11. Hideout

After coming back from the library many thoughts were coming to Ast, he tried sleeping but his mind was wandering off. He also thought about the system that the old man gifted him initially he thought not to use it as he was cautious, but as he thought carefully towards the attitude of the old man towards him, he came to the conclusion that he treated him as a nuisance, a passing bug which he initially thought as intresting but changed his mind within a second.

Ast had the system but whenever he tried to use to by saying 'open system' there was always the same message every time. System will be operational when host becomes 10 years old.

Although its universal language funtion was operational everything else was locked right now. Ast was looking forward to what advantages will the system provide, although he was curious but he knew the old man was not reliable thus his expectations were not that high.

On the next day Ast and Anya informed the servants that they will be playing and studying together and were not to be disturbed, they had plans to sneak out today. They had done things like this before but today they wanted to explore the forest adjacent to the blair family's garden, which they had never done before. A little late in the morning Anya and Ast sneak out of a hole in the fence of the garden which was covered with bushes, thus hidden. Ast had already read about the forest in detail so as not to encounter any dangers. Every week the guards of Blair family did an extensive routine check upto the 3 km radius, so basically no living creature could be found within this area. Also the majority of the animals in the continent cannot use elements. There was a separate continent of beast as well but Ast didn't had time to study it much so as of now it was a mystery.

It was funny scene where two youngsters were walking in the forest with their tiny footsteps, Anya was excited and would sometimes run off to check out new things and would be constantly talking about things. Ast was stressed cause at this point in time he was powerless and still dared to step into the forest and that too with Anya. He was regretting his decision already. They were moving forward at their own pace when suddenly few muffled voices came from the front.

" Hey don't cross the river this is Blair family's territory, we will die if we encounter them" said a middle aged man to two of his colleagues, all three of them were dressed a bit suspiciously, with black clothes all over something like a ninja but their heads weren't covered up and a chest plate armour was visible. Ast was scared shitless when he heard the sound this was his first time encountering danger, both lives included. 'i need to remain calm they haven't noticed us and we both have small build, we can hide from them'.

Ast quickly grabbed Anya's mouth with one hand and other hand on her back pushed her down with him to the ground. "Anya don't make any sound we are in danger you have to trust me and do what i say you understand. Just nod if you get it" he whispered as quietly as possible. Anya nodded. She was also scared and was shaking a bit understanding the gravity of the situation, although she looked cute and carefree, she also knew the dangers of this world the blair household paid importance to education and Anya was intelligent. She was nothing like a normal 7 year old girl of earth(not saying she was from earth just comparing) . She knew this could be a life and death scenario.

"Bro chill out we aren't that stupid and having our hideout this close to the Blair family has made it possible for our bandit group to survive don't you agree" replied the man. " Ok now we have enough water for the food let's make that pot of stew, I am starving" said the third man from the group. Ast breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed them leaving. Although Ast right now had no fighting experience, before coming to the forest he kept with him a medium size chef's knife and some poison that he stole from his family's medine room through careful planning.

Ast also has a catapult that he made himself, the purpose being not to hurt someone but to act as a distraction. Ast told Anya to stay still and trust him to deal with them, at first Anya didn't let him go but he somehow convinced her. Ast followed the group very sneakily, they had setup a camp very close. On one side of the camp they placed the huge pot filled with water. Two of them went to look for some dry wood and the third one was left to look after the meat and camp.