The New Journey

by Pegaz

  "He told the count to stop activities because a Sider had shown up. He didn't want the whole family to be wiped out, or something."

  "Makes sense. We don't know where the Sider is right now, but history has shown that Siders wipe out corruption in all places."

  John smiled at Agents remarks. "Do you approve of the Siders way of doing things?"

  "Not really,” Agent frowned, “Though it's not the killing part I disagree with. It's the part where they do it all for free. He's killing all the corrupted people, so that means there will be a lot fewer contracts to perform for us. The whole assassin guild's income gets affected."

  "Oh. But what if you could found the Sider and get him to become an assassin?" John stared at Agent, a glimmer in his eye. “Wouldn’t that benefit everybody?”

  "That would be perfect, but the guild would never release a Siders information. Only the top brass knows who the current one is. They must have told the prince too. While we do have our people in the guild staff, there's only one person with a high enough position to get this information. He's deep in the South Kingdom, though. It would take a few months at the very least before we get that information."

  John got his ID card out and placed it on the table, pushing it towards Agent.

  When the Agent picked up the ID card, he was still looking at John, slightly confused. Reading the card, he put two and two together. Agent dropped the card, absolutely stunned. John could only laugh.

  "You? You're the Sider that popped up in the Northern Kingdom?!"

  "Yeah, I seriously thought you knew,” John grinned, “I thought that's why you approached me in the first place. If that wasn't it, then why did you?"

  "A guy walks into town with over a thousand wolf heads, and you expect us to pass that up?" It was the agent’s turn to chuckle.

  "Please don't mention that... I didn't have a bag to place them in," John sighed.

  "I've added the money to your account, and the client paid extra for the other people you killed. The total came to £15 million. My share is £1.5 million," The agent then passed John his ID card back.

  "From now on, when I'm going to do a job, I want the maximum amount of information of everyone around the original target. If they're guilty, add them to the list even if we aren't getting paid extra. If the targets are innocent, leave them out.”

  The agent nodded to these conditions and John continued.

  "I'm going to hunt for a bit and get out-of-town while this situation's resolved. Contact me when you have all the information on any more targets I can go after," John untied his bag and turned it upside down, all the parchments from the count's office falling out.

  The agent had no words. He was still slightly stunned that John was the Sider. Everyone knew how fast Siders grew, but John was breaking the records. He wondered how he was doing it.

  Only two and half years since a Sider first registered in the kingdom. It usually took ten years or more before a Sider started wiping out the corruption. That was common knowledge anyway. Excitement and fear boiled deep in Agent’s mind. This was one hell of a Sider he was working with.

  Just before John left the house, he stopped near the door.

  "Be careful when checking all the targets. I don't want someone to add an innocent person in just because they want them dead."

  John opened the door and walked out.

  Shortly after, John left town and headed back to the area with Blood Wolves. The ruins were around here somewhere, right?

  His Time Pool now read 5mo 14d worth of time. He put it all into Blood Capacity, levelling it all the way up to Level 89. He worked the math out: 66 Idlers in the skill would make the two years and six months pass in just 30 hours. When it hit Level 90, hopefully the time would drop a little more.

  Almost an hour of travelling, he reached the cave. John killed a few nearby wolves and then began to prepare for the climb down. Using his fists, he raised bits of the earth near the cave entrance just high enough to secure his rope around. He tied the other end around his waist.

  Nearing the opening, John took a deep breath. He activated both of his vision skills and started making his way down the hole. Just a few feet down he noticed how cold it was. He took note of the texture of the wall. It was smooth, almost as if it was machine-cut.

  It was also slippery, and as he descended further a small layer of frost began to develop on the stone. John couldn't believe how cold it felt, but it wasn’t anywhere near a lethal coldness, so he kept on. After only a few minutes, he saw a landing he could stand on.

  A few pieces of rotted wood lay on the floor. John wondered if they were the remnants the staircase. All around him was smooth stone walls, a barren cave as far as he could tell. He began to explore the area, finding a dark corridor that slanted upward. He followed it down until he reached an opening. The stone walls before him were somewhat familiar.

  Coming to a realisation, John looked up. There it was, the trap door entrance. To John’s dismay, it was only fifteen feet above him.

  "Bollocks."

  Chapter 33

  Life Power

  John walked through the corridor, still angry at the fact that he went back to town to find a rope because of a 15-foot drop from the surface. It was a long passageway made of the same cut stone, as John got further inside the temperature continued to drop. John regretted not buying a coat.

  ‘Ding!’

  ToolTip - The skill unlocked at Senses level 8 will help.

  That's a good tip, but it's too late now. It will take almost a month to get Blood Capacity to level up, then god knows how long to level up five levels in my Senses skills. John only had two choices here: carry on or give up. He chose to carry on.

  After another great length in, the passageway opened up. John saw pillars of cut stone rise to the ceiling, which was only about 10 feet high at this part. It's like whoever made this wanted to make it grand yet reasonably sized. Each pillar had an animal carved into it. John recognised a Chinese Dragon, Black Tortoise, White Tiger, and a Phoenix.

  Whoever made this was familiar with mythology creatures from Earth... unless they have them here, too, but I doubt that.

  John walked past the first two pillars. When he got near the middle of the floor, all four pillars lit up. The carvings of the creatures started moving. John froze, recalling almost every science-fiction-adventure show he’d seen previews for back in his childhood.

  The animals exited each of the pillars, surrounding John.

  The Chinese Dragon and the Phoenix stood in front, the Tiger and the Tortoise circled around behind him. All eight eyes glowed green while staring at John.

  John braced himself for a fight.

  Suddenly, a voice came from the Chinese Dragon, echoing through the cave chamber.

  "Survive one at a time, and you will get a Mythical Weapon, Armour, Boots, and Shield. Survive all at once and you can inherit my legacy. Choose.”

  John checked all the statue's stats as quickly as possible.

  Chinese Dragon:

  Attack: 2400

  Defence: 500

  Phoenix:

  Attack: 2000

  Defence: 700

  White Tiger:

  Attack: 2100

  Defence: 400

  Black Tortoise:

  Attack: 900

  Defence: 2100

  Shit, they're all S rank by the system! If I focus on dodging, I should be able to take at least three of them at the same time! But what about the tortoise? I won’t be able to damage it whatsoever.

  John eventually made his decision. Go hard or go home, right? And it was too late to go home now.

  John approached the Phoenix, seeing it was frozen in place. Without any warning, he instantly rushed it and punched out.

  BOOM!

  The Phoenix statue blew up into bits without having a chance to move. Its head broke apart and crumbled to the ground. Before the other statues could react, John rushed towards the Tiger and punched out.

 
BOOM!

  White Tiger cracked all over and started falling apart. John smiled. His methods were shameless, but who cares when your life was on the line? Did they really think he would wait for them to attack?

  "Let the battle begin!" The voice carried on like nothing was wrong. It must be automated then.

  John rushed towards the turtle and punched its head. It brushed John's attack aside and tried biting at him. The Chinese Dragon charged at John from behind and dove to bite John too. He dodged easily enough by jumping to the side. Misdirected, the Chinese Dragon bit off the turtle’s head on accident, instead! The Tortoise slowly collapsed.

  John's plan had worked!

  After the Tortoise died, the Chinese Dragon flew high, and John stared at it while it hovered in the air. It can fly?! Without hesitation, the Chinese Dragon dove at him.

  John ducked underneath and landed on his left leg, preparing to throw an uppercut with his left hand. Just as the Chinese Dragon began to retreat, John let the uppercut loose.

  BOOM!

  The Chinese Dragon statue disintegrated from the middle, spreading outwards. When its head was the only thing left, the voice came back up.

  "Congratulations, you passed. Walk through the north door and keep going till you meet me."

  Meet him? Shit, is he going to say something about me cheating, then? I thought it was automated!

  John took out his compass from his first bag, checked which side was north and went through that door. It was still getting colder, but because he was just in a battle, he wasn't feeling cold just yet. He kept on walking for about forty feet until he came to a small room.

  In the middle of the room was a skeleton sitting on a big throne, it was wearing a grey robe, still sitting upright and holding a book between both hands.

  John looked at the skeleton and was washed over with a feeling of humility. It was as if he was meeting someone who had a lot of dignity and self-respect, someone who demanded it from other people too.

  John didn't know what to do. Take a bow? Talk to it? A martial art salute?

  "My name is Tim McNeil. I was born in Scotland in 1966 and I died in 2015. That's when I came here,” the voice echoed around the chamber with no relent. “If you know what I'm talking about then you've come from the same place. If you do not know, then this prize might not be for you. To be honest, I'm not sure. Behind me, I made a counter which counts the years since my last message. I'm not sure how much time has passed since I’ve died but I have no regrets."

  John looked at the counter while it paused. The numbers read 90115.

  "IMPOSSIBLE!" John suddenly shouted.

  It's been three years between his death and mine and over 90,000 years here? That's impossible!

  "If you came from Earth, then you must have a gift left behind too. I do not know where it came from nor if it's the same as mine. Mine was called Tech Mind. I only had to look at some things to figure out how it worked. I could then instantly come up with hundreds of uses for it. I gave the technology to a friend, who in-turn gave it to the people. I set this place up just as a last-ditch refuge, in case humanity lost its great battle with the monsters of this land.

  "Did we win, or lose the war? I will never know, but I did all I could with my gift. My legacy isn't about technology, but what my gift unlocked in me. I've written it all down, and if you're not from Earth, then I do not know if you can read this, since I've written it in the most common language on Earth: English."

  When the voice stopped here, it didn't start back up again. John looked around and saw only the cut stone walls and ceiling. Maybe this Tim fellow cut it with some piece of technology? John walked up to the skeleton. So Tim was the first real Sider here who gave the technology to the North Kingdom's ruler. Maybe he wanted to keep a low profile, or possibly play the king on the throne as a puppet. There was no way of ever finding out.

  When John reached the skeleton, he smiled and gently picked up the book from his hands.

  He opened the metal cover, inside was a thin metal sheet that had writing etched inside it. It was in English, like the voice had said.

  Ancient China came up with CHI. When I was here, I unlocked CHI after becoming what people here called Immortal. Immortals live longer than regular humans, they can live for thousands of years that's why they're called immortals, but unless you keep treading down this path, then you will eventually die of old age. They call CHI, Life Power here, and you need to use Life Stones to gather it inside the body and store it in your brain. For the mind is the Life of the body.

  The body's functions are to keep the brain alive, heart to pump blood to the brain, lungs to pump oxygen to the brain, the list goes on. And it is the brain that keeps them working 24/7. Under the counter is a hidden latch with a few Life Stones and my real legacy stored inside. Hopefully, they can start you on the road to immortality.

  The immortals of this world cannot fly by themselves; they use objects infused with Life Power to lift themselves up. They thought it was impossible, but I proved them wrong. This is all the information I can give, for fear that it may fall into the hands of those who may abuse it.

  There were no more words inside the book. They were carved out in rather large letters so he’d used both sides of the metal sheet. John closed the book and put it into his storage space before approaching the counter.

  He found the hidden latch and opened it up. Inside were the same glowing green rocks that he’d found buried in so many areas. There was also a much bigger metal book which was on a small display table.

  So that’s what these things are.

  Chapter 34

  Him Again

  John used his Analyser on the glowing green rocks.

  Life Stone:

  These rocks store the life of the earth, purifies it, and then releases it, which helps nature grow faster.

  John stored them with his other Life Stones and then looked at the book. There was no mechanism to set off a trap, from what he could see. He gently picked the book up.

  Nothing happened.

  John sighed in relief and then stood up and opened the book.

  CHI and Life Power are different from what we think. I remember reading novels about how you use meridians and unlock dantians to store the CHI back on earth.

  But here, Life Power is stored inside your brain cells. You compact them to make more and eventually each one is able to carry an ocean of Life Power.

  The brain cells automatically release Life Power into the bloodstream, which lets it travel around your body, collecting any impurities and bringing them to the Life Power in the brain. There, it destroys these impurities, forming its system.

  You can use Life Power to attack, defend, and to use objects to fly through the skies. Life Power that is in the brain cells will travel to wherever you want it to when you reach a certain amount of control.

  It will still travel through the blood system, but it will seep into the skin of wherever you want it to. It will be painful at first. If you put it in your fists and punch out, it will give your attack roughly ten times the power. And that is only a taste of the wonders it can do.

  What people don't realise is that we can use the Life Power to do so much more. With perfect control, you can make Life Threads and use those threads to control anything.

  You can make Life Power a force and push under the feet to fly, and if you teach yourself how to control it well, will use less Life Power than using an object and will travel faster too. At full mastery, you can walk on air just above the ground so you will never fall into a trap that's setup underneath you.

  Though I must warn you, never start gathering Life Power until you're at 21 years of age. Otherwise, it will stop your growth and will eventually hinder your progress into immortality.

  That's all the advice I can give. Good luck on your journey, and I hope you can eradicate the monsters if they won the war.

  John closed the book and stood there a little stunned.

  That's why immortals
are so revered. They have a lot more power at even the beginning stages and it can help prolong their lives. It must mean that the peak physical condition is based around a strong mind which can store the Life Power. The brain is fully developed at the age of 21 too.

  John stored the book and turned around, looking at the skeleton. If he was helping the King of the East Kingdom, how did he end up here in the North Kingdom? He might never learn the answer to that.

  To keep this knowledge a secret, John destroyed the counter. He then punched a wide tomb into the floor and carefully placed the skeleton inside. John covered the hole up with stone, destroying the throne and anything else that was inside the room. Then, started punching the walls of the room. He wanted to make the entire place collapse on itself.

  After the room started to fall apart, John fled back to the room with the four pillars. There were two other doors that he hadn't been through. The north went to the throne room he just destroyed, and the south was the way he came in. John decided to go to the east door first, saving the west for after.

  John stood at the entrance and looked in, it was a small room with a few chests, but John had a funny feeling that if he went inside something terrible would happen.

  He went to the west door. It was the same as the east one. He walked into the middle of the floor and picked up some loose stone from the statues he fought. Walking over to the east side entrance, he threw the rock at the chest, knocking it back ever so slightly.

  Whoosh!

  Spikes from the ceiling dropped down and covered almost every inch of the room. John went to the west side and tossed a stone at the chest, triggering the same spike trap.

  John destroyed the spikes by punching them, got to the chests, and found they were all empty.

  Like the throne room, John caused each of these treasure rooms to collapse in on themselves. In the main hall where the fight with those statues took place, he destroyed the pillars then the walls. Finally, the ceiling started crumbling, so he fled to the south exit, running through the corridor while punching both side walls as he ran along. The whole cave shook, rubble trailing after him.