Chapter 167 - Arrival

"We're here."

As the light faded from their vision, Rynold and Neana arrived at a dense forest.

"We are?" Neana asked as she looked around their surroundings. As the thick foliage surrounded them, there wasn't any indication they had landed in their desired location.

"Yes, we are," Rynold answered as he pointed in a direction, "The city's this way."

"How can you tell?"

"Axiom told me," Rynold smiled as he took the first steps. "Besides, the broken branches on those trees means that somebody took this path before."

Using the Accord Sphere as a guide, Rynold immediately knew they had landed within a few miles of the city center. However, Rynold didn't know if they had landed in the same area Oliver and Jack did.

Regardless, though, the two of them had landed in the middle of a dense forest a few moments before sunrise. The area surrounding them was quiet, but it wasn't anything that would alert them.

Still, they proceeded with relative caution.

"Any plans on visiting any of your friends or family here?" Neana asked as the two casually navigated through the forest.

"I wasn't born here," Rynold casually answered. He had forgotten that neither of the two ever spoke about their past. Perhaps, now might be the time to do it.

"I came from the province," he continued, "Basically, my parents wanted me to pursue better opportunities in the city. People from the Academy scouted me from a while back as a part of a scholarship. But, I was reluctant to go."

Rynold swatted away a branch as he breathed a heavy sigh.

"Then what happened?" Neana prodded.

"Parents would act like parents. They gave me an ultimatum that I had no choice but to accept. I got sent to the Academy for a few years and didn't go back home for a little while. They wanted what was best for me, while I never really wanted to do anything with my life. My parents never saw the irony in that."

Hearing Rynold casually explain his origins was a bit saddening.

There was no inflection in the tone of his voice or any sense of emotion in his words. It was as if he had accepted what had happened to him.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Neana impulsively asked.

"Dunno," Rynold replied without hesitation, "I wasn't the type of guy to fight for myself. And, even if I did say something, it would all just lead to a fight. Besides, they're my parents. What right do I have to express my complaints to the people who brought me to life?"

His tone unchanging, Rynold explained all of this as mere fact. He viewed it as such.

To this day, Rynold didn't feel anything towards his parents. Call him apathetic or ungrateful but, from Rynold's point of view, he never wanted to be brought into this world in the first place.

For the longest time, Rynold only thought of himself as a burden. And, for reasons that he had so eloquently fabricated, Rynold felt the need to repay this burden to his parents. It was the most indirect way for a person to become unambitious.

And, even then, the current Rynold didn't see any problem with that. He didn't want to deal with this particular problem that he had repeatedly ignored.

It was Rynold's out-of-sight, out-of-mind thinking that made everything okay to him.

"Do you ever plan on talking to them?"

"Who?" Rynold asked with a blank look.

"Your parents," Neana answered awkwardly.

"Oh. Can't talk to dead people, now, can I?"

From a listener's perspective, Neana didn't know what to say to Rynold's overall attitude.

Not to mention that his parents were dead; even explaining everything didn't seem to have an emotional toll on him.

She could understand if Rynold had an unpleasant relationship with his parents. Or, perhaps, an unspeakable trauma that had barred him from ever speaking about it. But, Rynold didn't seem to have had any of that.

No, it was more like Rynold viewed things objectively.

"You mind telling me about them?" Neana asked in her most polite voice.

"Not at all," Rynold answered as he casually explained the personality of his parents and some stories that Rynold could remember off the top of his head.

However, Neana didn't seem to enjoy a word of what Rynold was saying.

Neana expected Rynold to mention those things as a son of his parents. But, that seemed to be extremely far from the reality of how Rynold talked.

Rynold spoke in a manner that discredited his own opinions on the matter.

For example, he spoke of how his father had been working to support the family. However, he also added the fact that his father never seemed to be happy with his life. Then, he proceeded to discredit the whole thing because his views might be biased for being their son.

Who the hell does that?

By the end of it, Rynold then added:

"I know it sounds crazy, but I don't think I know my parents at all. They have a life of their own after all, and me being born kind of disrupted that. So, I can only tell you what I know from what I've seen them do. Anything other than that, well, I'm completely clueless."

"No, no," Neana smiled as she shook her head, "I understand. Thanks for telling me all of that."

Despite feeling slightly bad for Rynold, Neana was quite glad overall. Rynold had told her a lot of things about his upbringing she herself would never think of sharing.

From what she gathered, though, Rynold's background was relatively normal. He never mentioned anything which would've directly caused Rynold to become as logical and rational as he is now.

His mother was kind and caring while simultaneously strict and fair. His father supported the family without complaining too much about the work he had to do day by day.

Overall, it was normal. Which begs the question: what the hell happened to Rynold? How did he become like this? These questions Neana had didn't have any answers as of this moment.

"Wait."

As Neana was mixing her thoughts, Rynold raised his hand to stop Neana from moving any further. It was sudden, sure, but seeing Rynold become alert made Neana refocus his attention to their surroundings.

"What is it?" Neana asked as she prepared herself for a battle.

"It's probably nothing," Rynold answered as he expanded his Mana Gauntlets into Strength-form. "But, just in case, be ready for anything that pops up."

Lowering his arm, Rynold proceeded with caution.

Whatever Axiom's scanners picked up, Rynold could sense something dangerous was in the vicinity. And, being as dark as it is, Rynold knew better than to dismiss anything that would be potentially dangerous.

'Damn, I don't like this.'

Each step seemed to increase the tension that Rynold felt. He knew it was only a matter of time until something attacked. Which, coincidentally, happened sooner than he thought.

"Shit."

Turning around, Rynold immediately carried Neana by the waist as he took a mad dash towards the side. Once they were in the clear, Rynold extended his drill and activated Flaming Spire.

"Draw your weapon out," Rynold warned as he raised the flaming hot drill up to where the threat was. From where they were standing, Rynold could see something move.

It was a plant. But, unlike any plant that Rynold's encountered before, this one was particularly larger than any other typical plant life would be.

Whatever this thing was, the term 'plant' wasn't the best word to describe it.

As Rynold tried to analyze what the creature was, vines on the ground started to move on their own. From what Rynold thought to be the roots of the trees around them, these vines lashed out at both Rynold and Neana.

"Stay here."

Two words were all Rynold left behind as he intercepted the vines head-on. With his Mana Defense as it was, it would take a lot more than physical attacks to damage him.

However, the plant's attacks didn't seem to stop there.

From the small number of vines that Rynold could count on one finger, numerous vines suddenly sprouted out as they seemingly multiplied by the dozens.

Suffice it to say, Rynold has his work cut out for him.

'It's not moving.'

As Rynold continued to maneuver through the vines that were lashing out at him, he could notice some things. For one, Rynold could see the creature moving its upper body. However, it didn't seem like it actually moved from one location to another. It was as if the plant was firmly on the ground. The roots of the thing must've rendered the creature immobile

'Huh.'

Then, the vines the creature used to attack followed a single path. From where Rynold was looking, he could see the creature maneuver the vines like whips.

Simply by noticing these two things, Rynold brimmed with confidence. He can kill this thing.

In a swift moment, Rynold retracted the drill and turned his Mana Gauntlets back to Speed-form. From there, he activated Light's Discerning Eye to provide some light to the dark forest.

'Got it.'

Within the brief five seconds of light from the spell, Rynold managed to find a way to get to the plant with minimal interference. So, he sprung into action.

By taking a leap from where he was standing, Rynold jumped to a nearby tree trunk. From there, he used the tree trunk as leverage to spring him forward to the creature that was implanted to the ground a few feet away.

With the momentum of being carried forward, Rynold extended his drill once more and activated Flaming Spire. He now had a direct course toward the creature as the drill penetrated the plant-like body as soon as he made contact.

The whole process took around 3 seconds after he had activated Light's Discerning Eye.

"Nea! You okay?"

Rynold yelled out as he grabbed the loot the monster had dropped. It was a relatively basic spell such that Rynold didn't even take a good look at it before throwing it in his inventory.

"I could've helped, you know!" Neana replied as she rubbed her eyes. The spell Rynold had activated caught Neana off-guard, causing her to lose her vision temporarily.

"Sorry," Rynold half-heartedly apologized, "I thought it was a lot more dangerous than it actually is. Next time, I'll let you get the next one."

Waiting for Neana to recover her vision, Rynold looked around the immediate surroundings. And, from what he could tell, they were about a few minutes away from the city center on foot. But, even then, that was merely an estimate.

"You good to go?" Rynold brazenly asked.

"Give me a minute. Geez."

In a few more minutes, Rynold waited without saying another word. As he waited, Rynold thought back on the recent battle, which in hindsight could've gone a lot quicker if he chose to use True Caliber.

'Guess I'm not used to it yet.'

Rynold realized how useful ranged weapons would be if he had chosen to use them. Keeping his distance and striking would be a good tactic, especially against a stronger opponent.

As it stands, though, using True Caliber would need a lot of effort to familiarize himself with the weapon. From condensing his Mana into bullets to firing them, it took significantly more work than Rynold was caring to admit.

But, if and when he manages to use True Caliber to maximum efficiency, Rynold would be unstoppable.

Continuously waiting, soon enough, the sun started to rise. The sky turned a warm tinge of orange as the sun slowly greeted a brand new day.

"Well, isn't that nice," Rynold commented on the peaceful sunrise. "You okay?"

"Yeah, let's go," Neana answered, obviously annoyed at Rynold. "How long has it been since Oliver and Jack left for the city?"

"A day and a half, probably. They might be in the city by now."