Ch-10 The Masked Person

One moment Jasper was screaming his hands tightly squeezed by Jennifer ,the next moment Jasper felt his hand separate from Jennifer and him being squeezed into a paper. The sensation felt so bad that if he had not tried to control his vomit then he might have already fainted due to repeated vomiting.

After this weird sensation disappeared and Jasper regained his senses realized he was knelling down on the ground. He was relieved to regain his sense and not actually been turned into paper. Jasper was aware he was in a Magic World and he had read enough fantasy stories where magicians had the power to turn normal human beings into inanimate objects. So in his mind he would not put it past these magicians to turn him into paper.

Of course this was just Jaspers thoughts who knew very little about the Arcane World .There might not even be a spell to turn people into paper but then what if there was. That's something we will know later.

Right now, Jasper was going through a lot of delusions due to experiencing teleportation. Although the distance he had been teleported was considerably less, all the people of Arcane World knew that your first experience with teleportation was always the roughest. This coupled with Jasper inability to use mana gave him twice the harsh experience than normal. When teleporting people would cover their body with layers of mana for protection but Jasper did not have such an ability yet.

After gathering all his strength Jasper opens his eyes to find himself surrounded by walls painted in white with many rough patches and chunks of the wall missing as if people had been knocking onto them for a long time. Jasper looks ahead at the empty hall to find himself alone.

When he looks at his right hand side, Jasper sees a cup of water and a plate of food placed on a stool near him. his intense thirst decides to rear its head at this moment and he could not stop himself from sipping and eating from it after experiencing this tough ordeal that was his first teleportation.

Jasper had lost a lot of energy due to teleportation and this affected his thinking capabilities to some extent .When someone's brain loses some of its intelligence and the body perceives danger at such a fragile moment then the body's survival instincts kick in acting without awareness. Jaspers body deemed food an important component for survival he started eating from the plate. In between at some intervals Jasper drank from the cup. Although if someone looked at Jasper right now they would thing that he was eating because he wants to but the reality was that Jasper mind was not working properly and he was actually not aware of any of his actions.

After he finished eating he drank the remaining contains of the cup in one big gulp which helped Jasper regain his lost intelligence and energy .He was surprised to receive a fresh wave of energy after drinking it and his mind also became clear to some extent. He recalled all the events after the crisis and his expression paled.

Jasper just now realized that he had thrown caution out of the window and eaten the plate of food and drank the contains of the cup without a second thought. He was lucky that it was not some kind of poison or drug otherwise he might have been laying on the floor at this moment.

However this was to be expected, until recently Jasper had been living a quiet and normal life where he would never encounter a situation dangerous to his life so he had no experience and had not yet developed any instincts to be wary of his surroundings.

But the fact of the matter was that he had just experienced the worst ordeal in his entire life and he was still not wary enough of his surroundings. Jasper had a weird feeling that he had turned stupid. This was of course because of the tension and stress of the situation he was in. Jasper was angry at himself for losing control himself although if it had not happened then he would have been in an even worse state.

As Jasper was reprimanding himself for not being careful he hears light footsteps arrive bringing his attention forward. The room which had Jasper only a few moments ago now welcomed another person in it. The person standing in front of him wore a mask on his face and a long jacket with black colored pants.

Due to the long jacket Jasper was not able to identify the gender of the stranger but he made a note of the direction from which the stranger walked out since there was a high chance that direction had a door leading outside.

As Jasper was inspecting the strangers outward appearance he was mesmerized by the mask worn by the stranger. The mask had a wolf drawn on it but the lifelike and beautiful way it was drawn made him feel that the wolf was alive and might even directly jump out of the mask showing how realistic it was.

Coupled with the aura emitted from the stranger Jasper had a feeling that no matter what hurdle the stranger faced in his life his courage and immense willpower would never be shaken.

Jasper was unable to hold his appreciation and curiosity that he completely forgot about his current situation again ,"Wow, that's a beautiful mask you are wearing. Where did you find it, would you be willing to give me a similar mask?"

Just as these words left Jaspers mouth his expression paled again only two times more than before.

He had been reprimanding himself a few moments ago for not being cautious enough and then he directly started asking about stuff from his would-be capturer. It was 1o1 to not anger the would-be capturer when you become a captive.

The stranger did not answer increasing Jaspers uneasiness as he was reminded of the saying 'After the silence always came the storm'. Right now he just wished that he would not be whisked away in that storm.

On the other hand ,the masked person was inwardly confused as he did not expect such a reaction from Jasper. The masked person knew all about Jaspers situation and so his reaction did not make any sense to him and even suspected that he might have lost his mind due to the teleportation . After all it did happen sometimes. Anyways he became a little interested since this situation seemed different from usual the scene.

It was not that Jasper had lost his mind but he was in a state of extreme fear due to not knowing anything about his current condition and also losing his sister in a freaking Magic World where things outside the realm of his imagination were possible made it worse

The stranger did not say anything even after 5 minutes Jasper realized the masked person had no intention to say anything. Jasper inwardly sighed in relief as he realized that the stranger was not angry.

Jasper wanted to know where he was right now and his sisters condition and managed to muster up the courage to ask him," Where is my sister and where am I for that matter?"

The stranger luckily responded this time with a light voice," No need to worry about Mrs. Jennifer , she is safe for the time being and to answer your other question. Is it not obvious that you are on the top most floor of the Bank Of Vestalis."

"How do you know my sister's name?"

"I am sorry ,who told you I was obliged to tell you anything and if you ask any more meaningless question and annoy me then you will be sorry."

The masked person only stated the obvious to Jasper but the truth was that the last floor of the Bank of Vestalis was actually a small pocket dimension only the size of a floor which was connected to another unknown place and Jasper had been teleported to that place.

Both the pocket dimension and this place were owned and in complete control of the person Jennifer had come to meet . There was no way normal people would even dream about a pocket dimension being at the top most floor of the Bank of Vestalis when they might not even heard the term pocket dimension. That was just how rare Space magic was.

Jasper finally had a closer look at the surroundings of the room and tried to find more clues when he noticed the large collection of weapons hanging on one side of the room. The weapons and the chipped and cracks on the walls lead him to believe that he might be in some kind of arena or a room specially made for combat.

It was then he remembered the whole reason for Jennifer coming to the Bank of Vestalis was to meet one of her associates related to her mission. But something might have happened and now he was in a position where his life was in danger. This situation seemed quite similar to a movie he had seen a while back in which the protagonist is betrayed by his partner and then made to suffer a lot of things.

Jasper even suspected that Jennifer was being made to watch everything that happened in this room and to him from wherever they held her captive. This was probably the most effective way to make her suffer 'Seeing her younger brother in despair'. Just as Jasper was starting to overthink everything the masked person spoke

" We are going to have a duel. If you are able to last for 5 minutes against me, then you will be able to know everything and also may get a chance to meet your sister again."

Jaspers expression hardened after hearing the stranger. The statement was like the last ultimatum to him and his current situation was such that his action may very well dictate the survival of his and his sister.

Although he had completely no idea how he had found himself in this situation but he had decided that he was ready to do anything to see his sister again. He also understood the hidden meaning of the stranger which meant that he would not like what would happen if he could not last for five minutes. Then there was also the fact that the the masked person was lying to him and would not keep his word.

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