Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Puzzle and Piece

Chapter 3

The girl woke up silently from her sleep and, for a few minutes, stood still and looked at the ceiling in her room. Had it not been for the various feelings beyond her door drawing her attention she may have kept her eyes on the unfamiliar ceiling for hours. 

The girl headed to the built-in bathroom and spent 20 minutes cleaning herself up. Once done she put on her new clothes. Her clothes were simple, a plain gray t-shirt, brown pants, and simple black and white sneakers.

“Before I start selling any info on the lab, I need to physically find it first. Its exact location wasn’t described in the novel and with the illusion still up, probably until the Light King dies, whoever I’m selling to won’t be able to confirm the lab’s existence and likely won’t pay me if they can’t…” 

The girl began organizing her backpack. Taking all the clothes out and putting her water bottle and notebook inside. “There should be maps at the front counter…”, said the girl as she gazed at the door.

The main cause of the girl’s anxiety wasn’t the fact that she was now in a novel series or that her plan involved finding a lab hidden by one of the strongest beings in the world, but the feelings she felt past the door.

Compared to yesterday, the girl’s perception of the ‘feelings’ increased. It was easier for her to differentiate the feelings from each other. 

“I’d been putting off thinking about these feelings before but looking back, Daniel gave off a feeling like the ones past the door. Going off the novel the only thing I could be sensing is Essence, but I’m not even a mage, how the hell could I be sensing that?”

The girl began pondering for a few minutes over her questions. Though she eventually stopped with no clear conclusion in mind.

“Whether it’s Essence or something else I still need to find Gaul’s lab, I’ll figure this out once I get into the Combat Institute and get an instructor”  

The girl took a few breaths before grabbing at the door handle and leaving the room. 

Taking a look outside the room left the girl slightly surprised as she had no idea what the interior of the Mercenary HQ could look like. Although the interior was described in the novel they were minor, irrelevant details that she’d forgotten about.

The girl entered a hallway that looked reminiscent of a hotel and found, what looked to be, several other rooms beside her own in the hallway. She had also spotted a staircase to her right.

“So these are the other spare rooms for high-ranking members. Then is the upper floor for appraisers?”, the girl pondered to herself before descending the staircase.

The girl’s reaction to the HQ was similar to the hallway, with no particular expectations and slight surprise. The HQ was designed in a way close to Adventurer Guilds in RPGs, though held a somewhat modern design. The best way to describe it would be if the reception area of a hotel got combined with Adventurer Guilds in games. 

Since the girl was up relatively early there were few people present, with most being staff. After a moment of observation, the girl headed to what looked like a receptionist. 

The receptionist had short light brown hair with bright blue eyes covered by glasses. Though those blue eyes carried a look of astonishment and curiosity as they began studying the girl.

“U-uhh… Hello. Could I have a map, please? One of the Caran woods?”, the girl mustered timidly.

With the girl’s words, the receptionist’s eyes lost their scrutinizing trait though they continued observing her. 

“...Yes”, the receptionist disappeared for about a minute before returning with a map looking to be in good condition.

“Thank you, how much is this?”, the girl began reaching for the spare money in her pocket but was stopped by the receptionist.

“You can just keep it. Physical maps for ordinary locations are somewhat archaic, that map has been collecting dust for a while”. 

“Oh. Thanks”, the girl had begun turning away from the receptionist but, as if forgetting something, turned back towards her.

“Is there public transportation I could take to get there?”, the girl sheepishly asked, much to the amusement of the receptionist.

“Heh. Yes, there’s a bus stop 2 blocks from here to the left, the next bus will head in toward there about… 12 minutes from now”

“Okay, thanks again…” 

Now with a muffin and an orange, the girl was out of the building and walking toward the bus stop.

******

*****

Currently, the girl was on the bus, waiting to reach her stop as well as though she had something on her mind while waiting.

‘Why are people looking at me?’

Since the girl had gotten on the train all of the passengers had snuck glances at her, though some went along with their business others would look back at her once again.

‘It’s the same as at the HQ. Before, I thought then it was because I passed out in front of the building but now I’m starting to think its something else

The girl then took her map out of her backpack and began thinking of the lab.

‘This can wait, I need to focus on where the lab is?’

While the lab’s location was mentioned it was another one of those small negligible details she had forgotten about.

‘The lab was discovered by young children so it likely wasn’t deep in the forest, and the children were playing near water when they discovered it so it's definitely near a stream. There are 4 streams in the Woods and the only one not far into the woods is the Delta Stream’

Once the girl was done she folded the map up and put it in her pocket and started pondering on how to find the lab at the stream.

‘The lab was discovered by children playing near it after some kind of storm hit the area. With how much emphasis the book put on the storm it was definitely what caused the kids to find it but without it to mess up the area I can’t just stumble onto it…’

Just as the girl’s confusion was growing, the train reached its stop and it was time to get off.

The girl pulled out her map as she got off the bus and started walking toward the woods and stream.

*****

  

*****

After 20 minutes of walking the girl finally reached the stream.

“Finally… Now the hard part…”, the girl started walking around, hoping to find anything close to a lab entrance but after 5 minutes of walking all around the stream, she found nothing.

“Ugh… Well, it was worth trying. While the storm was definitely the reason why the lab was found, I’d say it somehow activated something that opened it up rather than conveniently destroying the entrance. So I’ll need to find the puzzle and its final piece, somehow”

Although this was what the girl thought, she had no way to find either. The stream simply felt like a normal stream, nothing stood out.

The girl spent around 10 minutes trying to find things that looked strange, but everything was just normal. 

“Argh! This is so stupid! I can’t find anything at all!”, the girl screamed in irritation at her lack of progress.

Feeling tired from the walking and searching, the girl took a heavy sigh and decided to take a seat and started staring at the stream. The girl stayed like this for a few minutes, with no thought in her mind, just looking at the water. 

Then, the girl felt something moving in the water. The feeling she had felt from the mercenaries had returned only now in a stream.

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“Hmm?”, with her thoughts returned the girl got up and started moving toward the feeling. 

Just as the girl got closer to the stream the feeling came closer and closer, and closer, then It drew her attention in a way that could be anything but ordinary. 

As the girl was staring at the movement in the water a streak of gold flew out into the air. It was only once it was back in the water and moving away did the girl begin to perceive what she saw.

“That was… a Marlau?”, the girl was left stunned for a few moments after seeing it for the first time. 

Marlaus are uncommon and are generally found in the other streams deeper in the Caran Woods, rarely are they found in the Delta Stream, with the reason being…

“A monster… Did I just sense a monster?! It felt similar to the mercenaries but… wait… I’m so dumb!”, the girl’s eyes suddenly widened and she began pacing back and forth in excitement.

“This weird sense of mine, I forgot about it completely since I wasn’t feeling it on the bus and was thinking about the stares and the lab. If both monsters and mercenaries are giving off the same vibe then I’m sensing Essence, right? So couldn’t I use it to sense the puzzle or piece? If it’s made by the Light King it’s definitely made up of Essence, right? Maybe?”

Hoping to put her hypothesis to the test the girl entered a meditative position, controlled her breathing, and tried focusing on her sense, the keyword being “Tried”.

The girl didn’t practice or understand her new sense, and with the only present stimuli being the fleeting Marlau she was having trouble focusing on anything and after around 23 minutes, gave up.

“Aughhh… I can’t do this! Focusing is hard enough on its own but when there’s nothing to sense it's just impossible!” 

 

The girl left her meditative position and fell to the floor exasperated. 

“What am I supposed to do? If I ever really wanted to hear something I could always just focus on my ears but there’s no sensory organ for my new sense to focus on… If it's a sixth sense then why is it so hard to use?!”, the girl groaned to herself as she sat up, drank some of her water, and began to breathe.

‘The lab is definitely here, but how do I find it…’

“I thought I just needed to focus but… it's like I can only react. Like I’m blind and can only see things in front of me…”

Suddenly the girl sat up, her vigor depleted but not gone.

“Maybe if I move around the stream while focusing I’ll be able to react to the puzzle or piece. Though if I’m moving I won’t be able to focus as well, if I could find it with half-assed focus then I would’ve found it way earlier… Maybe…” 

The girl walked to her backpack, replaced her water bottle with a tissue and tore it into 4 pieces, then stuck them into her ears and nostrils, and took a good look at the area before finally closing her eyes.

“With 3 senses blocked off my brain should have an easier time focusing on the sixth sense, right? Here’s hoping…”

With that, the girl began slowly moving around the stream. It took a while to adjust to moving throughout the stream with 3 senses suppressed but she began slowly adapting to it, though not without stumbling and falling.

Throughout this process the girl stopped thinking once again, only focusing on finding any kind of feeling. 

At some point, the girl decided to take a risk and head to the water. Its cold temperature was likely to disrupt her focus though her lack of progress made her feel it was worth it.

The girl moved along the stream and eventually felt something. Not the nothing that she’s been feeling this whole time, but something. The girl could barely stop herself from diving in after the feeling and instead put her hand through the water in an attempt to feel it.

The cold water almost pulled her out of focus though she kept on, touching the thing radiating the feeling, it was like a hole that held a jagged shape on the inside. As the girl began touching the hole, something inside her clicked. She could perceive the feeling much easier and she felt another feeling just identical to it nearby.

“Woah!”, the girl cried in excitement as she opened her eyes and removed the pieces of tissue, and ran to the 2nd feeling. 

A large pile of rocks had been emitting the feeling and after pulling away about several rocks she held a seemingly ordinary rock that was emitting the identical feeling as the hole.

“The puzzle and piece… hahaha!”, the girl began laughing in joy at finally finding a way into the lab. 

“Now that I’m up close and holding it’s weird how I didn’t notice this immediately…”

The girl put on the rock and her backpack and began leaving the woods.

“I’m 99% sure if I put the rock in the hole it’ll open the lab but if I just open it right now it’ll be wide open for anyone to see, report, and gain a reward for. I'll save it for when I'm selling the location”, the girl thought out loud to herself.

*****

*****

“Owen”, an old, gruff voice called out.

“Yes”, a young adult with sun-kissed skin walked in, responding to the gruff voice.

“The talisman from my old lab has been taken. I want you to find who took it and tell me about them”

“Your old lab? Okay, should I take it back?”

“No, everything in it is either of no use to me anymore or is useless to anyone on the continent. I just want to know who managed to find and take the talisman. Although it wasn’t the best hidden I still assimilated its Essence with the environment, so for it to be found is exceptional”.

“Hmm, alright”, as Owen was about to leave the gruff voice called out to him.

“Before you go, how do you think the talisman was taken?”, the gruff voice asked in an amused tone.

After a few moments of thought, Owen spoke up.

“There are 3 possibilities I can think of. The 1st is that someone stumbled on it through dumb luck, though unlikely since if you hid it then it’d be in a place you’d have to search closely to take”.

The gruff voice began nodding at Owen as he continued.

“The 2nd possibility is that someone with amazing sensory abilities found it by chance, though I couldn’t see someone with such skill being on the Aries Continent, even if they’re a diamond in the rough”.

“And the 3rd?”, the gruff voice asked.

“The 3rd possibility is that someone knew about the talisman and lab. If you know something is there then you can put your all into sensing and finding it, though…”

“Unlikely. Only you and a few other close friends know where the lab is”, the gruff voice cut in.

“Exactly all of these possibilities, though technically possible, are…”

“Unlikely, that’s why I want to know so badly who took it”.

“...Do you love cutting me off? Anyway, I’ll get to it”, Owen began walking away annoyed, with small chuckles leaking out of the gruff voice.