Strings tied

In the dark embrace of silence within the cage of the wet forest, change occurred within the very laws or nature of its existence, to be specific, an enhancement or upgrade of a present law and anomaly. Due to the change, something's descent is inevitable, through fireflies of light.

A congregation of energy appeared from a space that holds none, it gathered into a form that one can recognize, changing colors to suit the real form of the creature. It was a relatively small snake, far from the brute force of a python or most slithering species.

It slowly starts to move within the grasses and bushes, its dark night complexion that devours even the purest light, is barely visible in the cold and wet vibe of its lush surroundings, may god's mercy come to its pitiful prey.

It seems to be a bit confused, looking around a bit, flickering its tongue like there is no tomorrow. Its beady and predatory eyes, inspecting the nature of the woods it has arrived to, the mustiness of the earth and the bitter of the plants, both foreign and familiar to its sharp sense of smell.

But suddenly, its aimless movements' attention is directed in a certain direction, as if sensing a creature it wishes to kill, to eat. Despite the new target of its mind, its movements still seems to be a bit slow, maybe it's conserving energy? Some may ask.

Its speed is low but is intricately maintained in a steady pace, like a white cloud gathering water for the time it bursts into a shower. The watery dirt is marked by the body of the snake, bits of water came out to say bonjour in the process of it.

In a corner between 2 trees is a fat chicken, its figure looking like a cheap inflated balloon, or the plumage of a flower bouquet, gifts of a lover to a loved when the time of love comes in its full glory, where lone birds either don't care or wallow in despair.

It's chirping like the bird it is, it is a bit confused too considering that its head is doing 90 degrees twists to view its surroundings, but for some reason, or maybe it's just the nature of this kind of bird, it just shrugged everything off and changed its focus to the ground, pecking here and there.

While it is pecking with all the joy a meager chicken can muster, a certain snake is lurking behind the unsuspecting avian creature, slowly shortening the gap between it and its prey. Its tongue moves like the flaps of a hummingbird and prepared to sink its laced fangs upon the chicken.

But when the strings of fate is not within your side, it is definitely laughing at the sidelines or even the opposite group, and this snake definitely does not have fate's blessing, when another snake that looks like death's prophet came out of nowhere.

With the benefit of a surprise, the pitch-black snake managed to grasp its fellow danger noodle in the face, its poison flowing into the crevices of the unfortunate snake's body, shutting down the complex systems of its body.

While the original hunter is in its last breathes, the chicken seems to pay no care for the death of its frustrated murderer, giving only a glance or 2 to the dark guest.

After seeing that the other snake has finally ended its death throes, the chicken gave a single cry, a light cry.

This sound or rather order seems to alarm the black snake, considering it stopped to look at the feathery cock in front of it, and proceeded to take the body of the dead away from this place.

The chicken and snake seems to acknowledge each other's strength, as they seem to cooperate when they see fit.

(Tens of meters north from the previous place)

Eh? Why is the 2 energy signatures not any weaker? They must not have fought like I expected them too. Could it be that these 2 is not hostile to each other? I should probably ask for the person beside me considering that he is my ally… for now.

I looked at the white-haired fellow and opened my mouth to ask something.

"So, what do you think we should do?"

"It is not worth it, we don't even know what we are going to face," He replied in a calm and a rather low volume, indicative of a lack of previous conversations or it is just how he talks, there is that too.

"I really want to try my luck, but at the same time, I feel like my survival instincts would beat me up if I ever dared to try. I think we should according to your observation, after all, you came from a magical world with all the beastly living things that comes with it," I tried to reply in a casual manner, and it doesn't seem to be that bad.

"We should leave, do you have some kind of shelter or something? After all, you are in this world already for a few days, I don't think you would be sleeping at the ground," He replies in his usual manner, cold and quiet.

"Of course, we can also share information in the way to pass time, that way we can also understand each other better, the introductions didn't kinda leave much to digest," I try to contrast it with a more cheerful reply, though still quiet considering that living beings with good hearing might hear us.

He only replied with a quiet hum, and we quickly proceeded to leave, the only traces of our existence is our tracks, and the fleeting small sounds as the leaves bend under the pressure of our movements.

After a while of slow and silent travel, specifically several minutes in the direction of Victoria's base in the foreign domain of this forest. The deafening silence, if you don't consider the forest critters, is broken with a word from her, to do what she mentioned earlier.

"So, you call supernatural energy as magic in your world?"

Throughout the walk, he maintained a poker face, maintaining a readiness for the surprises of nature. After he heard my attempt at a conversation, he seems to loosen up a bit, his eyes showing signs of analysis at my question. After a moment though, he spoke and replied to my question.

"Yes"

Eh? Amazing reply, such a magnificent and majestic reply, 10/10 if I may add. If it wasn't clear, that was a small thing called sarcasm.

"Does the children of your world normally have that much magic?" I try to reply at my utmost capability.

"Yes, I am in fact surprised that someone could be so inadequate in magic to only be able to use a sensory type of skill," He replied, seemingly realizing the shortness of his previous reply.

Oh c'mon, that wasn't necessary. The inside of my mind is flooded with grievance, though he is indeed right since someone like him can already match the worth of my life in terms of supernatural energy.

"I do not come from a world with high magical energy presence, I come from a nearly magic-less world. It is the World Guidance System that gave me this ability, and in turn a small amount of stored supernatural energy."

He looks at me with eyes, that seems to contain intentions that urges me to continue talking. That got his attention huh, magical achievement in his world must not be that easy, or is he curious about the World Guidance System.

"The World Guidance System is exactly what its name implies, it guides the world to become stronger. You can check your system menu if you wished to have it more in detail,"

This seems to have changed his center of attention towards the insides of his mind, though only after a slight hint of suspicion that it might be her just trying to trick him into calming down too much.

Due to this, he didn't let his body and mind take too much attention away from his surroundings, all for the sake of the same paranoia that haunts Victoria. He browsed the system, taking a good chunk of time, continuing the silence of the walk.

After a while of observing him just look into empty space like there is something there, while somehow still keeping up with me and exhibiting silence, the entirety of his mind seems to finally return.

"Are you familiar with the World Guidance System now?" I immediately tried to converse right after seeing that he is done browsing through the system's available assistance.

"Yes, this system is incredible. It can literally provide anything that exist and does not exist, eliminating a huge part of the trouble in developing oneself," He spoke in a voice filled with more vigor, clearly a bit shocked that his efforts at learning magic could be easily given by something

This state of energy didn't last long though, when he returned to his standard level of expressions and emotions.

"May we proceed to conversations that will make us more familiar with each other? We will be together for now, so I don't think there is any loss in getting to know each other's background and capabilities," Redirecting the focus of attention towards familiarization.

"Oh, right. As I have said previously, my name is..."