Chapter 15 - A New Life

Jamaal had been walking through the forest for a day now, hunting when hungry, resting when tired. He was now halfway through the journey and, luckily, everything was going smoothly.

The boy surveyed his surroundings to see the usual trees. However, on the map, he saw something quite interesting.

At the edge of the map, it seemed like the forest was running out as plain green fields were beginning to appear, causing him to smile and let out a breath of relief.

"Finally, I've been walking for so long... Finally, I can get out of this forest. I must've walked a good dozen miles already." He mumbled, speeding up his pace.

As he was walking through the forest, Jamaal heard the sound of hooves walking upon the dirt, a horse or what seemed like a horse, snorting as it breathed heavily.

"Neigh!" Whatever it was, it neighed as the sounds of the animal got closer.

The teen heard the sound and hid behind a tree, closing in on the noise to see a dirt path, imprints of footprints and animal prints in the stirred up mud. He glanced at the oncoming sound as he hid behind a tree and saw a creature covered in silver metallic armour on the road.

The gear seemed to be bejewelled with an array of black, blue and red gems. A burly man or woman, someone or something, sitting on the creature wearing thick plated armour with a double-bladed axe on their back. Their identity, gender or species unknown.

It was then where Jamaal was faced with a decision, go out, meet the person, talk to him or her. There probably would be a language barrier. However, the boy was pretty sure the system could fix that. Other than that, it might be someone that wouldn't help, a bandit or an enemy. Another thing he could do is to follow the person and go where they did.

Ultimately though, Jamaal could only follow the person, he didn't want to die and restart his journey so he could only follow that person. And so, once the mounted person had gone ahead, the boy followed behind, trying to make as little noise as possible.

About thirty minutes later, the person stopped, getting off their mount as they put a hand on the handle of their axe.

"You can come out now." A deep, masculine voice sounded out from within the helmet. An unknown thick accent evident in each word he spoke.

Jamaal froze, his amateur sneaking had caused the boy to be found out by the person he was following. Now he had to come out or else he would most likely die. Getting up from his crouched position, he walked out, hands in the air as he looked at the figure ahead of him.

"I mean no harm, I want to go to the nearest settlement, that's all. I've been in this forest for days."

"I'm sorry... Don't." He hesitantly spoke, not sure if the other person could understand him.

The man didn't say anything, instead just looking forward towards Jamaal, hand still holding the handle of the axe which was on his back.

"I mean it. I want to go to the nearest settlement, that's it. Please help me," The teen quickly said, knowing that if he did fail to convince this man, he would probably die. Following him had made things worse so it would be quite a hard thing to convince him.

"How can I trust you? You were following me for some time and would've continued to follow me had I not stopped. For all I know, you could be a Revolution spy."

"What... Revolution spy? I'm speaking the truth goddamnit, please just bring me to the nearest settlement, that's all I want." The teen stuttered, unsure what to say or do.

"I'm too weak to be some spy, I just want to get out of this stupid forest and be free," Jamaal didn't know what else to say, taking a step back.

"You. I can't trust you, but I can get you out of this forest. But only if you give me your name, your reason for being in this forest and if you have any knowledge of why the Goblin Horde was so active a few nights ago. You were here then no?" The man spoke slowly, still extremely careful in regards to the boy's movements. Any suspicious moves and the axe would come out from it's resting place on the knight's back. Any more activity that was suspicious would then result in Jamaal's head getting chopped off.

Jamaal's eyes slightly widened. He was the cause of the Goblin Horde gathering up. That made fact made him worry. He didn't say anything about that, instead just doing the other things the man had asked.

"My name is Jamaal. I don't know how I came to this forest. I think I might have just wandered into it and got lost, I can't remember." He lied on that part.

"And I know nothing about the goblin horde..." He lied once more and sighed, taking a deep breath.

"Just take me out of this forest, please..." He glanced at the man and took one step forward.

The man sighed and took his hand off the weapon.

"Fine. I will help you. But if I find you lied, you will be in a lot of trouble. Anyways, you don't look like a spy, nor does it seem you're as strong as one. What's your level?" The man asked, grabbing the reins of the creature he rode and walking closer to the boy.

"What... Levels? How does he know about that? What?" Jamaal thought, shocked, he couldn't ask how the stranger knew so instead he just spoke honestly.

"Um... Level four,"

"Level four? You're quite high for your age. You have the same level as a typical adult of your species. Maybe when you reach Aldmore Village, you can check what your level is. It should've been quite a while since you checked your level on the Armerlyn Crystal and considering how you survived here, it probably increased."

"Uh. Yeah," Jamaal said, noting down what knowledge he had just gained before nodding.

"Let's go... Quickly." He walked up to the two and soon, they were on their way, travelling through the forest as he thought of the memories he had made here.

It had been quite sad, some of them, some happy.

He glanced at the gradual increase of grasslands on the map and took a deep breath.

"Its time for a new future... A new life."