78 Discovery 2 - Unease (1/2)

Felix did not know why, but after stepping foot into this area, a sense of unease overcame him and his men felt the same thing from how they reacted.

”...Could this be...where they all disappeared too...unbelievable....”

”My lord could these be from...my god.....to be used for such inhumane acts.....”

”.....Even if we treated them differently, this is....”

”.....Lord what are your orders...should we survey the area.....or should we pay our respects to the dead then leave....”

...

After a brief moment of silence, Felix strengthen his resolve and gave the following orders to search the entire scene for any clues of the perpetrator. But they are not to tamper it in anyway, as traps may have been set to alert the individual to return.

Not only that, Felix's intuition told him that the next time they set foot here, Stigma would need to accompany them as he might provide some answers they could not see.

'.....I just hope he can stomach this....'

While Felix and two others searched the area, one was given the task to stand guards and be the look out.

Unfortunately, as Felix continued his investigation from the sudden discovery, none had noticed a lone figure observing them in the distance by the shadows of the forest.

Silently giving his thoughts on what was before him.

'Hmm.....it appears as though someone has found the offerings again, but no matter. Even if another one had discovered this one. It does not change the situation in whole.....'

With his mind made up, the figure was about to raise his hand and pull out a weapons to perform his task in guarding the area, but when Felix and his companions removed their hoods and revealed their faces.

The figure immediately ceased all movements the moment he saw a familiar face among the men.

'....Where have I seen that man before.....Yes, I remember, he was with that white haired boy not long ago.....it appears as though fate is calling us earlier than expected....'

With an opportunity before him, instead of pulling out a weapon, the figure used his space ring and fished out a red lantern with a bluish light floating inside.

The lantern had an overall appearance of ghost lantern[1] with a dirty bandages wrapped around it and a very long tail in the end. Inside the lantern was a blue orb of light that floated aimlessly like a large firefly.

As the fire ball drifted in the air, the lantern illuminated its surface with a beautiful hue, but one can only question what kept the flame alive as it moved.

'Since I had only found one tribute, I can only use this for a limited time, better make it count.....em oot meht gnirB...'

As the figure chanted phrases of a bizarre dialect, patterns started to appear on the surface of the lantern as he it swung side to side like a pendulum like manner.

As the lantern moved, the space around him soon distorted, slowly melding him into the surroundings.

By the time one of the Boars men turned his head towards the figure position in the forest, the man had long vanished.

Mistaking it appear as though branches were moved by the wind.

Before he had a chance to ask what had happened, Felix's unease returned as he soon noticed a slight change to his vision. After lifting his head, Felix soon found his surroundings started to bend and stretch in unnatural manner.

'Shit....an illusion....trap.....!!!'

From the sudden change of his environment along with the heavy feeling in his heart, Felix could only kneel then deduce the cause of his sudden predicament and curse from his negligence.

When he turned towards his men to order an escape, Felix had found that they too were in a similar state of confusion and could not even lift their heads.

With limited options at hand, Felix could only force himself to stand and escape to call for help.

But each time he tried to stand at a certain height, Felix's vision became more erratic as the pressure of his heart increased, leaving him no choice but to kneel back down on one leg and submit to the trap.

'The trap is not meant for injuring us.....is it meant for capturing.....?'

As he slowly caught his breath, Felix started to hear a distorted voice, from what he assumed to be the perpetrator who had set the trap.

Sadly, with his breathing being limited, Felix could hardly comprehend what was happening.

'Hello young man...I need something from you.....I hope you can help me....'

By the time he realized it, Felix vision darkened as he fainted from the extreme sense of vertigo.

...

***

By the time the sky had turned dark, but festivities relating to gambling continued in the market. Yet Stigma continued to Cultivate in his inner world - a place that followed different laws of time.

Though he had used this method a number of times and was aware of the time displacement, Stigma was not fully aware on how far apart the timezone the inner world followed, forcing his body to remain an empty vessel.

Which, to an outsider's point of view, looked as though he was sleeping peacefully.

Nevertheless, only one individual was aware of Stigma's actual situation, but could not provide any form of assistance unless his cultivation had ended.

Which only made the Demon Sword Hilda's worry increase as time passed.

'Master.....when are you going to return....Last time it took an hour for you to wake up, why is he not waking up after four more hours....Wait!??!? Did something happened and Master is in danger!!!!'

'What should I do?!!!? I can't disturb the mental link or it might damage Master permanently, but five hours have past since the cultivation had began and I can still sense the mental link, so Master should be fine....But what if...'

As Hilda leaned on Stigma's side, rambling on with worry, Dusk remained staring into space.

While Kirin had longed climbed out of Stigma's clothes and snuggled onto his neck, yawning with its paws stretched out.

But one must not mistake their appearances to reflect their actual ability, true each one had a unique trait that puts them above each other, there was still a fatal weakness that each familiar had.

Dusk would be considered a perfect guard against all enemies, but the shadowy servant needed orders to move and needed specific instructions to perform it's task properly.

Kirin is a powerful Heavenly Beast species that can kill another beast larger than itself, but was still a coward before an actual beast that have lived in the wild through out its life as it was still a new born.

And, much to Hilda's dismay, the Demon Sword had intelligence to think and plan, but could not act on its own and needed to rely on the two familiars.

But with the lack of reaction to the Demon Swords concern, Hilda could only grumble with dissatisfaction to its fellow familiars.

Granted, there had been no disturbance as of late and they had not left Stigma's side, that did not stop Hilda's persistence to have it's fellow familiars give a verbal comply to its concern.

'How relaxed can these two be, for goodness sake...even if he is talented and strong, Master is still a young boy!!!!! We familiars are responsible for the Master's safety, so take it seriously!!!!!'

With two of the familiar rejecting to reply, Hilda could only scowl in anger.

Unfortunately, Hilda had misunderstood her fellow Familiars disposition to Stigma's situation, and were only confidence of their master's ability to survive.

But such a misunderstanding had lead the Demon Sword to repeatedly find faults and worry, to the point of unneeded paranoia.

'Dusk is but an obedient child that needs to be ordered around to move, while Kirin is but a puppy with an infant like mentality due to Master spoiling it. Can I trust these two for the task....Am I in the wrong for doubting them. No, no, no that would mean doubting Master's judgement in trusting them...'

As Stigma continued his slumber like cultivation, such thoughts continued to circle in the mind of the living weapon known as Hilda, who took charge of caring for it's master's body with her abilities of sensing the surrounding presence.

With the shadowy servant Dusk continued to hide in the shadows as a sentinel and Kirin, the Wolf Heavenly Beast, guarded Stigma's body in close proximity like a loyal guard dog.

No enemy would get near them without getting noticed, but that did not stop Hilda's unease to the unknown danger.

Although Stigma was currently in a position where he was vulnerable from moving, the white haired boy's body was presently inside a private tent owned by Emily Album Aurum, one of the richest merchants in the market that had the VIP treatment.

Which meant only her closest aids, Lara and Roger, are free to enter and leave without arousing suspicion to the surrounding guards.

As such, the familiar's presence were only for added protection and would only act in case of sudden emergencies.

But to the familiar's overall perspective, Emily's safety was only secondary while Stigma's life was their priority.

Even for Hilda, who held the most rational mindset among them, believed that Emily held no importance and only thought of her as a responsibility rather than an obligation.

And when the situation calls for it, Hilda decided to immediately order Dusk to abandon Emily and leave the market with Stigma's body regardless of his associates situation.

But make no mistake, these thoughts and actions were not out of cruelty but out of loyalty.

Since no form of danger was near their vicinity, Hilda's thoughts wondered over personal matters.

'.....Please return soon Master.....I feel like I'm on an island with no one to talk to....'

If any one had heard that Hilda described it's situation as being on an island, they would believe the statement was being overly dramatic unless they knew the truth of its origins.

Ever since Hilda gained awareness, from being a sword that had been buried for centuries turning it into a living object like those in the folklore's of Stigma's world[2], the Demon Sword had very little patience from isolation as it could not stand the thought of being abandoned again.

Hence the need for Stigma's presence and attention from time to time, and the recent worry of proving its worth to each situation.

It was not that Hilda could speak out in the open and interact with others people, the Demon Sword chose not too, as its true identity may cause harm to Stigma at his current level of strength.

Nevertheless, compared to the time it had spent being buried alone in the earth, Hilda was willing to tolerate the boredom of the lengthily silence.

As the Demon Sword now had a master who would recognize it's existence, along with two companion/subordinates to keep it company during his absence.

But that was under the assumption that Dusk would respond outside of orders, while Kirin would develop into a stage where it was capable of speaking in a clear sentence.

'Dusk aside, Kirin should be possible as it is a descendant of a Wolf Heavenly Beast that was able to speak in broken sentences. So there is a possibility for Kirin to speak once it grows older...but the question remain is, how long will it take?'

As the Demon Sword continued to ponder on the theory of the blue furred wolf's growth rate, a thought of relevance crossed its mind, when the topic of growth came to mind.

'Now that I think about it...How did Master even gain so much aura just by touching that bronze horn? And in such short time no less....Did Master receive insight from gazing at that odd piece? But that does not explain the sudden increase of his reserves.....'

After a few moments of silence, the Demon Sword could only give a logical solution with the information it had on hand.

'Is it possible Master is using an advance method for his Cultivation? That must be it!!! Master is a genius for discovering the solution from just gazing at a piece of garbage!!!! No, just by putting a theory into practice is already considered beyond genius!?!?!?! Especially for his age!!!!'

While Stigma was being praised from his supposed potential and intelligence, Hilda failed to notice that it had misunderstood it's master's abilities due to blinding loyalty, yet the topic was not far from the truth.

Especially when the item in question, known as the Bronze Horn, held significant value to Stigma for his Cultivation.

To an outsiders point of view, the item held no significance of any kind, as it's appearance was that of being low quality metal with its deformed shape of a common commodity.

But Stigma found it's true value after using his skill 'Essence Reader' and despite being downgraded, it was still revealed that is was part of a high ranking Heavenly Beast that still held an abundant reserve of aura.

In which Stigma believed to rival even the Demon Imp in ogre form.

Other than Stigma, none had yet seen the true value of the Bronze, classifying it as a priceless treasure where he could not imagine trading.

As such, Hilda was unable to understand why such an object held importance to be treasured, especially when it could not be compared to itself in combat.

As for Hilda's assumption that Stigma was using an advance method of Cultivation, that was mainly due to one reason - the number of steps being attempted.

Cultivation via Meditation, in general, is but a basic mental exercise that requires Cultivators to follow three processes:

Concentration. Circulation. Refinement.

Lastly, the unspoken step known as patience.

The first step was for Cultivators to empty their mind of all types of distraction, then concentrate on how to image their aura once they release it. Such as imaging fire that draws oxygen and the need of wood to grow stronger or water lowering it's temperature to freeze into ice.

Which led to the next steps in where the Cultivator is to draw the surrounding energy with their own aura as the center - like a magnet or an eye of a storm.

A crucial part for Cultivator was for them to contain the said energy inside their body, then circulate it through their meridians, during which they must refine the energy by mixing their own aura.

Likewise, mixing one's own aura with the foreign energy takes up most of a Cultivators time and concentration, hence the unspoken step of patience.

While the minimum requirements for Advance level Cultivation technique needed more than ten step with a harsh to impossible requirements for a Cultivator to attempt it.

To Hilda's perspective and understanding to her Master's explanation, Stigma's Cultivation training was classified under the advance level category, due to the possibility of having ten to eleven steps or maybe more.

Although unaware to most Cultivation techniques, Hilda understood the logic on how they were developed. Dictating that the more steps a Cultivation method had, the more powerful the Cultivation method was.

Which Hilda believed to be the reason on why Stigma had an above average strength despite his age and physical size of a child.

But one must not mistake the simple logic behind the development of a Cultivation.

The more steps a Cultivation method, is equal to the difficulty behind the requirements that a Cultivator will need to meet in order to reach a higher Tier.

Unless a Cultivator was given guidance with a Senior present, it would also be to impossible for even a member of a prestigious clan to learn it unless one of their present members had already learned it.

Even learning at a young would be difficult, as it would take up most of their life to understand the principle behind it.

So it was justifiable for Hilda to believe that Stigma was a genius to understand a difficult Cultivation and reach a breakthrough in a short amount of time, especially to someone in his age group without a mentor.

But to dive deeper in the subject, that would require Stigma's presence for him to verify such claims, along with further discussion to understand the significance behind his Cultivation technique.

And it was at that moment, Hilda had suddenly felt Stigma's aura slowly growing stronger from his body, indicating his return was near.

With that in mind, Hilda's worry slowly faded, but soon remembered a peculiar incident that had been pushed aside as it was unrelated to it's Master condition.

'....Come to think of it, something about that recent earthquake seemed.....rather strange..... it didn't feel natural from the aura it produced.....it felt consistent as if it did not belong to one source.....was it my imagination.....but it felt somewhat....familiar....'

When such thoughts circled its mind, Hilda could only grunt from its poor memory and continued to ponder on the mystery behind the recent event that shocked the entire market.