Chapter 13 - Shadow Forest ( 1 )

A sound of clapping breaks the tense atmosphere in the room. A middle-aged man stood by the door and clapped his hands. After making sure everybody is looking at him the man speaks.

" May I enter the room Mr. David? " ( man )

I nodded at him, and the man entered the room. Officer Mira saluted the man, making things clear. They were in the same group.

The man nodded at Officer Mira and spoke to me. His voice has something special about it: it sounds calming and smooth.

" I apologize for my subordinate's behaviour. I am Senior Officer Ross. I am in charge of this robbery case and Officer Mira is supporting me in this case. We do not have any authority to order you or your friend. But things are escalated to the level when some rules can be bent or broken if necessary. I am not threatening you but we got special permission from the city council to detain and question any person no matter their identity. So please co-operate with us." (Officer Ross)

I used the scan on Officer Ross and a cold sweat slipped by my ear. This is the second biggest shock I felt and they are one after another.

I showed no strangeness on the surface but my heart is already in chaos. I stayed quiet for a while to digest the things and then replied to Officer Ross.

" I am a law-abiding citizen so I will cooperate with you but only you are allowed to ask me anything and Officer Mira has to get out. I would like us to be alone and no matter what happens you can not share what we have talked about. If you not not fulfil my requests then my lawyer will be the one who you should speak." ( David )

Officer Mira looked at me angrily and was about to speak but Officer Ross beat her in speed.

" agreed. Shall we talk here or somewhere else. Anywhere is fine by me." (Officer Ross)

"let's talk here as I am still in a resting period. Gina could you leave us alone for a moment please." (David)

At my request, Gina reluctantly left the room followed by the nurse. Officer Mira reached the door. Just as she is about to exit she gives me a sharp look. After leaving she closed the door.

Me and officer ross are present in the room. Officer Ross sat on the chair at some distance from me and took out a notepad from his inner coat.

By the way, Officer Ross is wearing a formal black suit and a blue tie. He has brown hair and pupils.

After sitting comfortably Officer Ross spoke to me.

"let's start Mr David. First I will ask some basic questions about you. Please answer them as clearly as possible. First what is your name?" (Officer Ross)

" My name is David Adam." ( David )

" Where do you live?" (Officer Ross)

" in the sunflower apartment. Seventh floor, room no. 707." ( David )

" Why do you visit the museum on that particular day?" (Officer Ross)

" for a special purpose. I want to see the personal art of the city leader and make some memories as I do not know when such an event will happen again. That was a lifetime opportunity to see some real arts or get some unexpected benefits so how can I miss it." ( David )

Officer Ross Pen stopped for a second but resumed the writing as if nothing happened. Officer Ross kept on asking questions one after another. Some are simple like what food I like or some are complicated like how I reacted when the robbery was happening.

After some hundred or more questions Officer Ross decides to end our conversation.

" for my last question. Do you know about the robbery before it happened?" (Officer Ross)

As soon as Officer Ross asked the last question I felt like something heavy was placed on my head. A strong force trying to put me down. I can barely resist the force. With each passing second the force started to suppress me more and more.

I gathered my strength and pulled myself up. I looked into the eyes of Officer Ross and spoke in a very determined tone.

" of course I know. If you leave a diamond on the road it will be strange if nobody tries to steal it. Aren't I right Officer Ross." (David)

Just as I finished speaking the invisible pressure disappeared. I continued to look at Officer Ross. After some seconds of staring contest Officer Ross averted his eyes and spoke in a natural tone.

" that's it for now. Thank you for your cooperation. You are out of the suspect list and can continue to do things you were doing before. Once again I apologize for the trouble. As for the part you played in stopping the robbers. For your safety, we decided to hide your contribution. If you want we can publicise your role in a battle but it may cause you some trouble and possible danger." (Officer Ross)

" I would like to thank you for hiding my name. I do not want anybody to know that I was involved in this case in any way. Thank you." ( David )

" a good decision. But still, the city council and museum wanted to reward you. The city council decided to give you 100k reward money and the right to purchase a tier 4 manual skill of your choice. The city museum has decided to give you 50k reward money and the right to take 2 items from the museum including the personal collection of the city leader." (Officer Ross)

Saying this Officer Ross got up and walked towards the door. Before the could open the door I stopped him.

" wait a minute Officer Ross. I have a question of mine. Are the robbers able to flee out of a fully guarded city with all the advanced security functions. Is it a coincidence or not?" ( David )

At my question, Officer Ross smiled at me and left the room.

I watch him leave in silence. Lost in my thoughts I did not notice when Gina came and stood beside me.

***

( 3rd pov )

Officer Ross walked toward the end of the hallway. Officer Mira is standing there quietly. Unlike before there is no anger on her face. Instead, there is a hind of amusement.

Seeing Officer Ross she speaks in a cheerful tone.

" See my strategy good cop and bad cop worked. David must have felt goodwill towards you who is polite compared to someone like me who uses informal and threatening words on their first meeting." (Officer Mira)

Officer Ross smiled at her childish behaviour and replied to her.

"It's kind of half success. From my point of view, David did not fall for your trick from the start but still cooperated with us. Anyway, the result is clear. David has nothing to do with this case so stop the monitoring of his house and start to work on the available clues. A fully armed group of rankers has disappeared in the city and nobody has any clue about it. It can not be a coincidence. Let's start looking from there." (Officer Ross)

Officer Mira wanted to comment on something but held herself. She turned around and started to walk. She missed the expression on the face of Officer Ross after she turned.

***

Seeing Gina snapped me out of my thoughts. Gina looked at me quietly opposite to her nature.

We continued to stare at each other. At last, Gina looked away in shame.

I let out a weak smile at her funny behaviour then suddenly I remembered the scene in the museum. I have directly confessed to her even though I have no feelings for her. It was very chaotic at that time and I could not come up with another reason to make her believe in myself.

I speak to clear the misunderstanding.

"Gina at the museum when you asked me the reason why I tried to save you. Listen it was..." ( David )

Before I could finish speaking Gina spoke to me.

" I know what you want to say but please give me some time to think about it. I have never been exposed to such things so I may take some time to process these things. Please wait till I give you a proper answer. Bye" ( Gina )

Saying this Gina dashed out of the room before I could explain anything.

I do not know what to do. Flustered at the current situation I thought of other things to divert this topic. Let's explain it to her when I get a chance.

After some hours I was discharged from the hospital. They tried to keep me in for some more time but I declined their request.

An officer gave me my rewards mentioned by Officer Ross.

After a quick taxi ride, I arrived at home.

After some quick checkups to see if anything was missing or not, I sat in the living room. I used the scan to check for possible hidden devices like cameras, speakers or some other similar stuff.

Surprisingly I found nothing. Guess I overestimated things.

I looked at the thing in my storage space and fell into a deep thought.

Yup, it is the key I have been trying to get. How do I get it?

Well, when the man smashed me at the counter I replaced this key with a normal unrefined shadow stone.

For double insurance when a bear summoned by Gina tries to attack the man I put the fake stone in its path.

Due to the bear's strength, the stone was crushed into pieces. So even if somebody tries to find anything they will blame the bear for the destruction of the original stone.

From here on the main part of the goal has competed. Now I just have to use this key to get that high-level skill and complete my quest.

To unseal the key I need some special things. After searching for some time I found the perfect place for my plan.

It's quite close to the city and easily accessible.

For the rest of the day, I made some necessary preparations.

The next day early in the morning I boarded the train to my destination.

During my travel, I did not find anybody following me or keeping an eye on me. I put on a little more effort to hide myself though it is useless if officials want to find me. Trying to stay positive I continued my journey. 

After some hours of ride, I reached my destination.

It is a mutant area commonly called a sanctuary. These sanctuaries are built everywhere in the world. They provide the home for mutants and the breading ground for the raw material to the human.

Mutant organs have various uses depending upon their rank and type or race. This type of sanctuary is protected by the military as sometimes when the number of mutants reaches a certain number a beast tide will be formed.

This may cause great losses to the neighbouring human cities or territories. The war between mutants and humans is on today and shows no signs of ending.

Powerful mutants in these sanctuaries made the human helpless as the gains were not worth the risk.

So these sanctuaries are made to keep the mutants away from human settlements and get a steady supply of special resources.

The sanctuary I went to is tier 7 means the highest rank of mutants in this sanctuary is tier 7 which is equal to the rank S in human ranking.

Fortunately, the structure of this sanctuary is in layers where each tier of mutant mostly stays in its own area according to its strength and tier.

I visited the military office in charge of the entrance to the sanctuary. If someone enters the sanctuary without permission they may considered a transpaser and punished according to the situation.

I paid the entrance fee and entered the forest.

Most of the trees in the forest are purple-coloured and a dense amount of shadow aura in the air explains why is this place called a shadow forest.

The shadow mana is everywhere. Even the ground has a shadow element in it.

I took a deep breath. I changed my gear to the Shadow Hunter set which Is repaired and looks brand new. The boss in the skeleton dungeon caused some damage to the set but it got repaired after spending some money.

I pulled out the sword. I changed my hair and eye colour using the skill of the mask.

From now on I am in the area of complete wilderness where anything can happen.

I walked into the woods with caution. Suddenly a shadow shot at me.