Chapter 29: Just A Touch

It took Neo almost an hour to get to Grimstone and although he was able to confirm what the place was just as he got to the entrance, he wasn't able to enter the town as he was suddenly pulled to the side, to a dark corner by someone who suddenly grabbed him with a firm grip.

That was the reason why at the moment, he had his back against a huge rock outside the town with three men equipped with daggers staring at him with ravaging eyes.

The one in the middle had some sort of dim essence core powered lamp in his hand to avoid drawing the attention of anyone passing by.

The man had long dark hair, his dark eyes sunken like two empty wells, staring out with a mix of depression and fatigue. His skin was pale and scrawny, with a hint of grayish blue, like a withered leaf. Deep lines and wrinkles etched his face and his lips dry and cracked, a perfect representation of his life in the dark zone.

Neo had never seen such a haggard-looking person in his life before but at least he looked better than the two beside him as he had a decent-looking hooded black cloak covering his body.

The two who appeared to be his subordinates were in tattered outfits that would pass with flying colors in an examination for rags, and in the current freezing conditions, Neo could only imagine the kind of torture their bodies were enduring.

"Hey, you." Their leader sneered, the wrinkles on his face conjoining. "Hand over everything." He demanded, pushing his dagger closer to Neo's face.

His ravaging eyes were ready to consume the boy at any moment should he make the wrong move, the desperation in his eyes was adamant.

However, Neo could tell something, these were amateurs, if they weren't, they would have already attempted to force anything he had with him out of him.

They were probably doing this because they were desperate for something to eat and had no other choice.

'Can't they just leave this place if it's this hard for them to survive?' Neo wondered, ignoring what the man just said to him.

"Hey, punk, did you get that?" The man's voice resounded in annoyance but still, there was no response from Neo who just stared at him with his cold eyes, his blank expression unmoving.

"Oh, I see you're eager to get your ass dragged around." One of the subordinates remarked.

Unable to tolerate the disrespect he believed he was receiving at the moment, the eyes of their leader imploded in rage as he thrust his dagger forward, aiming for his target's shoulder.

He believed he had him, but just as the blade got close to almost striking Neo, he ended up hitting nothing but air.

"Huh?"

His mouth was forced shot just as those words left his lip as he felt a crushing force hit his jaw up, forcefully crashing his teeth against each other, crushing some of them in the process.

The pain was excruciating but before he could even react to that, he felt a deep thrusting pain down his gut, pushing him back and forcing out a splatter of blood out of his mouth.

"Owww…owww." The man groaned as he crashed to the floor, clutching onto his bleeding mouth and his stomach.

The light he was holding, happened to have fallen off his hand at that moment, and without hesitation, Neo stepped forward and crushed it with his foot, restoring the total darkness that looked over the area.

The other two suddenly froze the moment they saw their leader get thrown down to the floor like that, and just as they were staring at him in disbelief, the lights went out.

A shrill run down his spine at that moment as both of them looked around frantically before looking ahead toward the lamppost in front of the town entrance.

That was their only guide to escape from the dilemma they had just gotten themselves into, however, just before they could start making their move, the one on the right felt a swift brush of the wind against his face and just after that, Neo's face slammed against, instantly slamming his head down.

The other one had already taken off, ignoring the cry of his mate but before he could get far, he felt a hand grab his head from behind.

The level of horror he felt at that moment was something he had never felt before, his heart had sunken deep into his stomach.

"Please…."

His attempt at pleading for help was stifled as his head was dragged down and slammed into the ground with great force, crushing his nose and jaw as blood slowly slipped out of his nose and mouth.

"Ughhh." He grunted in a hoarse voice before eventually passing out.

Now that that was done, Neo let out a sigh before turning to the other two who were also unconscious.

"You guys probably don't have any money with you but I hope you do."

A few minutes later, Neo could be seen walking out from the dark corner he was dragged into, counting a few Flemo notes.

"Just five hundred." He muttered just as he stopped behind the lamp post, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "I don't know why, but I expected them to have more."

He let out a sigh after that as he turned to the entrance into Grimstone, the rays of light creeping out from there already confirming part of the information he got from the barbecue man.

And when he finally made his way in there, he stamped everything as confirmed in his mind.

Grimstone was a whole different vibe compared to Cinderfall. Cinderfall was like a dark and dry ghost town where people were cautious about going out because of some sort of danger he didn't know about, Grimstone on the other hand was the complete opposite.

Almost every building in the town had its lights turned on with the bar toward the left near the entrance blasting country music as drunk people staggered out of the building through the swing doors some of them crashing to the floor as soon as they stepped out, their mouths foaming with alcohol.

To the right, there were a lot of food vendors and open stores with some of them calling out to the good number of people walking down the street to come buy stuff from them.

Neo kept his head down, taking heed not to act like this was his first time here while also carefully observing everything around him.

The hooded dark coat he took from the leader of the bandits did well in helping him blend in as there were a couple of other people wearing the same thing.

'Are these towns even located in the same zone?' He wondered as he made his way down the lively street.

"Hello, sir." A female voice called out.

There were a lot of calling out to people happening around him so his mind never crossed that call being directed at him until the girl moved closer to him.

"Hello, sir." She called again, this time with more intensity to her voice.

He slowly paused at that moment before turning to the girl, looking a bit confused.

"Me?"

"Yeah, who else would I mean?" She smiled.

Her smile felt like it could light up an entire room but Neo's heart was already way too cloudy to be affected by something like that.

The girl in question was an innocent-looking young girl with long brown hair and pretty brown eyes, she was a bit shorter than him being about five foot seven, and was in a red dress with a black jacket to cover her arms at the moment. She also seemed to be about his age.

"Would you be interested in some accessories?" She asked, her body laced with positive energy as she pointed at the shop behind her with a smile.

'Accessories? What do I need those for?'

"What type of accessories are we talking about?" Neo inquired.

He wanted to dismiss her at first and continue his search but now he wanted to know why this girl would think that he would be interested in accessories.

"Well, we have bracelets, ear rings, and pendants like the one you're wearing." She blurted.

Neo was suddenly taken aback by that, he didn't have his pendant out but it seemed she was able to catch a glimpse of the cord around his slightly exposed neck.

It didn't make any sense to him until he noticed the yellow hue in her eyes.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to look." She immediately apologized with a little bow. "It's just that my ability grants me magnifying vision and with the fluctuations in this zone, it starts acting up sometimes."

"Magnifying vision?"

'Didn't know something like that existed.'

"Mhm." She nodded before moving a little closer to him. "That is a pendant, right?" She whispered.

'Why is she whispering now?'

"Yes," Neo responded.

"Can I see?"

Now that request was something he didn't exactly know how to respond to, there was nothing wrong with showing her, it was just that something didn't feel right to him.

Seeing his hesitance in responding, she quickly pushed with both of her hands slightly held up.

"You don't have to show me if you don't want to, it's no big deal."

"How about this?" Neo remarked.

"Huh?"

"I'll show you the pendant but you have to tell me where the clinic or hospital in this town is located afterward." He uttered, grabbing onto the pendant's cord.

He had thought about asking the people in the street to show him the way there but after remembering what happened at Cinderfall he decided against that.

It would only make them realize that he wasn't from around here so they would ask him to pay up before telling him anything, it was all too obvious to him now, but right now, he could get that information just by showing this curious girl his pendant.

"Um… okay, you have a deal." She nodded with a smile. "I know where the clinic is, my Aunt owns the place so I would be happy to send people her way."

Hearing her response, Neo took a deep breath before pulling the pendant out.

'I just hope she isn't lying.'

"Woah." She muttered as she leaned closer with mixed expressions of intrigue and amusement written all over her face. "What a nice looking stone, I haven't seen anything like it before."

She glanced back and forth at it for quite a while as if she was afraid to touch it before looking up at Neo.

"Can I touch it?"

"Sure, go ahead." He shrugged.

"Thank you." Her voice resounded with enthusiasm and joy as she placed her hand on the stone and gently stroked down on it.

However, just as she reached the lower part of the stone, her hand stopped moving and the expression on her face slowly disappeared.

She suddenly scrunched up her face at that moment as if she was in some kind of pain before slowly grabbing her forehead with her right head.

The last thing Neo heard from her was a little groan before she slowly slumped down on the ground.

"Huh?"

'The heck?'

"Jessica?"

Neo raised his head at that moment to see a dark-haired woman who bore quite a striking resemblance to the girl currently on the floor, staring at him with hostile eyes filled with questions that he didn't have the answers to.

'I should have continued walking.'