28 Chapter 28 - Sorting out, New World.
I shouldn't focus on my personality anymore. I need to consolidate my goal, then focus on just doing things and getting strong. I should stop thinking about myself. That's it.
While he was lost in thought, the smell of an ancient town welcomed Jeemin's olfactory senses.
[Since Adaptation Zone had been concluded, overall amplification has been lifted up.]
His body froze up from the oppressive feeling shrouding the entire place. The wind gently blew as he felt cold.
Caw, caw, caw, caw...
His skin crawled when he heard the crows in the gray sky cawing nonstop. It wouldn't have been creepy if it was only that. But only the cawing crows, gust of wind occasionally blowing from time to time, and creaking doors were the only sounds he could hear.
What's worse was that the dilapidated wooden houses around him made the overall atmosphere bleak and gloomy.
Everything was in ruin. It was like he was at the center of an abandoned settlement, deteriorating from neglect and nature's reclamation.
Jeemin looked down and saw the dark and dried up soil. There were cracks on the surface of the ground as if it had suffered from thousand years of drought.
There was a sun hanging on the sky but what was bizzare was he couldn't feel its heat. Its light didn't even hurt his eyes even though he was staring directly at it.
The surrounding environment was lit just enough so that he could see the wooden houses that already fell into ruins.
Those that could be considered in a relatively good condition were those houses that still had roofs.
There were no visible people around. When he swept his gaze from his position a couple of times, he determined that it was highly likely that he's the only person in town.
"But why?"
In front of him was a road that was neither wide nor narrow, surrounded by wooden houses from left and right.
While his forehead was creased, he walked towards one of the houses that still had a roof on his left.
*
Creak.
The door creaked the moment his hand made contact on its surface. When he pushed it forward just enough so that he could slid inside the gap, the wooden door suddenly fell down.
Thud.
Jeemin's hairs on the back of his neck stood on end when the noise was loud enough that it even echoed outside.
He stiffly lifted his head up from the fallen door towards the table inside the old wooden house.
His eyes widened in shock as he staggered back.
"I-I'm sorry f-for i-intruding."
Jeemin bowed while the corner of his eyes were looking at the figure's back sitting on a chair.
The figure was wearing a black shabby robe with a hood making its gender hard to determine.
Beads of sweat trickled down from Jeemin's forehead as he waited for a response.
"I-I'm just a roaming around, and I accidentally went inside, I'm not trying to steal anything."
He explained while he gradually frowned.
The figure neither reacted nor responded.
Now that his eyes adjusted from the dimly lit house, the figure wasn't even moving.
He took a gulp, hesitated for a bit, and tiptoed inside while holding his breath.
Jeemin's heart pounded hard as he went closer to the figure wearing a shabby grey hooded robe.
His hand were sweating like waterfalls when he was about an arm's length away from the back of the figure.
The figure's shabby robe fluttered when the wind blew from the outside.
Creak.
Suddenly, the wooden floor that Jeemin was stepping on creaked. His heart got stuck on his throat as he stopped moving.
But when the figure still didn't make any move, he decided to not care about making any noise anymore as he took a look at its face.
He expected to see an old man, however, what he saw made him gasped.
The figure was only a skeleton wearing a shabby robe.
Its skull had cracks on its surface and its skeletal hands were resting on the table as if it was thinking.
Its empty eye sockets were specially giving him chills, as if it was alive and looking at him.
Jeemin stopped himself from shivering from the creeps caressing his spine.
He breathed through his mouth and calmed down. Then, he recalled some of the things in the novels he have read.
Jeemin bowed down.
"May your soul rest in peace."
Who knows, he might gain something doing this. He then found himself another chair and sat down.
"I'll just organize and make a rough outline of what are the things I'll do, so forgive my impertinence."
He bowed his head towards the skeleton sitting across the table once more and took out his golden pouch.
*
Jeemin blew the dust away on the table and placed several vials he took out from the golden pouch. He then placed various equipments beside it.
In the end, he removed everything inside the golden pouch besides the golden chest and seven normal pouches; since their only function were to store items.
But the moment he took out the greatsword, it immediately fell on the floor. To the point that the wooden floor cracked and the greatsword fell halfway to the ground.
"Eughhh."
He heaved a deep breath and pulled the greatsword up. However, he frowned while panting.
His heart thumped hard as he urged the Origin in his palm to activate.
But nothing happened. What's more startling was, he can't feel the presence of the Origin inside his palm.
Jeemin brought his palm closer to his eyes and examined it. His palm looks normal, nothing out of the blue. The only thing he could see were the outlines of his handprint.
Then, it was at this moment a piece of memory was juggled out of his mind.
[Since Adaptation Zone had been concluded, overall amplification has been lifted up.]
It was a memory from the moment his vision went clear. He was too startled when he saw the ruined town and gray sky that he had been distracted from noticing it.
Now that he thought of it, it was really strange how he could run continuously with only short amount of rest.
The recovery of his muscles also seemed fast. Since he could swing the greatsword around mindlessly at the desert after being worked out from the forest when they were being pursued.
He stared at the wooden roof full of cobwebs for awhile and paced back and forth as he thought.
Jeemin then took out his golden pouch, held it upside down, then inserted its mouth on the greatword's hilt.
A broad grinned emerged from his face when the hilt went inside. He pulled it down until half of its body was already 'devoured' inside the pouch.
When he reached the wooden floor, he hesitated for awhile. He scanned what's below the hole and swept his gaze around the dark narrow underground, then after determining nothing was strange, he pulled down the golden pouch until it completely devoured the greatsword.
"Huff."
Jeemin scratched and shook his head.
"I guess I can't rely on my Origin anymore. Maybe the reason I can use it, even though Mili said I only absorbed half it, was because from the overall amplification from the Adaptation Zone."
He sighed after knowing that he had no idea when he's going to be able to completely absorb it.
Jeemin checked the golden pouch again, however, his face soon turned weird.
There were eight dark blue stone inside, each of them the size of a fist.
He took it out and examined one of it closely.
His forehead creased for a moment before he muttered, "Credits."
Nothing happened.
"Maybe credits only exist in the adaptation zone?"
He remembered getting 1000 credits from accomplishing the task of escaping the forest and 7000 credits when he finished the Ape King task; which totalled 8000 credits.
"So 8000 credits became these eight dark blue stones?"
He sniffed it a bit before putting it back. Since he didn't know what it is nor what's is for, there's no use making random guesses.
His eyes then turned towards the item placed on the top of the table.
Jeemin waited for that thing to appear.
[Information Bank]
[High Grade Healing Potion]
-Heals grave wounds.
[Divine Phoenix's Blood]
-Increase Lifespan by 100 years.
[High Grade Mana Potion]
-Regain Massive Mana that was lost.
[Primordial Divine Potion]
-Permanently increase Mana's limit.
[Berserker Potion]
-Permanently increase power by 100%(Warning: Chances of losing one's mind is high).
[Essence of Wind Potion]
-Permanently increase agility by 100%.
[Eye of Medusa]
-Permanently increase defense by 100%(Warning: Chances of being turned into stone is high).
[High Training Booster] x2
-Increases training results by 6 times. Duration 1 month.
[Medium Training Booster]
-Increases training results by 3 times. Duration 15 days.
[Low Training Booster]
-Increases training results by 1.5 times. Duration 8 days.
[Low healing potion]
-Heals small injuries.
[Low mana potion]
-Recover slight mana lost.
[Essence of Power]
-Permanently increase power by 25%.
[Essence of Agility]
-Permanently increase agility by 25%
[Essence of Defense]
-Permanently increase defense by 25%
[Essence of Mana]
-Permanently increase mana slightly.
His eyes widened in suprise as he never thought how useful the treasures he gained from the mansion full traps.
He narrowed his eyes and carefully read every description of the items.
It took him an hour to finalized what he will do with these items, especially about the vials responsible for raising his stats.
"I should only use these if I hit a bottleneck, especially if I can't increase my power, agility, and defense anymore."
Jeemin then kept all of them inside the pouch.
His heart pounded from excitement when he held the vial containing white liquid.
[Low Training Booster]
-Increases training results by 1.5 times. Duration 8 days.
"I need to find a place to train soon and plan my training regimen."
His eyes sparkled when he found that he even had medium training booster and high training booster.
After putting them back, he stared at the table again.
[Information bank]
[Magic Reinforced Spear]
Grade: H-1
Class: Warrior
Type: Spear
Durability: 100/100
Element: Dark
Weapon Skill: Mana Fix - mana can restore durability
[Silver Staff]
Grade: H-1
Class: Warrior
Type: Staff
Durability: 100/100
Attributes: None
Effects: None
Weapon Skill: (2)
Elongate and Expand
When he casted his gaze on the bronze spear besides the black spear, nothing appeared.
"It's either the bronze spear was too special or it was too common that the information bank didn't display any information about it."
He's inclined to believe that it was the latter.
Jeemin held the cold black spear on his hand, called mana Reinforced spear. It was quite heavy.
He lightly threw a thrust forward.
"I'll focus on using spear for now."
Afterwards, he kept the staff and two spears on his pouch.
Jeemin took a glance at the skeleton who was sitting across the table before examining the remaining items again.
[Earrings of Bahamuth]
Grade: H-1
Class: Universal
Type: Accessories
Durability: 100/100
Element: None
Weapon Skill:
Increases sound sensitivity(Passive Skill)
[Gorger's Mask]
Grade: H-1
Class: Universal
Type: Accessories
Durability: 100/100
Element: None
Weapon Skill:
Devour - Able to eat any raw meat without side-effects.
Jeemin frowned when no information appeared about the silver ring next to the two so-called accessories.
He wore the black earrings immediately but kept the mask and ring on his pouch.
Jeemin thought for a moment before removing his black face mask.
"I'm sure, people at the adaptation zone will recognise me as the one who always wore a mask, it's better to remove it."
The remaining items on the table were the incomplete map of the adaptation zone's stages, gold bar, tattered shield, old pair of boots, chopping board, leather vest, dusty bottled wine, broken sword, and a rotten apple.
After sorting all of them, he kept them inside the pouch and took out the mana jack and his phone.
When he plugged the jack on the phone and imbued it with mana, the phone's screen flashed, indication of being charged.
After several minutes, Jeemin turned on the phone and smiled.
He clicked the notepad and wrote every item he had. Afterwards, he scanned the gloomy house and saw a cabinet.
Jeemin saw several clothes that fit him. Suprisingly, although they an aged scent, they weren't dirty. He stuffed all of them and changed his black jacket to a simple gray shirt.
He also tied his hair up into a man bun.
When he finished having a new look, he went towards the skeleton sitting on the chair.
He bowed down and hesitated for a moment. After scratching his hair, he took out the rotten apple from his pouch and the low potion.
Jeemin inserted his index finger on the low potion and wiped it on the rotten apple.
He grinned after seeing the rotten apple becoming red.
"I took some of the clothes at the cabinet and this is all I can give, pardon my intrusion. May your soul rest in peace."
After putting the apple in front of the skeleton, he left the house.
But the moment he left the house, the skeleton's skull slowly turned towards his direction and nodded.
It then caress the apple in front of it before turning its gaze in front. Its gaze seemingly crossing thousands upon thousands of distance away.
*
Jeemin roamed around the ruined town for hours.
At the back and left were mountain ranges, in front and the right are where the forests are located.
He decided to head north since the forest at the left direction are bare and creepy.
Jeemin even heard a loud roar coming from that direction that made his scalp numb.
When he lifted his head up after scanning the forest in front of him, he was stunned.
There were two huge and massive mountain from left and right, beyond the dark green forest.
He fixed his gaze on the left mountain and nodded to himself. It was closer compared to the one on the right.
The moment he went inside the forest, he immediately notice the sky changed. He squinted his eyes from the sudden intrusion of not-so-glaring bright light from the blue sky reflected in his eyes.
When his eyes adjusted, he creased his forehead for a bit and glanced back.
However, the moment he did, his eyes widened in shock.
The town disappeared!
Only the endless forest greeted him.
His heart pounded from nervousness as he walked back.
At this point, he should have already reached the outskirts of the town, but he was still inside the dark green forest no matter how he went back.
Gulped.
After taking several gulps, he breathed in and out to calm himself down.
Since the ruined town disappeared, and he had no idea why that happened, he can only move forward and head towards the mountain. Dwelling on unknown things would only waste his time.
But he didn't forget to look back and gave a light bow, before continuing on his journey.
*
The forest was endless. Everywhere he looks, he was surrounded by towering trees. But there were also trees that are just tall enough to be climbable.
Along the way he spotted weird plants here and there.
The mushrooms were flickering with light. Some flowers felt even alive as they would sway towards his direction whenever he got near them.
If there was one rule you should follow when travelling inside an unknown forest, you should keep your curiosity to yourself and avoid touching foreign plants around. He kept this in mind while his eyes wandered around with curiosity.
Jeemin continued forward while raising his alertness as to spot any sudden movements that might put him in danger.
But he couldn't help admiring the forest. It was just too beautiful.
The grasses were soft as it brush past his jeans and the flowers were colorful. Those strange mushrooms growing on the trunk of the trees filled him with curiosity.
Luckily, there were no vines around. He'd probably run right now if he ever saw one. For some reason, he would shiver whenever he thought of dangling vines hanging on the trees.
"Huff, haa."
The air was fresh. However, the more he walked forward the more he could smell a hint of bloody scent drifting towards him.
He stopped in his tracks and stood still.
Only now he noticed that there were no chirping birds. There were no insects making strange sounds. It was completely silent.
Jeemin swallowed his dry saliva and thought what is the reason why are there no animals nor sounds of animals around the forest. He already spent hours walking straight in the forest, his back soaked in cold sweat, but there were still no signs of life.
Although it really felt that he was sent to another world with different ecosystem, the strange stillness and quietness of the forest isn't a good news.
Those things only happened when some lifeforms are threatened by something and hid themselves completely.
Even on the surface of the moist ground, there were no insects nor worms crawling around.
Hours passed by and the sky gradually turned orange.
"It looks like the time here is the same as in the Earth."
Jeemin glance at the sky and continued moving forward.
Although the air was fresh and everything is peaceful, his heart was stuck on his throat as his body was tensed up.
In a completely foreign environment crawling with unknown lifeforms that he know nothing about, who wouldn't get nervous?
Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes when he spotted a figure of a human being several meters away from him.
At first he was just trotting towards its direction, but maybe from his excitement of seeing a human being like him after hours of walking around alone in an unknown environment, he started to ran fast.
But when he got closer, his face suddenly contorted when the figure finally became clear in his view.
