and the others."

'Did Adi take away all the humans? Why? No, no, for an S-grade beast to do something like this is expected.' For him, it was more surprising that Adi didn't kill them all.

Yet, Lyla's reaction confused Aiden most. "What the hell does this have to do with me?"

"That is the question you should answer. Why are you asking me?" Her face was visibly red from rage.

"Idiot." Aiden cursed her face, and Lyla was angrier. But he couldn't care less about that. Aiden turned around, and he was about to leave.

He had no intention of wasting any more time on them. He came for credit points, to begin with, and he had done his job. Even if he felt sorry for Enric and others, there was nothing he could do about them.

"Where are you going?" Lyla screamed.

"I am leaving because I have nothing to say to you. The mission I have been hired for is over."

"And what about them?"

"Huh?" Aiden stopped and turned towards Lyla, "What about them? Why should I worry about them? They should be happy that they were alive after facing an S-graded beast."

"Yes, the beast you have called."

"Really?" Aiden couldn't help but laugh at her ignorance, "Do you think I could call an S-graded beast?"

Aiden shook his head before explaining, "Listen, Adi was the one who chose to save me, not the other way around. And if I can get Adi to do the things I want, you think you'd have to live to say those words to me."

Looking at Lyla's expression, Aiden put up a smile, "what are you glaring at? You attacked me as soon as the mission is over. Do you think you can say those words to me?"

"I didn't attack you." Her voice was weak but she protested.

"Your team-member did." Aiden added with a smile, "And she is your friend too. You should be held responsible for what she did."

Lyla stared at him with red eyes, "But you killed Alex first."

'It is the same words all over again. Like you didn't know when you hired me.' Aiden wanted to say but chose not to have a childish argument.

"Captain, let's not argue about it anymore." Aiden spoke in a calm voice, "I don't know what Adi had said to you, but I have no way to contact him. Neither I have any intention to."

"You can believe whatever you want, I have no problem with that. But let me warn you." His tone changed in the blink, sending a chill down Lyla's spine. She unconsciously took a step back when she looked at his eyes.

"If I see any of you before the end of the task period, I'm not going to be as forgiving as some S-graded beast."

After he recovered his blade, Aiden walked towards Elijah. Elijah had yet to regain her conscience. Soon Aiden was standing in front of her with a blade above her head.

"You…" Lyla screamed. Understanding the intention of Aiden, she charged at him. "Stop it."

Without an innate skill like [Blink], she would never have been able to reach him in time. And Aiden hasn't been waiting for her. But she wasn't the only one who was trying to stop Aiden.

[The host is requested to refrain from killing Vice-captain Elijah.]

'Didn't you give the same notification to her? Yet she still attacked me.' Aiden cursed in his heart but didn't stop his attack.

[With the previous record, if the host kills the Vice-captain Elijah, the host will lose the authority to use ESS.]

'What?' Aiden was too shocked. On top of that, it was too late to stop his attack.

*AHHhhhhhh*

Nobody knew whether it was the pain that woke her up, or whether she woke up before she received the wound. No matter what the sequence, Elijah fell to the ground to lose consciousness again.

[The host has activated innate skill [Zone]]

[1.5759]

[The host has activated innate skill [Blink]]

[1.3789]

'Have you got anything against me?' He wanted to ask, but Aiden wasn't worried about it. 'Didn't she die right?' Even if he never expected to ask such a question, still he asked with a fearful heart.

[Vice Captain Elijah is in a critical state.]

Aiden was sighing in his heart. He knew very well that it would be a disaster for him to lose the ESS, especially after he lost the dog tag of the PADS-X.

On the other hand, Lyla, who assaulted Aiden, hit nothing but air. She glared at Aiden, who appeared about 15 meters away from her, before turning to Elijah.

The deep smell of blood made her sick, but she cried out, "Sara, quick."

Elijah had a deep gash from below her throat reaching till her waist. And blood was showing no sign of stopping. Lyla quickly took out a potion and poured in her wound.

She cast a healing spell on Elijah as soon as Sara reached her. It took a while before Elijah 's breathing became normal again.

"What are you doing?" Lyla cried as soon as she stood up.

"That is the question you should have asked when she attacked me." Aiden didn't have any intention of wasting any more time here. "Relay the words for me. If she tries something funny against me, she will not be returning to Planet Will."

[The host has activated innate skill [Light Foot]]

Aiden could hear Lyla's scream as he vanished in the dark.

*************

20 days after the incident.

Day 43 of the mission.

Aiden ran through the dark grey forest holding something bright in his hand. There was no beast chasing him, and there was no beast in front of him. Yet Aiden was unable to calm his mind.

'There must be something wrong with that.' Aiden had a feeling about it. The forest is void of any life, beast or insect. It was supposed to be a good thing, but Aiden found the eerie silence quite suffocating.

It's not just today. After coming back from the city of Irupax, Aiden rested for one day. He decided to go hunting for mana crystal from the next day until the end of the task period.

He got 8 on the first day, 15 on the next day, and had almost 35 mana crystals in the first four days. Then it happened.

No matter how much Aiden looked into he could find no beast on the next day. As they had vanished in the air. No matter how much Aiden looked for it he could not find a single living being in the forest for the next five days.

Owen and he would wake up every day, spend their lives in leisure and went back to sleep when they were informed by the system. Aiden could no longer take it. And on the tenth day, he left for Owen's shuttle pod, for food and medicine, with Owen.

Owen's shuttle pod was located 30 km from Levi's shuttle pod. But during the journey, they couldn't find any living beasts.

After living in the suffocating silence for nearly two weeks, Aiden took out Jewel 's City-light and left to find the human settlement.

Aiden had already been running for 150 km with the city light in his hand. No matter where he went the forest was the same everywhere. But soon a change occurred.

'Here the sky is a little brighter.' As Aiden turned to the sky, he found it was still covered with grey clouds, but now the blanket of the cloud was much thinner. And it wasn't just the cloud which was thinner, so were the trees.

"Could I be close to the city?" Beholding the guiding light inside the much brighter 'city light,' Aiden mumbled.

He stopped for a moment. Putting his hand close to the blade he cautiously moved forward. And before his eyes, the scenery changed.

The pale indigo sky peeled out of the grey cloud. Aiden couldn't help but squint his eyes even though it wasn't too bright. After nearly a month, Aiden met with the Sun.

Aiden quickly turned back in fear that the forest would vanish like the paradise of Adi. Looking at the gloomy dark forest behind him, Aiden sighed in relief.

Aiden crouched down to touch the green grass beneath his legs. "It feels so soft," Being brought up in the desert, this is the first time he's seen something so beautiful.

"The trees are too green." Unknowingly, a smile appeared on his face as he looked at the rows of trees in front of him. He couldn't stop himself from walking.

The grey cloud soon disappeared from the sky. It exposed a beautiful blue sky with white and soft clouds of cotton. "It's so lovely."

*Shhee*

But the tree shook not too far off him. Aiden bent by instinct to lower his centre of mass while grabbing the blade. He was ready to pounce on the enemy but the ESS showed no red outline, but rather...

[Name: South Andean Deer.

Grade: None.

Element: None.

Feature: Extra large.

Weakness: Everything.

Comment: 'What are you afraid of?']

Aiden was staring at the deer. This is the first time that Aiden has seen something that is almost a replica of the beast he had seen back in Planet Will. The only difference was that it was as tall as a horse.

Even though it was big, it still was a coward. It ran back into the forest once it turned toward Aiden. Aiden broke into the smile looking at it.

Aiden couldn't believe his eyes as he looked around. Whether it was because he was too tense before or for any other reason, Aiden had no idea how he missed the giant thing.

The two buildings were so high that Aiden's neck was strained as he tried to look at its top. They weren't in top condition, but they were still standing with each other's support.

The top of the building supported each other at the top while forming an 'A' between them. Aiden felt that they might fall with a strong wind. It didn't move an inch, though.

Taking a final look at the city light, Aiden ran between the two buildings, frightening all the deers and horned rabbits in the process. When the strong light had greeted him from the end of the forest, Aiden could no longer control himself.

And he was stopped as he came out of the forest. That was the edge of the cliff. A mighty wind broke his trance. He was mesmerized by the view in front of him.

There was a snow-capped mountain range on the horizon. And the long stretch of the green valley between the cliff and the mountain was not something that Aiden had seen before.

"It looked like the tree of Adi's paradise, but ..." The rest of the giant tree, in the middle of the valley, was about the size of Adi's. Aiden had no idea who took the upper part of it. There was still the lower trunk of the giant tree, deeply rooted in the ground.

But it was the mountain at the end of the valley that captivated Aiden most. Similar to the tree, it was cut in half, too. Instead of being cleaved from the root, the mountain was divided into two, with a clean slash from top to bottom.

And the city, the one to which 'City-light' was directed, grew out of space between the two parts of the mountain.