56 Secret in the Basemen (1/2)
A bright light appeared in a large field. The area was surrounded by wooden fencing, and in the center was a mid-sized house. It had a few windows, and seemed to be quite short, which indicated that it most likely did not have a second floor.
Arnin's looked at his surroundings a smiled with satisfaction. The place was quiet, and the field was large. Although there was still some grass around, Arnin felt that he would be able to get rid of it in a day or two.
He walked towards the house while inspecting the field on the way. Other than the grass that needed to be removed, the field was in great condition. The ground was soft, and the grass was very green and healthy, which let him know that the ground had plenty of nutrients and of water.
The door to the house was normal, and was made from wood that came from the surrounding forest. Arnin grabbed onto the handle and turned the knob, slowly opening the door.
*CREAK*
The door made a sound when it was opened, however Arnin didn't mind. When he entered the house, he was very surprised. Unlike the houses he had in the residential area for Moth students, this one had no furniture. It was bare.
The first floor was quite big, with four rooms in total. The main entrance led into a open room. Two bedrooms were to the left, while a kitchen was on the right. Arnin walked around the house and found that there really wasn't a second floor, however, he did find a basement. The stairs to it were located in the living room.
When Arnin walked down them, what he felt was very surprising. The first floor felt completely normal, as if he was back in his house in Talonton village. There was little essence, and everything seemed quite normal, however the basement was quite different.
Just the stairs were made from from extremely hard wood that looked somewhat purple. The side walls also seemed to be made from the same material. Not only that, but the further Arni went down, the more essence he could feel. Plus, there was an herbal scent which continuously got stronger as he neared the basement.
Finally, his feet landed on soft, fluffy ground. It didn't feel like grass, or dirt, rather something much softer. Arnin looked down in surprise and saw that the material looked exactly like dirt, and even had some grass on it. This made him somewhat confused, as he hadn't seen a material like this before.
Arnin squatted on to the ground, and tried to scoop out some dirt, but regardless of how much force he exerted, the dirt just wouldn't budge. He then tried to pull a piece of grass out, however Arnin was unable to do that either. The 'grass' was tightly stuck in the 'dirt', as if they were molded together. Arnin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
'Interesting. Seems like I need to do some more research on the materials used in Afloria.' Arnin's knowledge was still very lacking when it came to the materials that were unique to Afloria. He was already lucky that the herbs were the same as the ones he knew in his previous life, plus they were even named the same way, but that was only because herbs were mysterious in general due to their conformity, regardless of where they grew. Materials for buildings, formations, and many other things were different on each planet. He remembered that he once visited a planet where there was almost no cultivation. It was a land ruled by humans who believed that cultivation and magic were fairytale creations. The animals there were also extremely normal.
Although the planet was very weak in strength, Arnin found that the humans there were very curious about the world, and had discovered things about it that other species in the universe hadn't. He entered that world for a few hundred years to understand their knowledge, and couldn't help but praise their knowledge.
Arnin, who was considered the strongest, and also one of the most experienced people in the universe, felt that the humans of the planet 'Earth' were extremely remarkable. He would usually destroy the world's he visited, but he had left Earth intact because he found that group of people very interesting, and wanted to manipulate their intelligence for his own benefit.
Arnin was not omnipotent; he did not know everything. Every world had something unique about them, and Arnin did not know about them all, and Afloria was one of those. Although he created the whole planet, the weird power also made its own alterations that Arnin was unaware of.
The flooring in the basement was extremely weird, but Arnin decided to figure out its properties later. He began to walk deeper in the narrow passageway that had began after stairs ended. As he walked, he discovered that the basement was much larger than the main house. He found many vacant rooms as he walked through the passage, and the smell of herbs also got stronger. Arnin began to wonder if anyone else knew about the wonders of this basement. It seemed different from a normal house, and he didn't expect other houses to have something similar.
Once Arnin finally reached the end of the passage, in front of him was a large, metal door. There seemed to be a lock around the handle, and it was even tied using chains. Arnin laughed at the sight and broke the lock with his fist. It was extremely weak, which made him wonder why it was there in the first place. Slowly, he loosened the chains and threw them onto the ground. He grabbed onto the cold metal handle and slowly pushed.
*ERRRR*
The door began to make a weird sound that resembled creaking, but also the roaring of thunder at the same time. It was so loud that even Arnin began to frown.
'What is it that they locked here?' Arnin's interest was piqued. The lock was very weak, meaning that the thing or whatever that was inside was either also extremely weak, or it was just a warning to outsider to them tell them not to enter.
The door swung open, and a strong smell attacked Arnin's nose. It was astrange mixture of the aroma of herbs and the stench of blood. Arnin's eyebrows slightly twitched, but he moved forward.
The room was very wide, and he found that in it were ten doors. What made Arnin happy was that in the middle of the room was a large cauldron. It was much larger than Fasona's, which he had used for the Orange Alchemist test. It was about the size of a small bathtub, able to fit three people the size of Arnin, or one full grown man.
Around the cauldron was the same grass that he found in the narrow passage. Plus, there also seemed to be various herbs that even Arnin didn't know about. He swiftly walked over to the herbs surrounding the large cauldron.
He crouched down, and pulled an herb off the ground. Surprisingly, it came out without much struggle, almost as if grabbing a pebble off of the ground, no resistance.
*WAHHH*
Arnin's eyebrows rose slightly when he heard the sound. It wasn't coming from the herb, rather it came from one of the rooms. Arnin looked up to see where the banshee-like wailing was coming from.
*WAHHH WAHHH*
He got up and walked towards one of the doors. The door he went to was the first one on the left, because it seemed as though the sounds were coming from inside. He walked over, and placed his ear onto the door.
*WAHH WAHH WAHH*
The closer he got, the louder and more frantic the sounds got. Arnin nodded his head and began to think about something.
'The sounds seemed to be related to the herb I picked up. The closer the herb is getting, the louder the sounds seemed to be.' Arnin made this hypothesis because of the correlation of the situations, however he wasn't exactly certain that was the reason. It might have been because he was inside the room, or maybe it really was just a coincidence that all the events happened simultaneously.
Arnin saw that the door had a small hole on the top, however because of his height, he wasn't able to look through it when he was standing on the ground. Arnin decided that he might as well open the door.
Arnin didn't have many fears. He had seen too many things, making him fearless towards almost everything. The sounds in the room, the smell of herbs, and even the marks of blood didn't really frighten him, rather they made him even more curious.
Arnin grabbed onto the rusty metal door handle. ”Hot!” Arnin couldn't help but exclaim.
The handle was extremely hot, almost as if he was touching a smelted weapon that had yet to go into water for cooling.
Arnin thought of his Flames of Neutrality and they appeared on his hand. He had decent control over his flames, or at least enough to wrap it around his hand like a glove.
When the flames had enclosed his hand, Arnin grabbed the handle once again. He didn't feel any of the heat this time, and was able to turned the handle easily.
*CLICK*
A clicking sound resounded in the quiet area when the handle was completely turned. Arnin pushed it open and squinted his eyes.
Inside the room was a chain that hung on the wall. There was also a large black ball that had a chain coming out of it as well. In the right corner beside the entrance, Arnin found a stack of herbs that looked exactly like the one in his hand.
The leaves were green, with black petalled flowers. They were similar in shape to sunflowers, however the black petals looked like rocks. Even the pistil was slightly different. Other than it being purple in colour, Arnin found that the pistil was also a liquid, rather than a solid.