Mysia inspected his room as he entered it. Making sure it wasn’t booby-trapped or anything related to such. Mysia was cautious boy, thus he bent down as a sign of respect towards Master Frederick when he entered. The boy knew not to try to make eye contact with his guild master, he had heard of people who tried looking into his face. They all somehow ended up either death or hidden away somewhere. Those stories are mostly a scare but still, there might have been some twist of truth to them. Needless to say that his guild master was quite a mystery, one might even call him an enigma but Mysia didn’t fancy such titles upon someone. Mysia then nodded a little. Frederik was a smart man, he knew what to say at the correct times. He was right. It was time for Mysia to move on. To open up another page in the book that’s called life and continues on. This time, a new chapter would arise instead of a new page. He listened to the objective that he was given.
It somewhat sounded strange. As if it was a test to see what his reaction was. Thus Mysia believed that it indeed was a test to see his reaction, since it sounded a bit crazy. Mysia gave a sly smile and bent down.This had resulted in him sitting on one knee; he pulled up the sleeve of his pants and grabbed the hunter’s knife that was strapped to his leg. After pulling it off he would stand up straight again and put it on Frederick’s test. Since this was a test of survivability, he ought not to cheat. Cheating at this test would be like cheating at life. No profit would be gained in any way.
“ Sounds, … good.” Mysia replied, looking at Frederick before stepping back again. But this time he would reach out once again, towards the lantern. In a swift motions his hand being agile. It wasn’t very heavy, about two pounds to say the least. There was something eerie about the lantern. Mysia wasn’t sure what it was, but he figured something was out of the ordinary. He was quite suspicious of the lantern and eyed it for a little bit. He then moved his head back straightwards towards Frederick as he spoke once again. Interesting, Mysia thought. Utter darkness, sounds much like how he was raised. It couldn’t be that bad. This gave him a few good ideas.
“I will be on my way then, …” The little boy said as he turned his back towards Frederick and opened his door - Wondering whether or not if he was going to stop him since he wasn’t sure whether or not if this was a test. But it seemed that Frederick didn’t stop him. Interesting, again, Mysia thought simple mindedly. And then, after walking out of Frederick’s office office Mysia would close the door behind him. He was thinking a little before leaving. It was around ten PM as he decided to leave. Mysia gathered enough courage to leave the guild and go into the forest. The spooky forest. He has never been there in the dark before, so it was a new experience for him too.
First, he had to leave the mountain. It was night, alas Mysia saw little. It was an adventure, more or less. Mysia used a torch he brought from the guild to lit the lantern on. Hoping it would last for three days. Today, would the first night. He still had three more, presumably. Or would it be two if this one counted as a night as well? Mysia didn’t know, thus he decided to split it in half. Which would mean he would leave the last day in the evening. Sounds like a plan, he thought. Mysia stroked his head a little. Flies, insects, the whole mic mac shebang mcdonalds gathered in one swampy-forest turd.
He knew he had to beat monsters one way or the other. His magic wouldn’t help much, since it was harder to navigate magic whilst it’s completely dark. As he was walking through the thick jungle the young mage begun to wonder what kind of monsters would lurk this forest. He knew this part of the forest very well. It was always dark in here; sunlight did not reach this spot. Which was quite unusual, but it was certainly… intriguing. Mysia put the lantern on the ground. He heard footsteps around him. Of course, this could be the forest playing tricks on him, but it also could be harsh reality which he was facing.
He looked around him. His field of vision was around a meter or two. Everything past that was quite vague. Light was rare in this place. Alas, a lot of things were attracted to it. But it seems like Frederick was right. Well, not precisely. But if the light in the lantern got out he knew for sure there would be monsters crawling over the warmth. Light seemed like an alien object to them out. And Mysia knew what and how instincts work like. If these monsters never had seen light before, they would be afraid of it. And they might even consider Mysia a god on their own terms, since he brought something to their territory that they couldn’t understand. Mysia sat on a lump of wood, knowing that he wouldn’t be allowed to sleep.
Though it was a bad idea of him to stay at the ground. He would need an elevated space to sleep, not that he would sleep anyway. But said stuff would have its priority later. Right now, it seemed to be the lack of his weapons to use. He had little resources. The first problem was the monsters in the forest. The second problem was no legible weapon to use. The third problem would be that he had no elevated shelter. Mysia also had to move around a lot, or else the monsters would stop being afraid and step into the light. God knows how bad they look. Since the sun provides the earth with some gluten energy, people or monsters that lack those vitamins look like fish that are miles deep into the sea.
The forest was a little humid. The boy would grab his lantern and continue walking through the thick jungle. After a while, he would be ankle deep into water. It more or less was a swamp. It had trees still there. His shoes were hitting the roots of the trees a little. He then had an idea. His idea was simple but it was hard to execute. He could use the lantern as bait. His idea was quite practical as he was thinking more about it. Whilst his feet was getting cold the boy grabbed a tree and stood on top of one it’s root, so he wouldn’t be standing in water anymore.
He had begun formulating his plan in his mind. How long would it take, how hard would it be; what were the tools that he needed. All of those things he needed to take into consideration, he had to think fast since time was of essence. His plan was easy: He would use his lantern as bait to lure monsters to it. He would hang the lantern onto rope from a high tree branch so the area around it would be clear. He would need to dig out the ground under the lantern so the trench would be deeper. If monsters were lured towards it he would have a much easier time locating them.
It was based on the principle of how some people catch flies. They put up a light bolb with chains around it. The light bolb is electrical, and it will fry the flies when they touch it. And the flies are attracted to the light. Mysia had come up with a good plan, but would it actually work? Mysia knew that his firepower wasn’t exactly extrodinary. But he had one thing that those monsters probably didn’t have. A brain; which made him think, his magic would not work well on them anyway. Since their brain systems are entirely different then what his magic is based on, the human brain. Though the first problem would be how he would dig around five to five to five meters into the ground when there’s quite a lot of water involved.
He rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. Mysia was in a bit of stress as he was thinking. It was wet, cold he was hungry and he wanted to go to home. But he had to stay tough. He didn’t show weakness, he showed authority over the situation. If he showed weakness for a glimpse of a second he knew all those monsters around him would hurl in and pounce and feast on his body. Mysia gathered enough magic and begun spreading his toxins around the area. After a few minutes he used his magic again to turn the color of the magic into red, scaring the monsters off temporarily.
He had to work quickly. He got of the tree root and begun rigging into the ground by using his roses. His hands were muddy and so were his boots. But he didn’t care. He kept digging. After ten minutes he would be out of breath. It had become difficult to dig whilst keeping the red tint of his magic up at the same time. He took a few minutes break and used another rose to dig again. The other one had wilted and died off. After digging for a while more had been done. Mysia was exhausted. Now, it would be around four AM. He hung up the lantern. So it would seem as if the lantern was hanging above the swamp, about two meters high.
This would lure the monsters towards it instead of Mysia who had gone six meters to the west, there the light of the lantern was somewhat more mild. He made the area around him slightly tinted with red, so the instinct of monsters wouldn’t approach him. He went into a hollow three, it wasn’t very big but it was big enough for him to fit his body in. He sat down and kept staring at the lights. Mysia spent his first entire day sitting on the same spot he was sitting whilst his concentration was running full bars. He made a log in the meanwhile, describing what he was doing every hour to summarize it.
- Log:
”00:00: Nothing suspicious. I dozed off and fell asleep for six minutes.
00:00 - 01:00: It’s so cold, I think I’m either hallucinating or something stared me into the eyes for a good minute. My memory forbids me from telling me what it was.
01:00 - 02:00: I’m hungry; I think my growling stomach is attracting activity on my west side.
02:00 - 03:00: They say the base fundamental of a human being is having decent decency.
03:00 – 04:00: When I get back to the guild I’ll eat so much cake…
04:00 – 05:00: Activity on the North side is increasing; I think I might leave soon.
05:00 – 06:00: I think the lantern has started to flicker. The interval occurs every ten seconds and consists of half a second.
06:00 – 07:00: I ran with the lantern, something had chased me -- Something big.
07:00 – 08:00: I have relocated myself into another part of the forest. I think I left the eternal night forest, or whatever it was called.
08:00 – 09:00: Sun is rising; I believe I was followed by something eerie.
09:00 – 10:00: -
10:00 – 11:00: Gah, I cut open my left leg whilst trying to climb a tree spent an hour patching it up.
11:00 – 12:00: My hands feel swollen from all this climbing. I lost the lantern.
12:00 – 13:00: First time I heard birds tweet around in like days, … I wonder if the monsters will get me tonight.
13:00 – 14:00: Alright, I built up a shelter high up in the air. Hunting for food now, only have my roses to use as weapons.
14:00-15:00: -
15:00 – 16:00: I found a wild boar, slayed it and skinned it. I took out the bones of his body and attached it to a wooden plank. I will use this as boobytrap in case something gets to my shelter at night.
16:00 – 17:00: I think night comes faster here. I might not make it out alive.
17:00 – 18:00: I tried to climb down and find the lantern, no success. I went back up, and I don’t think I can use my hands tomorrow.
18:00 – 19:00: Night has fallen, sun has set. I’m ready to not sleep tonight.
19:00 – 20:00: A desperate man has to boil down to desperate measures.
20:00 – 21:00: -
21:00 – 22:00: -
22:00 – 23:00: Something fast and strong was on top of the tree tops. I could not move for over two hours or I would give my position away since it heard well. I saw his head twist towards a rock I threw towards somewhere random.
23:00 – 24:00: I’m going to try to sleep, my booby traps should wake me up if something’s nearby.”
And thus that would dictate the end of his logbook. He had only one day after this one. He knew his last day would be the hardest one. Alas he had prepared himself well by sleeping the entire night. When he woke up the sun had been shining in his eyes. After all, he was sleeping on top of a tree on a hammock he had made out of leaves and branches. He looked around, the coast seemed clear. Mysia looked at his hands. They were in pain. He had climbed too much yesterday, it had exhausted his hands too much. He had no gloves with him, which was a shame.
He stayed in that tree top for a few hours. After about five six hours he would climb out of it, he ripped the sleeves of his shirt apart and used them as gloves. It took him quite long to get down. And there it was. Three monsters had him surrounded. He took out roses and defeated them instantly, though it had worn him out. This had happened yesterday also. Mysia begun to wonder what kind of test this was. Endurance? Motivation? Questions to be asked, answers to be made. But yet, it was something Mysia would have to figure out on his own. After all, this was his adventure.
He was the main character of his own life. Something weak had approached him. Mysia watched it charge towards him. He raised his brow a little and sidestepped at the last moment, causing the quick moving bitch to crash into the tree behind Mysia with his face, defeating himself. Mysia found a water source and took advantage of it. The day soon ended as Mysia made his way back up to the tree tops. He saw the monster he saw a day ago again and again did not move for two hours which required a lot of concentration. Normal people already change sitting positions in an average of three to fifteen minutes. Mysia kept it up for fifteen hours. He was almost done, he had about seven to eight hours left before he could go back to the guild. Thus after it had become morning, Mysia would climb down the tree. There was nothing around thus he moved.
Returning to the guild would take six hours. So he would return In time. Mysia was tattered up. His leg was mildly injured, thus he walked a little odd. The sleeves of his shirt were gone, his hands were somewhat swollen and his shoes were covered under mud. Success? Very. Mysia had learned about himself a lot those three days. It takes a solaced man to learn about himself. After Mysia had arrived he would immediately go to Frederick’s office and knock on his door, requesting entrance. If it had been permitted, he would enter.
“Master Frederick, … I have returned.”