Chapter 124: Chapter. 109: Quarantine Zone

I awoke a few hours later, the man was nowhere to be seen. It was a bit unreal to stare at the brightly lit room once more. There was a weird cleanliness to the air, it simply felt unnaturally pure. I turned to my side and much as expected, there was no Glim. I was fully alone in this place, and I was admittedly a bit lost.

I frowned. What can I even do? Maybe I was being overly cautious, but considering my situation, it was definitely best to not do anything related to the trial for as long as I wasn’t alone. I was unsure if the man had a skill to know what I was doing, or some incredibly high perception that would allow him to see me. Browsing the encyclopedia was definitely a bad idea all things considered.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I remembered that I wanted to check my skill options. Given that I had nothing to do, I quickly opened the skill menu to check the suggested skills.

[These are the most suited skills for you:

[Skill ⁠— Touch of Life (Epic Passive) ⁠— All of your mana has higher vitality for the plants you create. Your mana inside of plants lasts thrice longer.]

[Skill ⁠— Sanguine Bloom (Epic) ⁠— Your blood is the basis of all the dark plants. It can be shifted and sprouted into any type of dark plant you know of. You are a seed, the herald of dark plants.]

[Skill ⁠— Essence Reaver (Epic) ⁠— Essence can be plundered and taken.]

The options continued but I did not see anything worth⁠— well, Sanguine Bloom was incredibly appealing, but I chose to hold off on it now. I closed the skill options and shook my head, perhaps I would find something better in a few more levels. I was unsure if to check every 5 levels, but for now that wasn’t something to worry about.

I thought about it for a few more moments, and Sanguine Bloom was amazing⁠. Unfortunately, in the place I was in, it might as well be useless. It sucked, considering the forest would turn against me at any sign of blood. Meanwhile, the Essence Reaver skill was confusing, at the same time I still did not understand what the term ‘essence’ referred to. It was inside the Feat Untamed One as well. I closed my eyes for a few seconds.

Quarantine zone. The term was certainly scary. At the same time, things had changed in unforeseeable ways. Elasia had also said she’d do anything for me, I doubted it was something lightly said, but it did add to the gravity of the situation. Still, things were dangerous for me, even though I was technically in a safe place. Lumina’s journal, one of the opening sentences, still stuck to me.

Why is it wrong to exist?

I didn’t know. I doubted Lumina had a choice in her affinity, I didn’t either, it was just⁠— I was born with it. The thought of people wanting me death over something I had no control over angered me, though perhaps I was overthinking things⁠— maybe the man wouldn’t kill me if he found out I had a dark plant affinity, but I wasn’t willing to just reveal it. Maybe ask questions about things, about what they mean.

It was said that a dark plant forest would normally be left alone, but… the real question was: Why would it be left alone? Unfortunately, there were things I needed to know before doing anything.

Still, the man had said to make myself at home. With that in mind, I stood up with a small sigh and looked around the room. There were a lot of things I did not understand, how was there even shelter like this when the entire outside world was nothing but death. Meanwhile, I felt no danger here.

I still had my spear and bow, they were lying on the ground, clearly staining it with dirt. I got a hold of them, perching them on my back, and began to explore the place. It was akin to a large square with some doors lining up the walls. Strips of different colored metal as decorations, and flashing lights.

I frowned as I wandered over to the table. The room I was in, held two couches with a small table in between, a large table and something that looked like a kitchen⁠. The large table itself was made out of metal with a leg at the center, and the top was made out of what seemed to be glass with flashing lights. I approached it and stood by its side, examining the lights only to notice floating texts.

Crimson Stretch. There was a small ball next to it. And the words continued hanging next to each small colorful balls. Sanguine Desert, Void Region. It was a bit strange to me, since I thought they were planets. They were all very far apart, and then I noticed thin lines connecting all of them.

Quarantine Zone ⁠— Lueya Asteroid Belt.

I didn’t really understand the whole, stars or space, or even how people traveled from one planet to the other, but it was certainly interesting. Just as I was about to touch the glass, out of curiosity and other things, the door of the outside opened and the man walked in, in his signature flashy metal armor.

He paused briefly as he cast his gaze over me before walking over.

“I see you are making yourself at home,” he commented. “Trying to understand your situation too.”

I chose to not reply, instead focusing on what he was doing. His hand traced over the glass, and the tip of his finger shone with yellow mana as the letters changed amidst the table. The ball with the name tag Crimson Stretch moved and was expanded to cover the entire glass ⁠— I saw land and a map of the whole planet.

“I’ll explain things. As you can guess, we are here.” I nodded and he continued, while spinning the planet. I saw black regions, I saw desert regions, and I saw normal regions. “The black is the dark plant populace, as you can see it covers over half of the planet. The desert and other plants don’t really matter, well⁠— the desert is home to extremely dangerous level 200 creatures. But nothing you or I should concern ourselves over.”

I had a moment of pause before speaking. “What is the average level on this planet?”

“Level 163,” he said without pause. “However the dark plant forest has killed B grade beings, hence its a classified area. If you found yourself here because of a trial, tough luck. I do believe in following my morals and not inquiring further about it, but you might want to let the time run out and go back to wherever you came from.”

“Are dark plants…” I gulped. “What do they mean? Is there an affinity for them? They look strong…”

He shook his head in silence before speaking once more. “They are incredibly strong. A dark plant affinity holder is generally killed on the spot or enslaved.” I felt my heart beat faster. “That said, the plants can’t exactly leave the planet, and getting rid of the stupid forest has been tried before, so it’s generally left alone. Only maniacs would come here anyway⁠, to research or run experiments.”

“What about it being classified?”

“People can’t bother to constantly monitor it, and well this time around it led to an issue.” He sighed. “About a week ago the Blight Corruption was found out, and now it’s been completely quarantined.”

I frowned. “What is this Blight Corruption?”

“Something created, an artificial thing made out of dark plant research. At the same time, the two don’t exactly mix well. Dark plants take life, but also are alive, blight is⁠— it just turns things into some shell of their former selves. The wolfes and the lycans you see around were about 40 levels higher.”

My concern increased as soon as he said that. “So the reason for the quarantine is to stop the blight?”

“That is right. I’m trying to find the source and destroy it.”

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“And how do you go about finding it?” I asked with more curiosity than ever.

“Good question. I just trace the population of the Blight Corrupted Monsters and see where they come from. Alternatively, if there was a C grade Dark plant affinity user they’d be able to just ask the forest, but well, the last one that was available at the Legacy of Brilliance kind of⁠— died.”

“I see. So if I was aware of someone that had Dark plant affinity, they’d get enslaved or killed?”

“Pretty much,” he mused. “Do you happen to know someone?”

I shook my head. “I killed them.”

“You did a great job. The Legacy would be proud.”

I wanted to ask what the Legacy of Brilliance even was, but it was probably best if I kept my mouth shut about it.

“Anyway,” he continued. “That is all, Realm Breaker. Make yourself at home while your trial ends and I deal with things. It is best that you don’t leave this place.” With those words he left the table and headed to a different room.

I felt some confusion, and some annoyance. “Is there a reason why you’re helping me?”

He paused before a door. “Not exactly. It’s just what I do. I help people.”

With those words he entered the room and I was alone once more. What is my situation even? For now I had to at least get familiar with the living space I was in.

◇ ◇ ◇

I took his advice and decided to ‘make myself at home’ by exploring every little corner of the square room I first found myself in. The big table was interactive, but I found it very hard to control. The couches were simply to lounge around, but the kitchen was full of drawers and utensils. I found food inside a cold compartment, but I decided against taking any of the weird things that were there.

The ground was clean of filth or dust, so were the walls. And at that moment I saw something come from a corner of the wall, it was a disk that moved on the floor with small mandibles. I found it slightly unnerving since I did not sense it, and it had no presence whatsoever. Soon, it reached the dirt from the bow and spear and ate it. It was a strange monster it seemed⁠— except for the fact that inquiry would only return the material it was made out of.

Soon, the disk returned to the corner of the wall and literally went inside of it. It was confusing, but I decided to check out the other rooms. The doors themselves seemed to open by themselves as soon as I got too close, which was a bit confusing, but something I quickly accepted.

I browsed through the rooms, and found a bedroom that was completely empty, I found a bathroom, and a strange room with weird looking furniture⁠—pieces of metal with heavy blocks to the side. Bars with disks on either side, and some other strange contraptions that seemed to be able to be moved. The final room was where the man had gone into.

I approached it, only to have it open by itself and see a bedroom. It was messy and had a lot of random things strewn about, and on the bed there was the man. He seemed much older than I imagined, and without armor I could clearly see his scar filled body and his toned muscles.

He let out a grunt as he turned.

“Do you need something, Realm Breaker?”

“I was just exploring the house.” I said with a small scoff.

“Ah I see. Well, this is my room. There is a free room, so feel free to take that one.”

He turned away, and at that moment a weird question popped into my mind. I didn’t want to sit in this place forever, and I also wanted to grow stronger.

“Can I come with you to destroy the Blight?”

“You are joking right?” He turned once more. “You are nowhere near strong enough.”

“Then, can you at least take me to get some levels? I mean, I was kind of doing that before you showed up.”

He frowned. “I did save you from that treant that was about to kill you. What is stopping you from going outside and trying to kill things?”

I paused, not wanting to even dare hint at the fact that the treant was mine. My mind whirred as I attempted to look for some kind of excuse, and then⁠— I had it.

“The trial requires me to reach level 100, if I get there then I should be able to leave faster. I was hoping you could help me.”

He closed his eyes thinking before letting out a long sigh. “Fine, I’ll help you kill shit.” Before I could say anything else he continued. “But not today, I’ll let you know when.” With those words, he turned and slept.

I frowned, and left the room. There were a few things in my mind, but I idly wondered if it was alright to lie about the trial. At the same time, I also had secrets to hide⁠— I closed my eyes.

It’s going to be alright.