Clad in armour, he had the stature and the
eyes of a valiant knight.
"Hello." He walked toward them as his armor disappeared into thin air, revealing an ordinary dark blue shirt underneath.
Kenan glared at the man whose face was now in full view. He smiled at them, showing off his clean, white teeth. "It's been a while since I've had humans around."
"A-are you human?" Jesse staggered backward, asking his favourite question.
Kenan frowned slightly as the man spoke as if he was one with the place. If he has lived in the Dark Lands for a very long time then surely he should have found the gate by now.
"Only humans can use a biosync, no?" The man smiled, flashing the biosync on his wrist.
He had black hair that cascaded all the way to his shoulders, a lean and tall build, with a rather good-looking face. He seemed out of place in the Dark Lands like he always had supplies to constantly replenish him.
His clothes underneath his armour were sparkly clean and devoid of acid burns.
"You said we're the first humans you've
seen in a while. Have you seen others?"
Kenan asked, he was wary of him for more reasons than one.
"Of course. I've been here for quite a while. All the people I see always leave after some time and it has been a few months since the last person." The young man turned his gaze to Kenan with a small smile.
"Where do they go? Is there a gate? Have you found it yet?" Jesse asked hurriedly, quickly rushing to the man's side. His chattering nature quickly reappeared and Kenan couldn't help but feel a slight sense of betrayal.
"I can't answer all your questions at once, but we have to leave before the beast
return. I only managed to distract it for a while so, come quickly." He turned, walking back in the direction he had come from.
Jesse and Kenan exchanged glances before
following behind him. Kenan, however, maintained a certain distance, probably still paranoid due to the warning the government official had given them before
they entered the Dark Lands—not all that looked human was human.
"Welcome to my humble abode," their saviour smiled.
He had led Kenan and Jesse through the forest, and after a while of nonstop travel, they finally reached a hidden cave underneath a small hill. Even if Kenan passed here tens of times, he still wouldn't have noticed the cave.
"Take a seat, please." He pointed toward the large leaves that were laid around a bonfire.
Kenan looked carefully around the cave. Numerous markings filled the walls, a bunch of dried wood was stacked tidily beside the bonfire, and the entire cave was properly cleaned up.
Long, large monocot leaves curved around the cave's entrance like curtains.
Their knight-like saviour pulled out a smelly, red-coloured, paste-like substance from his pocket. He moved to the leaves that served as curtains for the entrance of the cave.
Picking them up one after the other, he
applied the paste-like substance on the
leaves.
"Blood Blooms can't see or hear, well, except that anomaly you met before, it is at the verge of breaking into the next beast rank. But the rest can only sense their prey. Some with motion, some with heat, but most in this area can smell their prey." He started with a smile before adding, "I got this from grinding some body parts of the young Blood Blooms. It plays with their senses, makes them believe we are one of them."
"Cool." Jesse's eyes glistened.
Kenan gulped silently. A Savage beast was about to evolve into a Fiend and they didn't think it was dangerous? Plus, there are others that can detect a person's heat wave? His chances of survival seems to be slimming down with every passing hour.
"My name is Jesse, and this is Kenan. Thank you again for saving us back there."
Kenan did not ask for the man's name since his mind was occupied with the Savage beast who was at the brink of evolution, and Jesse decided to patiently wait for their saviour to introduce himself first.
"We have to look out for each other, yes?" The young man chuckled, pushing a lock of his hair behind his ear.
"You've been here for six months?" Jesse asked out of the blue.
"I think it's been much longer than that." He walked to the wall and touched a few carvings on the wall—numerous tally marks stretching across the cave walls. "Every time I wake up, I add one of these here. But I lost track a long time ago."
"You never tried to find a way out?" Jesse's
eyes widened.
"I did... over and over again, but I found
nothing."
Kenan, who was still bothered about the beast, raised his head and asked, "And you haven't completed your awakening yet?"
"Hmm?" The young man's lips twitched, "No?"
"The other humans you've met, they must've found a way out, right?" With now shaky eyes, Jesse gulped, rubbing his palms together in nervousness.
The young man said nothing. He simply glanced at Jesse with his lips pressed into a thin line.
"I don't know if this part of the Dark Lands have a gate. Who knows? We might've been unlucky enough to end up in a gateless area."
"There's no such thing," Kenan interjected, "An area without a gate cannot be entered."
"B-but we can't leave here without a gate. What about the others? The other humans you've met?" Panic slowly began to set in Jesse's mind and he seemed to have lost all reason, succumbing to whatever nonsense the supposed saviour spilled from his mouth.
"Calm down, Jesse." Kenan sighed, calming Jesse by his name for the first time since they met.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Was I saying too much? It's just that I haven't seen people in quite a long time, so I blabbered." The young man chuckled awkwardly. He moved to the bonfire and added more wood.
"You never once ran out of food?" Kenan asked. Jesse turned to the young man as well, curious and in need of an answer— anything that would give him hope of seeing the sun of the Sun Continent again.
The smile on their saviour's face dimmed and his slanted eyes curved back into shape. "Pardon?"
"You never once ran out of food?" Kenan had no qualms about repeating his question.
"Well, I have a surmountable amount of nutrient bars and jerky and I am fairly good at management," he answered, walking into the darker part of the cave where the light of the bonfire didn't reach.
"For so long? How did you store so much to last for a long time with only a blue spatial storage ring?" Kenan tapped his fingers against the rocky ground. The capacity of spatial storages ranged from blue, green, black, and gold, and the different shades of those colours represented the various storage capacities. But the ring on the young man's hand was the lightest shade of blue Kenan had ever seen.
"Oh, dear me. Looks like I'm out of water." The young man ignored Kenan and picked up a water keg. "Would you mind coming with me to get some more?" The young man turned around, glancing directly at Jesse as if Kenan had disappeared from his sight.
"There's water here?"
"Yes, a waterfall not too far from here."
"We'll both come with you, then."
"No, someone has to watch the cave, the young man said, turning his gaze to Kenan.
"Do you have a weapon?" He asked, shifting his gaze back to Jesse once again.
Jesse's face paled. "I... No."
He had forgotten his weapon in the fight scene while trying to escape quickly before the Savage beast returned. How utterly foolish.
"Can you lend him yours, Kenan? Being weaponless would just make him a burden to me." The young man tilted his head.
Kenan frowned. What were there protecting the cave from? Plus, the young man had left the cave unoccupied to come save them earlier. "No."
"Hmm?"
"If you can't go alone then Jesse will watch the cave and I'll come with you."
"I want to go." Jesse suddenly popped up between them with an excited grin.
"No." Kenan answered bluntly.
"What?! No, please."
Staring at the once bloody kid who was slowly beginning to regain colour, the katana materialised in his hand, the silver blade reflecting the dancing flames as Kenan passed the weapon to Jesse.
"Thank you." Jesse grabbed the sword and hugged it tightly to his chest, happiness evident in his voice.
Kenan sat back down on the leaf as he watched the two exit the cave.
He waited in the cave for a long time and out of boredom, he moved toward the tally marks and began counting them carefully.