CH 04 : Escape to Forest

GRANNY CORNELIA POV :

(A white haired old women, about 65 years old with black eyes. Wearing a black dress like a nun)Today, I suddenly heard that Elric left his room to play with other children. I was very curious about why he just left his room to play with other. My office is next to the children's room, so I should not worry about it. After a while, I heard the sound of someone running and saying that there is fire. I got up from my chair and went to check what happened. I went near Elric's room and observed how the guards were doing. After the fire extinguished, the guards and the maid went into the room. I entered the room after them and stood behind one of the guards, concealing my presence. Just as the guard was about to pick up a piece of paper from the ground I released my presence. He immediately noticed and turned around. I slowly leant down and picked up the paper.

As I looked at the paper, I became shocked and asked the guards about Elric. I told them to bring Elric to me, but he was nowhere to be found. I went back into my office and sat on my chair while thinking,

'He is dangerous. I have to find him before he makes any mess and create a problem for the guild'

"But how in the world did he knew about the basement. It has to be a Gift, how else could he know about the basement".

I called the guild and told them about the current situation and asked for help. I punched the table and it broke. I looked up straight and said.

"The higher ups are going to kill me if I don't find you, so just you wait Elric I'm going to find you and make sure that you don't even think about running again".

ELRIC POV :

I collected all my stuff in the center of the room and placed a wire on it that was internally coiled over each other. After making all the preparations I sat down on the chair near the desks and drew the orphanage's map and poured water on it (So that it does not burn). I closed the switch and went out of my room, knowing that the guards won't come in the room as there target was me. After I entered the children's room I looked around and saw there nanny playing with the children. I said to the children.

"Ok Kids, Shell we play a game."

All the children came rushing around me and asked for there opinion. Everyone gave there opinion and finally I said,

"Why don't we play hide and seek, all of you go and hide while I look for you."

The children said in Union.

"Alright."

They started running around while I closed my eyes. After all of them hid, I tripped while I was acting like I was trying to find them. I acted cutely and looked at the nanny with teary eyes. The nanny came rushing towards me and asked,

"Are you alright."

I answered while trying to stop the tears,

"Yes, I think the skin got ripped, can you take me near the bed."

The nanny hurriedly replied,

"Yes, hurry up I will carry you on my back."

I got up just as she got her back towards me and immediately aimed a karate chop (Knifehand strike) towards her carotid artery on her neck. I hit her with all my might and as she was just a normal human, she lost her conciousness. I took out the keys from her pocket and called the children. All of them came out and asked about what happened to their nanny. I simply answered,"She is just sleeping."

As we were talking to each other the commotion started outside, I waited for some time then left the room. I just went out of the room as there were no guards stationed outside and everyone was were trying to put out the fire. I picked up a knife and other useful things from the kitchen and packed everything in my bag. After successfully escaping from the orphanage, I went straight towards the forest that was in the east of the orphanage. I reached the forest after continuously running straight for 2 hours.

'They won't stop searching for me, not untill I'm found dead, so I drew the map of the orphanage to draw there attention towards myself so they won't be doing any experiment for the time being and the children would be safe.'

Now, I was standing in front of the forest where monsters were very common. But all the monsters were low ranking once that could be defeated easily by hunters. I crossed the fence that was used to stop the monsters, it was made up of a gift (Barrier) that could fend off the monsters easily but was harmless to the humans. It was evening and the sun was about to set, but I entered the forest so that no one would be able to find me. The forest was a very dangerous place in the night but I still walked in the forest and after about half an hour I stopped as I was greeted by a goblin (An F Rank monster of green colour). I was expecting it, as the goblins are very greedy and doesn't have much intelligence, so they hunt for their pray lonely.

"It seems that you will be my first pray in this body."

I threw my bag, took out my knife and pointed it toward the goblin. He ran towards me with a tree branch and swung it with full force. I dodged it with swift steps, ran toward the goblin, and cut of his head with one strike. While cleaning my knife, I looked at the goblin's body hoping to find a mana stone (A mana containing stone that can be used to absorbed mana into the body) but there was nothing as goblins were the lowest ranking monster. I climbed a tall tree and slept on one of its branch, as the monsters were more aggressive during night. I said to myself before sleeping,

"I thought that the Status window (A window that shows the level of Mana and Gift that one has acquired) would appear but I guess that I have to kill more monsters to open my Status window."

[Six month later]

I entered a cave I found while Hunting monsters four months ago and have been living here since then. It was occupied by the goblins but I killed them all in order to take this cave. It was a normal cave with only a training area and a fireplace to cook meat. I stored all the edible I found here. My status window also appeared three days ago and now I have been training day and night to increase the level of my Gift and to obtain new gifts (Gifts can only be obtained by three ways, By birth, By training, and By inducing it artificially by drugs). My current goal was to obtain two gifts, (Poison Resistance) and (Sixth Sense). These two gifts can double my survival rate in the 'Dark Forest', where I will be going after reaching at least intermediate grade.

For the past couple of months, I have been training like hell. I hunted goblins and animals (Mutated due to cracks like humans) while blindfolding myself and focussing only on my hearing. I also ingested various types of poisons that caused quite a problem for me as I could not move while I was poisoned because it could have worsen my condition and had to starve for two days. 'Now, I have to move deeper into the forest as there are only goblins in this area. I have to hunt higher ranking monsters in order to grow stronger.'

With this determination, i got ready to leave the cave and the next morning, I left just as the sun rose. Some Pack's of goblin appeared in front of me every now and then but I took care of them. As I was going deeper into the forest, I could sense the density of mana increasing. I asked myself curiously,

"No goblin is appearing so I guess that I have entered a higher ranking monster's den, well it's a good thing that no monster is appearing".

As I said that, an Ogre(An E Rank monster, just like goblin with just big body) appeared in front of me. It was about two meters tall. I said,

"Were you listening to me, Damn it, I should not have said that....

Well it can't be helped. Guess I will have to kill you. Oh, and don't resent me for killing you so early. Not that it matters...."

While I was saying that the ogre ran towards me wildly while I said,

"Hay, hay, hay, let me at least complete the sentence. Tch, I guess it's no use talking to a monster in the first place"

While saying that I lowered my body and ran toward the Ogre. He slammed down his fist towards me but I dodged it and went for its legs. I cut down his tendon of the right leg. He fell down as I moved again. I aimed for his shoulder this time and stabbed his right shoulder joint. I took out the knifes I have been storing and started to aim it on the ogre. It took three shots to kill the ogre. Just as I was about to look at his body another ogre came but this time I didn't wasted my time and ran towards the ogre and killed it. I went towards the ogre body and looked for mana stone and luckily I found one from each body. It was about the size of a chickpea, shining brightly. I closed my fist hard and said,

"Just you wait Lucifer (Devil) and Leviathan (Dragon King), this time tide of war is going to in humans' favour."

{Status Window}

Name : Elric

Age : 11 years

{Status}

Gift : ( Sharpshooter LV : 1)

Mana : 1.1

Agility : 1.5

Strength : 1.7