Chapter 2: Artifacts

After teleporting away, Warren double-checked his surroundings. "That wasn't so hard." He said conceitedly as he looked back at the forest. He quickly cleared his mind, stashed the orb in his right pocket, and ran towards the water well.

"Who is that? Oh my gosh, I hope Warren is okay."

"Shh, they can hear us." Voices from under the well were echoing to the surface.

Warren makes it to the top of the water well and quickly checks to make sure no one sees him. Finding no one, he quickly sits on the ledge and takes the rope down.

"Oh my gosh Warren, are you okay? What happened?" The village of almost 30 people starts crowding him and quietly asking if he is okay.

"I'm fine, I drove them away, they shouldn't be here anymore."

The village chief takes a step towards him. "How did you escape them?"

He takes a deep breath and nervously answers. "I took one of their artifacts, a level three Teleporter Orb."

The room grows quiet and the villagers start murmuring. "You took?" The village chief asked as he began to shake. He furiously grabs Warren's shirt by the collar and shouted, "You took something from the Kannon!?"

The villagers rush to try and release the village chief's grip but he wouldn't let go. "You took an artifact from the Kannon, do you know what this means? You just dug this village's grave!" The village chief continued shouting.

The adults finally pry the village chief off as Warren fixes his shirt and backs away. A villager trying to keep the two apart looks up at Warren and says, "You shouldn't have done that Warren." The villagers nervously look at Warren and continue to murmur after the altercation. The adults take the village chief to his room and Warren walks away as the crowd gets quieter.

"Mom, what's wrong?" A bewildered child, tightly holding a pink stuffed teddy bear, asks his mother in the back of the crowd.

"He took something very important from the bad guys and now we are a little nervous, that's all."

"A little nervous? No, we should be scared for our lives right now. He just took an artifact from the Kannon." A deep voice interrupts their conversation.

"Would you stop it, Roger? He's just a kid." The mother intervened.

Curious, the young boy asked, "What are artifacts?"

Fascinated, Roger crouched down to talk to the young boy. "Artifacts are objects that someone made a long time ago. He had the strongest power ever and no one could defeat him. So he got bored and used his power to make artifacts. Artifacts can do so many magical and powerful things depending on their level. Level one is the weakest and level five is the strongest. That's why the Kannon wants as many artifacts that they can find."

Roger reaches into a pocket inside his jacket and pulls out a violet ring.

"This here is Redfox's Ring. A level four artifact. All artifacts glow only when you choose to use them. They also glow different colors depending on their rarity. This ring is level four so it glows purple, others can glow white, green, blue, and golden."

After the young boy's mother saw the artifact Roger had pulled out of his jacket, she pulled her son closer to her and gave a nervous and fearful look. During Roger's explanation, the entire crowd quietly started listening.

"Excuse me, do you know anything about the artifact that he stole from them? Why is it so important?" A young man from the crowd asked Roger.

"What he stole was a level three artifact, I believe it was a Teleporter Orb. The orb is probably, most likely, how that group of rebels would return to their home base. And now that it's gone they can't, but that's not the reason why it's so important."

Roger grunts as he stands up and fixes his posture. He then places the violet ring back into his jacket pocket.

"The reason why there was an uproar before was because he stole something from the Kannon. They're dangerous. Artifacts can change the natural order of the world and that's why the Kannon needs them. When those soldiers have to drive back to base and tell their boss that an artifact was stolen, they'll come back."