Chapter 6: It’s Not Like We Have Google Maps!
“What do you want?” Noah asked warily.
Disgust pooled in his gut. After all, Anna had left them for dead. However, he knew he couldn’t risk pissing her off. What if she just teleported them back into the maze?
“Oh, just wanted to congratulate you! This is the first time ever that a Haplen has managed to break out of the Archario Trials, let alone two! You have no idea how surprised I was when I got the alert!”
Sophie scowled. The expression looked so out of place on her face that it unsettled Noah more than he expected. “Answer his question,” she spat.
“Relax, my dear! I have some good news for the two of you! Seeing as you’ve managed to beat the odds, I’d say you’re worthy of a Rank evaluation, no?”
A sinister glint flashed in her eyes. “If you’re willing to meet up with me again, maaaybe I’d be willing to take you under my wing! We’ll provide you with shelter, food and everything you’ll ever need for a comfortable living!”
“What if you just throw us back to the Arc—whatever Trial again?”
“If I wanted to,” Anna’s voice became dangerously cold again, “I could do it right now.”
Noah struggled to maintain his composure. Making any emotional decisions right now, like rejecting her outright, could be a mistake. He weighed his options.
If they turned her down, their next move would be to find a village, or at least a shelter for the night. Food and water were priorities too. His stomach growled. He hadn’t realised how hungry and thirsty he was. Even with the full HP restore from levelling up, he wanted to make sure they were both in good shape. He glanced at Sophie, wondering about the status of her wound. Even if her HP had been fully restored, it might not have actually healed the wound itself. For all he knew, she could still be bleeding on the inside. He decided to ask her about it.
Sophie half-heartedly complied, nervously lifting the edge of her shirt. Worry clouded her features. “It’s still there,” she said, opening her Vitra. “I’m at 1246/1250 HP now. Looks like my level-up was just a flat heal. It didn’t fix the injury... and I’m still losing health.”
“WHOOPSIE! Do we have a little wound?” Anna exclaimed. “Oh no! Well, I’m no doctor, but I think you should definitely get that checked out! Lucky for you, we have some of the nation’s top medics at our disposal!”
Why wasn’t her wound healed yet? His gamer instincts kicked in. Was the bleeding a status affliction? Did that count as a debuff?
Anna yawned. “Okay, look. I’m getting a little bored. Could you please hurry up and make a decision within the next ten seconds?”
Noah needed more time to think. “You won’t just use us as sacrificial pawns, will you?” He blurted out the first thing that came to mind. Anything to stall.
“Eight, seven…”
She wasn’t taking the bait.
“Er, maybe we could walk to your house, or wherever you are?”
Anna rolled her eyes. “I could just teleport you instantly and save you all the trouble. Five… four…”
Noah looked at Sophie. “Should we?” he whispered.
“I don’t know! You seem to know more about this world than me!”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with this decision!”
“Three, two…”
“We’ll take you up on your offer!”
What was he saying?! Was he about to commit a fatal mistake? But Anna was contacting them for a reason, right? It was like she said—if she wanted to kill or punish them, she could have done so by now. Moreover, they were in the middle of nowhere. Survival wasn’t a guarantee. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, he decided to trust his gut.If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Perfect!” Anna clapped with glee. “Now, if you’ll just step through this po—”
“Anna!” a muffled voice thundered from somewhere. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Anna glanced at someone off-portal. “Umm… just talking to the haplens I dumped, papa! You see, they made it out of the Trials!”
“Haplens are haplens! There is no saving them! Just stick with the rest of the haul that you summoned. Especially that A-Rank.”
A-Rank? Was he talking about Marcus?
“But papa, I—”
“No buts, young woman! Dissolve that portal. Now.”
“Yes, papa,” Anna sighed. “I just want the best for our kingdom. You know I love Mytharea more than anyone!” she winked as the portal vanished.
Noah glanced at Sophie, only to find her looking back at him.
“So, uh...what do we do now?” she asked.
“The way she said it, I think Mytharea might be a clue to her location.”
“I think so too. But how are we supposed to find it? It’s not like we have Google Maps!”
“Then I guess we gotta do it the old-fashioned way,” Noah concluded. “We could ask someone for directions.”
“Wait, we're seriously planning on meeting her?”
“I don't know, but let’s keep our options open. For now, let’s just find a safe place to turn in for the night.”
Sophie rubbed her side. “You know, my wound doesn’t hurt as much as it used to. I think I might eventually stop losing HP.”
“If it’s acting like a debuff, it should go away after a while.”
He checked his own health. It had been at 1150/1250 when they left the cave. He must’ve taken damage when he cut himself on the rocks. Now it was at 1165. “Looks like this world has natural health regeneration,” he added.
“I really hope so.”
“Right then, let’s find ourselves a town or something, shall we?” Noah said. Sleeping in the wilderness wasn't an option.
“Mhm, hopefully they aren’t hostile to us…”
There were two options for them to take: climb up to a higher vantage point to get a better view of their location, or continue straight past the hills into the grasslands beyond. But in the state they were in, Noah wasn’t sure if they had the energy for vertical navigation.
“Let’s head for the plains.”
After a short break, the two of them set off.
The rays of the setting sun bathed the grasslands in gold. There was the occasional tree, but otherwise, it was open land as far as the eye could see. Were there any mobs nearby? Echolocation didn’t seem to think so.
In a twisted way, the setting was oddly romantic. This could’ve been a unique date, if they weren’t trying to survive the night. The thought made Noah scoff inwardly. He and Sophie hardly knew each other and yet, here they were, trudging along in silence. He wondered what Sophie was thinking. Was she coping better than him in this situation? He didn’t think so. She had certainly almost lost her mind back in the cave, and her life because of it. And yet, here she was, still with him. Having someone keep him company was infinitely better than trying to navigate this world alone.
Maybe he should start a conversation with her? But there was nothing to talk about. Or more like, there was everything to talk about. This whole experience was so overwhelming he didn’t even know where to start.
“I’m sorry," Sophie said.
Noah glanced at her. “Huh?”
“For panicking in the cave earlier. And for slowing us down,” she mumbled.
The cave? He had literally just been thinking about that. Had she been reading his mind? No, more than likely, they were both dwelling on the same things.
“Oh. No worries, it’s not a big deal. We made it out in the end.”
“Yeah, but I probably would’ve died like three times over if it hadn’t been for you.”
Noah didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like he was used to consoling people. “I mean, your company’s helped keep me going too.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he almost cringed at how corny he sounded.
Sophie didn’t seem to mind. “Are you like a professional gamer or something? We haven’t really talked in class, so I don’t know much about you…” her voice trailed off awkwardly.
“Umm… I wouldn’t say I’m a pro, but I do play pretty often. What about yourself?”
“I play games sometimes. Probably nowhere near as much as you though. I’m bad at staying at home. I gotta go out and hang out with my friends or I’ll die of boredom." She let out a small laugh.
So the exact opposite of me, Noah thought.
“You think Bran made it out alive?” she asked.
Bran? Oh yeah, other than the two of them, Bran too had survived the initial Diamantis’s assault. They hadn’t heard nor seen any trace of him since then though.
“I hope so. It’ll be a lot tougher for him though since he’s alone.”
As he deliberated on how to continue the conversation, something caught his eye in the distance. It looked like… smoke? Long, thin columns of smoke were rising from the ground.
“Do you see that?” he asked.
“Mmm… yeah. That’s smoke, right? Doesn’t look like the kind from a bushfire or something… you reckon that’s man-made?” Noah could hear the excitement in her voice.
Suddenly, a thought surfaced. “Hang on, didn’t you unlock that skill back in the cage? Eagle Eye or something,” Noah said.
“Oh yeah, you’re right!” Sophie exclaimed, double-checking her Vitra. "So if it works as expected…”
She craned her neck forward, squinting into the distance. “Woah! Feels like I got a pair of binoculars attached to my eyes!”
Noah felt a small pang of jealousy. Why didn’t he get that skill? He pushed it aside. “See any humans?”
“Uh… no… but I feel like the smoke’s coming from underground…”
Noah swallowed. Could they have mistaken the smoke for thermal vents?
“I really think the smoke belongs to a village though,” Sophie insisted.
“Guess there’s only one way to find out.”