CHAPTER 2 - THE GHOST ISLES

  It annoyed Hans that Rudolf had already given another question to him, which he had no clue how to solve. He was wrecking his brain on how could a sheathed sword be the strongest. Rudolf felt a bit relieved to see him quiet down. But unlike what the old man thought, Hans had already given up on the quest for a sword and sheath because a more powerful thought had breached his mind. He started thinking about why his grandparents were so reluctant to leave the world's most dangerous area "Ghost Isles".

  Hans had read every piece of information on mapped lands, and this was not a place fit for humans to live. It had an abundance of mana which could have become a decent attraction for mages, but that was not the only thing plentiful here. The dangerous beast roamed these lands like kings and they were reluctant to share their territories. It was a place where people failed to classify into dangerous levels.

  Apart from the three of them, no one was living here. Unstable mana and the powerful beasts were one thing, but even nature was opposed to welcoming guests here. The whole archipelago was in the centre of a huge whirlpool, and how these islands stood in these twirling torrents was a mystery in itself.

  That made sailing impractical, but the obstacles never fazed the curious minds of explorers. They devised a few ways to reach this place. One of them was to tame a powerful beast that could fly around and persist against airborne dangers or at least be fast enough to leave them behind.

  The other one was to open a SpaceDoor, a transportation portal to this place, but it was a harder choice because the volatile mana in this place doesn't allow any spells to stabilise easily. How and why the three of them came to be here were the questions that always fascinated Hans.

  After facing the troubles to reach here, people got disappointed knowing that this place was utterly useless. It lacked monetary profit as compared to a higher-class beast found in Genas that yielded a lot of materials. Beasts here were uselessly stronger and the highly unstable mana of this place didn't allow them to form a mana heart, which was the most useful and sought resource in the world. That asides, the volatile mana also hindered the formation of the mana gems and stones in this place.

  Hans had lived with his family on the biggest visible island of Ghost Isles. There were many islands in which different beasts overwhelmed each other. The islands in the Isles were comparatively a lot smaller than cities on the major continent GENAS, where Hans eagerly wanted to go.

  Yesterday Hans had read some books but one thing that he couldn't find in them was if the beasts in this place do not possess a mana heart, how could they use the Origin power, which totally relied on them? He remembered this and asked Rudolf,

Hey gramps, how come the beasts here don't have the mana hearts but use Origin power?

Rudolf replied to the curious boy's question with his own question,

You are right, there are no records of this place but someone told me, the beasts here could borrow mana from nature and use it as they deem fit. they did not need to store it in their hearts, hence there is no need to form a mana heart.

Rudolf remembered his tough days and started ranting,

These bastards never run out of mana. They become a pain in the neck to deal with and every little shit here is cannot be classified because we don't have a way to distinguish them without the mana hearts.

Then why are we living here? Isn't it dangerous for a child like me to roam here and there?

Don't worry, your old man is still strong enough to stop anything coming at you and you should stop being a smart-ass. Do you think I do not get what you are aiming for? We are not leaving this place, period.

  Hans wanted to exploit the conversation, but Rudolf was not dumb enough to fall into his scheme. So he gave up as usual and started enjoying the elevated view from Rudolf's broad shoulders. He was feeling pretty great as Rudolf was trekking down the mountain at a great speed.

  Suddenly Hans spotted a big reptilian and immediately recognised the beast. It was approx ten metres long, clinging to the steep slope of a cliff. Its unique yellow slit eyes and horns right above the eye were its distinguishing features. A Dapple Lizard, one of the rare reptiles which were not poisonous in this place. The ebony body with white circular spots all over it was stalking its prey, oblivious to the situation that Rudolf was eyeing the poor thing as his game today.

Hans whispered his finding to Rudolf excitingly

Gramps, it's a Lizzy, a Lizzy, a Dapple lizard.

  But nature has compensated the beast in lack of poison with sharp senses. As Rudolf stealthily approached a safe hunting distance, the lizard felt someone approaching and turned one of his eyes at Rudolf.

  The beast realised the situation; it was now prey, but this was like an everyday situation for the creature since it was the survival of the fittest here. But what got it spooked so badly was the predator this time.  

  The beast also had some sort of intelligence and, like every creature in the region, it recognised the hefty guy who hunts gigantic monsters and was among the top predators. Only a few of the stronger beasts could take him on, and it was clearly not one of them. It confused the dapple lizard, "why this man came to take its life".

  It abandoned its stalking of the herbivore, which was going to be its dinner tonight, and raced for its life on the steep cliff's edge. Rudolf flung his aura-imbued broadsword. The energy from the sword travelled at high speed, which exploded at the impact and clouded the area with dust where the beast was, but the beast's shrieks assured him of the successful hit.

  Fortunately for the dappled lizard, it used the skill autotomy and severed its tail on impact and exploited the explosion to hide from the big guy by using another one of its skills called Camouflage, saving its life. It cried to confuse its predator and eluded him successfully. If Rudolf was truly interested in hunting the poor dapple lizard, it had no alternative but to accept becoming his dead prey and, fortunately for the beast, the old man only wanted to perk up the child's mood.

Gramps! Gramps! It is running away, hurry…, said Hans.

To which, Rudolf replied with a solemn tone,

Killing without cause will lead you astray.

Hans made a pouting face and said,

Okay, I'll remember it.

  Rudolf got happy since Hans didn't whine this time, but he didn't know what Hans meant when he said "I'll remember it". The main reason Rudolf was reluctant to go after a dapple lizard was that he hated the reptilian meat.

  As dusk approached, Rudolf gathered their belongings and picked Hans to return home, which was along the coast on a high cliff on the central island. On their brief trek, they encountered many types of beasts, but when the beast saw the two, they all raced for their lives because they all knew meeting this man was a very miserable way to go out. The only thing that calmed them down was that he hunted very often.

  Soon the duo reached their stay, a small shabby but sturdy two floored House. The house appeared frail, but it had bravely endured the tantrums of the harsh climate. It usually required a lot of repairs from time to time, but this was not a concern for Hans but for the elders.

  He jumped from his grampa's shoulder and ran inside. He burst through the door and dashed into the kitchen, where a beautiful middle-aged lady embraced him with open arms.

Before she could ask him anything, he burst into tears and showed his beat-up hands to her. with a painful expression, he started complaining,

Granma, he beat me today, look at this and my butt too, see...

Sierra stared annoyingly at her husband and shouted at him,

Rudolf… is your sanity grazing grass somewhere...

  When Rudolf heard this, he sighed and turned paler, thinking that instead of lecturing Hans about life values, he should have killed that damned lizard to please this little guy. The old man remembered Hans's words and mumbled to himself,

Now that foolish lizard saved its life, who is going to save mine?

He said to Hans,

Men do not snitch.

To which Hans replied innocently,

But I am a child. You said so while practising, remember?

  Rudolf was clenching his fist and wanted to deliver a knuckle to the child's head, but Sierra was furiously glaring at him. She got enraged after seeing Hans' hands and was ready to burn Rudolf instead of the piece of meat in her hand. He could only say he was preparing Hans for the dangers ahead, which fanned the flames further.

She was already in a bad mood because of the news she received when the men of the house were away. She shouted at him,

I thought we agreed upon not leaving this place, so what dangers are ahead?...

  And the nagging continued. Hans failed to grasp much from their talk, but his wounds healed by just seeing Rudolf being chewed out. Sierra didn't mind Hans learning a way to protect himself, but he was the last memento of their long-departed son, so a single scratch on him made her imagine their son's last moments.

  She wanted him to remain by her side, uninjured. She was afraid of losing him so much that if he got a little wounded, she would become infuriated and vent her rage on Rudolf, who was the usual suspect most of the time.