Chapter 29: Mystery (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
‘Chances of survival: 5.15%. No plan available other than the reserved one.’ Zero’s reply made Angele lose all hope.
Angele wasn’t surprised at the result, but it seemed as if he would have to use the reserved plan as his last resort. He had plans on increasing his growth speed using the special energy, also deciding to save the energy for future research. However, he probably had to use it now, otherwise, he would just have himself killed here. Angele wanted to at least slow them down.
‘Commence the plan,’ Angele said. He was lying on the ground and staring at the sky. Several clouds moved slowly and a black bird flew over while chirping.
‘The sky looks like a pure gem…’ Angele thought.
‘Wait, gem?’ Angele stopped thinking for a second as he remembered the magical word.
“Manss!” Angele didn’t think too much and yelled out the word.
Suddenly, intense green light covered him and made him look like a shining sun — a scene strange enough for one to witness.
“Enchanted item! Back off!” The two bandits looked surprised that they even backed off right away. It was as though they had seen something horrifying.
KA!
Time ceased its incessant passing as everything turned black and white. The bandit was frozen in his motion with one of his feet still in the air. The leaves that were falling off the tree hadn’t reached the ground. One mounted bandit was still aiming his crossbow at Angele. The golden sunlight turned into a black and white flash. No sounds could be heard, and even then, the wind that should’ve been blowing came to a halt.
Angele laid on the ground quietly. Green light perpetually emanated out of his body. Everything around him had come to a stop, such that the only thing in motion was nothing. Angele could somewhat smell something fishy, reminding him of the smell of the sea. He felt his body being covered by gentle wind.
‘Warning! Warning! Radiation is infecting your body. Stored energy is being consumed quickly… 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%…’ Zero kept reporting. Angele finally realized that he was still alive, and then he stood up quickly. Successive ripples flowing like the waves of the sea was the current state of the green light on his body. Then, he walked toward the two bandits.
CHI! CHI!
Suddenly, the monochromatic state of black and white returned to its former hue, and even the movements of all things returned. The footsteps of the bandits, the noise of wind blowing through the trees, and the chirping of birds — all came back like nothing happened. The green light dissipated from Angele’s body, and the world was once again dyed in its original color.
The two bandits were still retreating, but their heads suddenly dropped to the ground and rolled backward. Blood spurted out of their necks, and the remains of their existence dropped to the ground.
“That was the power of… wizards?” Angele was completely dumbstruck and he couldn’t believe what he just did. He looked at the two decapitated heads that had their eyes still open.
‘Energy level reduced to zero.’ Zero reported. Angele thought for a moment that he’d only been dreaming however fleeting of a moment it was. Still, he lowered his body quickly, evading three crossbow bolts that flew over his head. He retrieved his daggers and threw it toward the remaining mounted bandits. One of the mounted bandits screamed in response to being struck while the other three fled on their horses with fear in tow.
Angele looted the money pouch on the two dead bandits and headed back to the caravan. He felt his body paralyzed, unable to feel pain from all the wounds he had. However, he felt pain coming constantly from his brain. His vision was already too blurry, yet he ran onward to the direction of the caravan to return.
Angele thought that the power he wielded was different to the one he had before, but he was more confounded at the fact that time had been frozen still. The power was too great and mysterious that it made him feel more fearful. He kept on running, uncertain of how much time had passed. Finally, from Angele’s hazy vision, he saw someone he was familiar with.
“Angele! God!” The baron’s voice was shaky.
Angele saw the surprised expression of the baron after he slumped on the latter’s arms. The baron looked very nervous, and even people around them were screaming. Angele felt the pain in his brain getting worse. He saw his own reflection in the baron’s eyes.
Blood was coming out of Angele’s orifices. His face was pale, eyes unfocused. The chip was sending information to him, but he could only hear nothing. The pain coming from his brain hindered him from thinking.
*******************
Fifteen days later.
In the endless plain, three black carriages were slowly advancing through the grass like ants. The wind was blowing across like the billowing waves of the sea. In the carriage at the forefront, a teenager with brown hair was looking outside the window. His body was covered with gray bandages and his face looked pale.
“Angele, are you feeling any better?” A man asked with a deep voice.
“Much better, Father. I think I will fully recover shortly.” Angele nodded and said.
“That’s good. Next time, I am not letting you fight alone.” The baron looked relieved as he said this.
Angele smiled with mixed feelings. It had been 15 days since they left the forest. He was in a coma for two days, but he slowly awakened. According to the chip, his muscle was badly injured, and he lost a lot of blood. The bone in his both arms were fractured, and also had moderate concussion and stroke.
People in this world had general better physiques than the ones on Earth. It only took Angele 15 days to recover from such injury, instead of taking at least two months in the hospital on Earth. He was recovering very fast with the fruits of his daily training giving him assistance. Angele put his hand on the edge of the window and looked at the beautiful scenery. Although in reality, he was checking some information on the chip. He spent a long time trying to find out what actually happened that day.
He had a general idea about the situation. The ring was found on Dice’s body, but he never used it before he died. If he had used the energy, Angele would’ve been dead for sure. He spent several days on analyzing the energy consumption and compared it to the moderate use he did before. Angele finally understood why Dice did not activate the ring.
‘The radiation energy can only be used if the owner already has a certain amount of similar energy in the body, and it could only be activated using the command. The first time, the ring only brought some green light and agility enhancement, but it was nothing like that after. I guess the ring must have some sort of system to limit its power output.’ Angele thought.
Angele used the radiation power to increase his attribute, and his chip helped him store a certain amount of the power in his body, which fitted the condition for using the ring. The chip extracted all the power and broke the limitation set on the ring. That day, he successfully activated the power by yelling the proper command. The radiation power was released from the chip in full and consumed it all. The result was strong but horrifying.
‘Dice probably had only obtained it recently, or else he could’ve used the power before he died. Obviously, he could not activate it himself, so he kept it with him to store some radiation power into his body to fulfill the requirement of utilizing the ring.’ Angele guessed.
‘I finally understand why Dice didn’t use the ring. The horrifying power damaged my muscle that day, probably due to the freezing of time. My speed was boosted to an impossible level, making me faster than time itself. Why did everything become black and white though? Maybe it was the radiation that changed the color around.’ The carriage was moving slowly with Angele still making conjectures.
‘Zero, show me the light spectrum that day.’ Angele ordered.
‘The color of the sunlight was removed by the radiation energy, leaving nothing but white. The shadows remained black, so you could only see black and white.’ Zero reported and showed a graph of light spectrum to him. The columns on the graph kept changing to demonstrate the changes during that time.
‘Why were there green lights on my body?’ Angele asked.
‘You were the source of those lights.’ Zero reported. It could analyze Angele’s questions quickly, so it instantly sent the conclusions to him.
Angele nodded his head slowly, finally having a general idea of the power. However, he used up the stored radiation energy.
‘If the chip did not extract the energy, I wouldn’t be able to use the ring myself. It requires the owner to have the similar energy as the ring, which means the owner must be a source of such energy already. People with such energy must be the Wizards.’ Angele thought as he grabbed the ring on his necklace.
‘It’s most likely the case that the ring can only be activated by wizards. The two bandits spoke of it being an enchanted item. It might be the name for treasures such as this.’ Angele looked at the ring carefully while using his finger to rub the emerald gently.
