Hunters: The Prequel - Chapter 245

“Agh” Mane groaned as he held his head. The splitting headache forced him to fall back onto the bed he so desperately wanted to rise up from. He tried to open his eyes to better understand his situation, but even that felt like a herculean task. Panting heavily from his repeated tries to get off the bed, Mane finally decided to wait for a while until he recovered his fleeting strength. After feeling his strength return to his body, Mane tried to lift himself up again. This time, he succeeded. Instinctively grabbing hold of the bed’s railings, Mane gradually opened his eyes.

After his eyes had accustomed themselves to the light, Mane took a good look around. The first thing to register itself was the bed. It was a simple one person bed, and looked too small for even a housecat to fit in with him. Next to the bed was a strange looking table with what Mane assumed as a teapot, placed right on top of it. Light invaded the room from the small window close to the table. The window was situated close to the ceiling, and next to the window was a small shelf that held what looked very much like a lamp. The room smelt strange, but it wasn’t a particularly bad smell. Rather, it was a smell Mane could recognize.

“Herbs” Mane mumbled in a husky voice even he didn’t recognize as his own. The baritone voice that came out of his parted lips surprised him for a while, but his attention was swiftly robbed away by the source of the smell. The smell was coming from the teapot. Mane tried standing. He steadied himself with the bed’s railing and held onto it for some time for balance. When he finally felt that it was okay to move, he took a small step forward.

“Mmm” Mane squeaked as he took the second step. Although he took only two steps, sweat fell from his face profusely as he struggled with a task he never considered difficult – walking.

“Who knew that it was so difficult” Mane mumbled as he reached the table and held on to it. He released one of his arms – an anchor that kept him from falling by holding on to the table – and slowly raised the teapot’s lid. The speed at which he lifted the lid wasn’t because of his cautiousness, but because what should have been a light cover, felt like a heavy boulder. Mane didn’t know if it was because of his terrible condition that the lid felt so heavy, or if the lid was just naturally heavy. The former seemed like the more likely option, since it didn’t make sense for anyone to make a teapot out of a heavy metal.

“With my strength, I should have no problem lifting heavy metal gates, not to mention a teapot” Mane smiled. However, when he tried to circulate his inner energy to alleviate some of his pain, his smile disappeared.

“How come I can’t use any inner energy” Mane was stunned at the unwelcome development?

“It is part of the test” a foreign voice interrupted, and caused Mane to stumble and almost fall. Luckily, the one who spoke was ready for this and didn’t allow him to fall. Mane floated slowly to the bed, and was gently placed on it. The newcomer made herself available once she had successfully placed Mane on the bed. It was a creature that was similar to a human, but was several times smaller. It had large beautiful wings and flapped them gently to stay above ground.

“Do you remember me?” the creature asked

“Yeah,” Mane nodded his head and continued, “You’re that fairy – Hildegarde.”

“Great” the fairy excitedly flew onto his chest so he didn’t have to keep lifting his head to see her. “Do you remember how you got here,” she continued with her enquiry?

“There was a panel. A test. I was asked if I was ready and I said yes. That’s all I can remember” Mane tried to recall the events before his sudden unconsciousness, but that was all he could come up with.

“To be honest, that’s all that happened. After you selected ‘Yes’, we were sent to the world where your test would take place. Usually, you should have been able to see the destination and the way to pass the test before you got here, but because you are a special case, that didn’t happen. The testing ground was completely random, and from the little the Fairy King told me, I know that you can look up those details once you will it. It’s kind of like how Spiritualists use Spirit Scan. But this time, you only have to wish that you can see your ‘Status’ and it would appear. You must keep in mind however, that what would appear may not be accurate. For instance, your age may be the age chosen for the test, and not your true age”

The fairy informed Mane. When Mane tried to do what she said, she quickly stopped him and said, “Don’t try it now. Your mind is currently a mess, which is why you are experiencing a migraine. Wait for a while. When the pain subsides, then you can try it out.” Mane nodded and didn’t refute her words. Mainly because it made sense.

“For now, just concentrate on getting some sleep” Hildegarde kindly advised and Mane didn’t reject her. He closed his eyes and before long, fell into a deep sleep.

Mane woke up at night. He could tell it was night time simply because the window that was the gateway for the light of the noonday sun, was still opened but no light came through it. The object that looked like a lamp was indeed a lamp. It brightened up the room and produced some much needed warmth.

“How long was I asleep?” Mane raised his head and trunk, and dragged himself towards the headboard. He no longer found it difficult to move his body, and the headache was mostly gone. He leaned on the headboard and found his chaperone looking at the contents of the teapot.

“5 hours” Hildegarde answered, but her attention was still on the contents of the pot.

“What are you doing?” Mane asked. Although it was obvious that she was looking at the contents of the pot, Mane wanted to know why she was so focused on it. While it was true that he also wanted to know of its contents, it was mainly to see if it contained medicine or not. Mane just wanted to confirm if it was the source of the medicinal smell in the room. But Hildegarde studied the contents like there was something else in it. So naturally, Mane wanted to know what it was.

“Analysing the herbs in the pot” Hildegarde replied

“Why?” Mane wondered

“I thought maybe that would tell us where we are” Hildegarde stated and Mane understood immediately what she meant. She attempted to find out where they were since the only person who could do that was asleep. But now that Mane was awake, there was no need for that. His headache had subsided and he could find out where they were.

“I’m awake now, so why the continued interest? What did you find?” Mane was curious as to what she had found that had kept her so invested in the teapot. Since he was up, she should have ignored the pot since he could have simply checked his ‘Status’; but she was still checking the contents of the pot.

“Nothing” Hildegarde turned to face Mane. Her furrowed brows made her look especially cute.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I have been to several test areas in the Dreamscape, and I have seen a lot of things. Even with the worlds I have never been to, I would be able identify them if I had a few clues. After all, every fairy studies the worlds and test areas of the Dreamscape; and we are only allowed to become lower ranked fairies when we graduate from our academy. Yet I cannot recognize any of the items in the pot. They have high medicinal qualities, but I have no idea what they are”

Mane finally understood what she meant by nothing. It seemed that her lack of knowledge concerning the herbs had disturbed her. And from her words, it was obvious that wherever they were, it wasn’t part of the worlds she knew of. It was likely that it was a whole new place. Mane didn’t find that strange. His circ.u.mstances were out of the books, so it made sense that his test would also be unique.

“Are you feeling better?” Hildegarde asked as she flew away from the teapot and onto Mane’s shoulder.

“Yeah. I should be able to see my ‘Status’ now” Mane nodded and willed for his ‘Status’ to appear. He had a lot of experience using Spirit Scan, so it wasn’t difficult.

Name: Mane

Age: 15

Physical Attributes – Strength: 1.5

Agility: 1.9

Stamina: 1.2

Test Difficulty: Chaos

Testing Ground: Chaotic Era

Goal: End Goal – Become Chaos

Daily Quest – Each day a quest would be given that gradually leads to the end goal. Each daily quest must be accomplished for rewards and to draw closer to completing the test. The completion rate is shown below

Daily Quest: Find out about this world and understand your situation.

Difficulty – Very Easy

Completion Rate: 0.00

Mane smiled bitterly after looking at his physical attributes and the vague explanation of the goal. “I know as little as I did before I read this,” he laughed.