Chapter 3 Split

Chapter 3 Split

"Get ready!" Yelled the captain who talked to Solemn earlier. Thousands of creepy entities rushed towards everyone. Solemn felt a chill down his spine as the tension went through the roof.

With his spear Solemn got ready for the fight, he clenched the spear with all of his strength. A spider-like entity rushed towards him and he ducked and stabbed the entity in the stomach piercing through to the other side. The entity screeched as green blood came out of the injury.

Solemn then got hit in the back by giant larvae. Chise ran up and sliced the larvae in half with his sword. The larvae continued to move and charged towards Chise.

Solemn stabbed a jewel on its head and the larvae disappeared.

Solemn took a moment to catch his breath and contemplated his situation. Risk overwhelming the right flank but supporting the middle or stay here and risk more casualties.

The best option is to prevent the right flank from breaking. Solemn charged at a giant bird-like entity with two heads and three legs. Solemn thrust the spear into the chest of the entity and the entity flew up into the sky.

The entity then burned half of the left flank and flew off with the spear.

"AHHHHH!"

"HELP US!"

"SHIT!"

Solemn looked over to the left flank and saw that the entities focused there and had overwhelmed them. People were being torn apart as they screamed for help. Burnt bodies lay there lifeless being eaten by the entities. "RETREAT!" The Right flank and middle retreated back to the base, it was chaos as the left flank had been mostly killed and around 40% of the middle had survived.

But as they made their way back they saw the base had already been overrun. "God Damn it. What now." Some people plopped on the ground crying and accepting their fate.

The captain Slammed the tree and with a shaky voice said "Everyone, go into your original teams and spread out. Let's hope one of us lives and finds an exit."

"What the hell, this was supposed to be a level 3.5 mission, not a level 6!" Chise gestured to John, Solemn, and Micheal to follow.

Solemn and the others ran through the forest for a while and found a slide. "Hey Chise, should we go down,"

"It's our only choice Solemn." A giant entity found them and charged towards John. The four of them then hopped down the green slide and slid down for 52 minutes.

This slide is so long, when will it end? Solemn and the others flew out of the slide into a ball pit. Solemn looked around and saw that he was in a playground area but there were no entities in sight.

There was children's music playing in the background. There is music playing! That means there must be electricity.

"How is music playing without a person playing it?" Chise got out of the ball pit followed by the others and started to look around.

Oh yeah, the world I lived in before had electricity while this one didn't. A blue screen popped up saying,

"System notice

Plane Name: Inocience

Age: infinite

Status: not owned

Authority: available

Type: confined, Lawful, neutral

Effects: healing 2x, strength ½x, speed 3x, intelligence 1x

Summary:A large playground that is the size of a large warehouse."

John jumped back and said, "Can you see this too?"

"yes." replied everyone.

"An authority is an item so there must be an item in here that can control this plane. This means we have a chance to escape." Everyone considered what Solemn said

"Michael you're with me, John you're with Solemn. Now solitude and look for the authority."

After a while of running around the playground, Solemn and John bumped into Chise and Micheal. "Why are you guys here?"

"I would like to ask the same question."

"System notice

Too much of me and all is too close, too little of me and all is too far. What am I?"

Solemn and the others pondered over this until Solemn said, "Gravity.:

"System notice

I am made to slowly die from mistakes, what am I?"

Solemn then said, "An eraser."

"System notice

There was a boat full of people but at the same time there was not a single person in it, why?"

Solemn then spoke up again and said, "They are all married."

"System notice

What am I? I am always positive even in the hardest of times."

Micheal spoke up and said, "Absolute values."

"System notice

I reach high in the sky, built to honor the gods. I am asleep in the sand. What am I?"

Solemn spoke up and said, "You are the pyramids."

"System notice

Would you like to form a party?"

All four clicked yes and in a game, UI showed up showing everyone's information. The UI had messaging, mapping, and information.

"System notice

Processing transfer of authority."

A bright dazzling star appeared in front of Solemn as all four took a step back admiring the beauty of the spectacle.

The Star turned into a plastic ball that seemed to have a night sky inside it. Woah, I did not know that this could happen. I have only heard of there being 132 authorities officially known.

I wonder what this authority's power is, after all every authority has a unique power.

"System notice

Authority

Name: Innocence

Age: Infinite

Level: 3

Power: Allows the owner to gain the trust of any living organism considered to be a child. Works best on Homosapien's ages 6-10."

Thank god I got this and not any of the others since I am technically a child.

Solemn looked at the ball in his hand in awe and surprise. Chise inspected the ball and verified that it was authentic. "A level three authority is pretty good as the watch we had was only level one. I have heard that authorities can go up to level 100, but that is only in legends."

I do wonder why authorities work. Like why do these random objects have these magical effects? Apparently, this is a common question with no answer. To think of it I have noticed many similarities between my previous world and this world but that's just a coincidence.

Solemn put the authority in his pocket and opened a gate from the creepy building where the gate was originally and the plane. There were many knights and other people there investigating the scene, an old man in a light brown coat smoking a cigar was in the middle talking to many others who seemed to be important officials.

The old man spotted the gate opening and pointed it out to the others. Everyone jumped back and got ready for a fight. Chise, John, Micheal, and Solemn walked out of the gate and everyone lowered their guard.

The old man came forward and shook Chise's hand. " Hello Chise, I hope your mission was not a failure."

"87 dead, 27 wounded, 12 missing, 43 alive."

After Chise said this everyone froze, and the atmosphere became gloomy. "Where are the others?"

"We used an authority to escape."

The old man started to contemplate the situation and made a gesture to the others. After a couple of minutes of Chise explaining what happened about a thousand guards made their way into the gate fully geared.

"Come on let's go to the headquarters."

The old man made a gesture to follow.

"As I see two new faces I will introduce myself, I am the supreme general of all military forces. My name is Grand Sage, and yet I am not a sage."

Micheal slowed down to go side by side with Solemn and asked him, "Do you still have the authority?"

"Yes."

After a while of walking, they made it to the headquarters which was on the 3rd to top floor. The floor was full of greenery and the building was giant and had the style of medieval Germany.

"You three can wait in the lobby as I talk to Damon."

The old man led Solemn to a greenhouse and sat down. "So, I would like to trade authorities. Authorities are almost impossible to find unless you have the skill needed, but we can't get a plane for ourselves since we are limited by the entities. I will give you the authority Book Worm."

"The authority is able to store any book in a pocket dimension that opens when you open the book. The space only works for books but it is still useful, would you like to trade?"

Well, I do have no use for the authority plus I do enjoy collecting books. "Sure." Solemn handed the old man his authority and the old man handed him a book that looked like a forest was on the cover.

"Thank you." The old man pocketed the ball and shook Solemn's hand.

…

Chise was cleaning the counter getting ready for the rush hour. "So why did you order over a hundred books with the mission reward money?" Solemn froze and tried to sneak away.

Chise grabbed the collar of Solemn's shirt and brought him back. "I am only curious."

Solemn chuckled nervously and brought out the authority he got from the general. Chisr immediately understood and also tipped a wine glass on the wall. The wall turned and on the other side, there was a display of limited edition playing cards, wine, and wine glasses.

"It seems that I am not the only one who is a collector, so how much is that wall worth."

Chise tipped another wine glass and the wall went back to normal. "Around 128k cam."

HOLY SHIT! What does this guy get paid?! Solemn jumped back and stared at Chise with wide eyes.

"Damon you can't judge me, you spent 38k cam on books. Did you even leave any money left?"

Solemn crossed his arms. "Yes, I have 4k cam left. So what is the casualty rate?" Chise who was polishing a glass frowned as he recalled what the general had told him. " 132 dead, 28 wounded, the rest are alive. But hey, at least we got promoted from a level 1 team to a level 3 which is the highest. We were promoted since we were the only ones with a 0% casualty rate."

"You know adding that good news won't help."

Chise shouted for John to take over as he led Solemn out to the forest. "Why bring me out here?"

Solemn wanted to know why Chise had brought him out here. "I brought you out here to train." Chise tossed a spear toward Solemn.

"The first thing I'm going to teach you is core theory. Core theory is a technique where you use the weight of your body to turn, attack, and dodge better. I am going to show you how it looks."

Chise began to cut up some trees in a fluid yet aggressive manner. Up in the trees, there was a girl with dark green hair in a side ponytail watching while smiling. I knew that you were alive, so this is where you have been. I can't believe he is with Solemn.

The girl watched for a while as they trained. "You will be training with me every day from now on."

Solemn who was lying on the floor catching his breath groaned as he heard the unpleasant news. "Do you want me to die?" Captain is such an asshole, what sane person makes a child attempt to lift over 500 pounds.

I was almost squished like a grape with five stones. Well, that joke wasn't funny but oh well. Solemn and Chise both walked back to the bar, "Did you know that ice can only help with numbing the pain but will slow the process down, so don't use ice and suck it up."

What a heartless response, even Melicine had more of a heart than Chise. I do have a theory that there was an ancient civilization that was more advanced but the cataclysm destroyed it. It would explain why people say things like OK and other things that should not be around in a world like this.

Plus their technology is so random, there are factories but there still are no crossbows or guns or cannons. The social trends are also pretty random as everyone wears dresses and suits but there are modern things like T-shirts which people wear at home.

People here do not use shampoo but rather magical devices. Even though only some people are taught magic everyone can inject at least a bit of magic into the devices.

Come to think of it I wonder why there are so few magical inventions given the world is so old. "Hello? Reality to Damon." Chise waved his hand in front of Solemn who was lost in thought.

Solemn snapped out of his daze and apologized. It was dark out and the Medieval style buildings were basking in the moonlight. Solemn could hear the lively and crowded bar from outside.

As the two walked in the bell went off and John looked up, "There are the two ditchers." The bar was packed with people, all talking, laughing, and having a great time. The air was thick with the smell of alcohol, cigarette smoke, and sweat. The music was loud and upbeat, with bards playing on a stage as everyone danced. The walls were plastered with bounties and news, and the chandeliers gave off a warm light. John was busy pouring drinks and taking orders, while Micheal weaved his way through the crowd, balancing trays of food and drinks. People were standing shoulder to shoulder, shouting over the noise to be heard, and clinking glasses in celebration. The energy in the air was welcoming and active, with everyone caught up in the moment and enjoying the lively atmosphere.

One of the tables was being used as a wrestling arena as people bet on who would win. Two people were competing against each other, one was a muscleuly (idk how to spell that •_•) old man who was bald and wore butler attire, with a long white beard and mustache. He was twice the size of the other guy who was also a giant at a height of 7'4. He had black hair and two yellow stripes on his hair, he was smoking a cigarette.

With a downward movement of an arm, the two wrestled before the old man threw the other out but not before the other guy latched onto the old man sending both flying. The crowd was lively and cheering as the two started to punch each other. The two got up and the old man wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, they shook hands and sat down.

"Looks like you two tied again." Chise walked up to the two and started to chat with them. Solemn made his way back to the backroom and went into his room. Solemn went to sleep and found himself in an infinite plane where the floor was clouds. The sky was light blue but there was no sun, the plane had the perfect temperature with a little wind that made Solemn want to go to sleep in the perfect weather.

The clouds were more like cotton and were very comfortable. "It worked?!"

Melicine who was sitting cross-legged was looking at Solemn in surprise and excitement. "How did you do this?" Melicine pulled out a pillow that looked like a fluffy cloud. "I stole this from a high-ranking noble who visited the orphanage."

Melicine sighed

"The pillow is an authority and it needs cotton to work, luckily I found this information in one of your books before he came. The good thing is that the idiot did not know what the pillow was. I thought of you and you appeared."

Melicine stood up and smiled. "So, how was your day?"

"Well, I was stuck in an infinite hell hole then I traded authorities then I bought 38k cam worth of books and I saw an old guy throw someone."

Melicine stood there stunned. Solemn then explained his day in more detail. "So what about you, what did you do?"

"I just went through your stuff, oh and you know that cave, I put everything in there. I also spied on that training of yours."

Wait she did? I need to get better at sensing my surroundings. The two chatted about their memories for a while before Solemn woke up.