Chapter 31: Happy birthday

The warm feeling of touching the sand takes over Karl's senses. He kneels down. 

"Don't celebrate yet. You need make it till the city gates."

"You are not coming?"

"No. Not after those parasitic worms is here."

 "Are they dangerous?" 

"Yes, if left alone they could consume the entire forest. After all their threat level is red giant ranked, I will report directly to the guild." Serena pulls a small blue rock from her pocket. It has the letter S carved on it.

 "What's that?" Karl questions.

"This is a returnee stone. It is used to teleport the holder back at a specific place."

'How convenient.'

"Anyway, remove your curse from me." Serena demands.

"Curse? Which one?" Karl asks with genuine confusion.

"The one which will make my face blow up."

Karl laughs. "Heh! I lied, there isn't one. Afterall, have you ever heard space or time elements having the ability to curse?"

Serena's face shows a furious expression. "YOU!"

"HAHAHA! I love it, when your face shows some expressions."

Serena's face turns red as she pouts. "Shut up."

Karl finally hands the bag back to her and waves at her. Serena takes the bag and smiles.

"Don't die."

"Sure. Also, keep that smile of yours and one day you might get friends."

Serena doesn't say anything and breaks the returnee stone. A blue beam appears, taking Serena away. Her vision changes and she is standing in a line full of people, standing last. Serena is still smiling and she touches her lips. 'Friends, huh?'

Karl looks up and sees the ocean of stars. 'Alone, huh?'

Karl decides to continue moving in the dark. For now, Karl continues walking straight. Few hours passes and nothing much changes. Karl climbs one small hill of sand after another. Cold wind brushes off Karl's skin, leaving a tingling sensation.

Just then, he discovers fresh footprints of a white manned desert wolf. He smiles as it reminds him of Zena. He continues walking for hour or so and just then he spots a white manned desert wolf in a distance. Karl changes his path to avoid fighting with wolf. Wind blows and it hits Karl. He quickly crouches down, trying to hide.

"White manned desert wolves have excellent sense of smell. They locate their prey from hundreds of meters away, just by their nose. So, always stay parallel of the wind current to avoid it." These words spoken by Zena flashes through Karl's mind.

He slightly stands up to check his surroundings. 'Wha-'

The wolf is nowhere to be seen like it vanished. Karl slowly gets up.

GRAHH!

The wolf jumps at Karl from behind, pinning him down to the ground. Karl stabs his broken sword into the wolf's neck. The sword pierces through quite easily but it is not deep enough. The wolf bites Karl's shoulder. Karl immediately pushes the sword deeper and twists it. But the wolf is not letting go of Karl's shoulder.

In panic, Karl grabs handful of sand in his other hand and smashes it into the wolf's eyes. The wolf's releases his shoulder, Karl doesn't stop and keeps punching the wolf. The wolf lets out painful groans. Karl breathes in mana and pulls the sword out. He pushes the mana into his right arm, then stabs the head of the wolf with all of his strength. Killing the wolf.

Karl coughs loudly as he stands up. Blood is dripping from his nose. Karl gets an ill feeling which causes a slight headache. He pulls his sword out. He thinks of eating the wolf's meat but there is no source of fire available. Therefore, Karl drops the idea. With the wolf dead, there is no-one blocking Karl's path. He continues walking in the same direction. Karl's shoulder is bleeding excessively. But he continues walking.

Few hours passed by, Karl's entire blanket which covers his body is now turned red with his own blood. Fortunately, the wound stopped bleeding as his blood dried up. Karl is now holding the wounded arm with his other hand while the sword is being carried by the wounded arm. He is intentionally dragging the sword on the ground, leaving a trail. This is to check whether he is walking in circles or not.

The surroundings are brighter now as sun is coming up in the distance. Slowly but steadily temperature is rising. It has been only half an hour since the sun came up and Karl already sweating intensely. As far as Karl can see there is nothing but sand everywhere.

Unconsciously, he starts to sway away from his path due to nausea. Every step feels like the hardest labour. But he doesn't give up and keeps on walking.

After an hour or so Karl is on top of a large hill. He looks ahead and sees endless sand. Wind blows by swiftly; he turns around to cover his face. Just then, he spots a black spot in the yellow sand. He quickly rubs his eyes and looks again.

'That's a wolf.'

The wolf is facing opposite side of Karl, it suddenly launches an attack. Karl squints his eyes once more and sees a small figure jumping around. Karl's eyes shine as he sees hope. He quickly jumps down and runs towards that direction.

'If I find someone, they could take me out of this shit hole.'

Karl reaches the location in few minutes. There, his ray of hope fades as he sees the wolf eating the human corpse. Blood is spread all over the sand. Karl notices that this wolf slightly bigger than the juvenile one he faced.

The wolf stops eating and turns his head towards Karl. It's mouth is covered in blood.

GRRRRR!

It dashes towards Karl.

'Looks like I was bit late.'

But his prey suddenly disappears from his vision.

SLANG!

The wolf losses his front leg. Crippled, it searches for the enemy.

"Hmm."

It quickly turns back and sees a small human near the corpse. The human is examining the corpse, taking advantage of this the wolf summons a big magic circle. A robust ice spear is formed, it is almost 1 meter long. The wolf aims at the human's head and launches the spear. The human doesn't even move to dodge the spell.

THUMP!

The spear went through the human's head and lands in sand. This baffles the wolf.

"Are you dumb? I gave you chance to run away." The human turns his face towards the wolf.

Every animal in the world has some kind of instinct which tells them that they should prioritize their own life and run away. This instinct is also known as fear. Currently, the wolf is feeling intense fear. So much that it rolled it's tail between the legs. It lowers its head and takes few steps back. Karl looks like a demon now. His eyes turned red, excessive blood coming out of his nostrils and eyes, covering his entire body in his own blood. Veins are visible all over his body.

All of this is happening because mana overuse, still Karl breathing mana like there is no tomorrow. He lifts his hand and covers all of his mana over his hand. Instantly, few veins pops and blood sprays on the ground. Despite this, there is no change in Karl's expression. He walks closer to the wolf. But the wolf doesn't dare to move. Then, he just plainly performs a straight punch. The punch simply goes through wolf's head.

Silence.

Karl slightly squeezes his hands and the wolf falls on the ground instantly. Karl takes his hand out and reveals a piece of the smooth brain of the wolf. Karl throws the brain away. He walks back towards the corpse. This time he crouches down to examines it.

The head of the corpse is bitten, leaving a bloody skinless face. Whoever it was, they were wearing some leather armour and steel like armour on the lower body. Karl checks the corpse for anything useful. He finds a pouch with a tag, a watch and few pair of cards.

'Is there nothing to eat?'

Karl reads the tag. [Open at night.]

Karl ignores the tag and opens the pouch. There is a note, a small knife and a disk which has 3 pins inside. Karl reads the note.

[Dear Papa, this is your lovely daughter Iva. Happy 27th birthday. I really hoped that you could celebrate it with us. But you went away on another adventure. Don't worry! I will be a good girl and protect Mom. Me and Mom saved some money and bought you gifts. First, the small knife is a gift from mom. It will never catch rust as it is made from super durable alloy thingy and it won't break either. The disc like thing is my gift. It is a live compass that will tell you directions without fail. The white one points at sunrise and the black one points at the sunset. Guess where does the last pin points at? To me! I am wearing magic artifact and this compass always point towards that artifact. Remember, how you got lost in an adventure few months ago? Mom was so scared. She even went to the federation to issue a missing compliant. While you were gone, she cried herself to sleep every night. Obviously, I am a brave girl and took care of her. I didn't cry at all. Yes. But I was little worried about you. So, take this compass and come straight home. Me and mom are waiting for you. PS: Mom is planning a surprise party for you. Travel safe! Love you! Your cute daughter, Iva.]

Karl glances at the compass and the red pin is pointing in left direction. Again, Karl sees a hope. Hope of getting out of here. But this time it feels heavier. Karl strips the corpse and slowly digs a hole besides it. Half an hour later, Karl buries the corpse in the ground.

'Sorry. I can't give you a proper rest.'

Currently, he is wearing the leather armour which looks more like a crop top. The rest was torn away from that wolf. At the bottom he is wearing steel armour from waist to toes. As an male, walking in this without an underwear is super uncomfortable. But this current clothing is way better than being naked. Karl only takes the knife and compass with him.

He checks the compass and starts walking in the direction of the red pin. Few more hours passes and sun is now directly up in the sky. Temperatures have risen significantly and the armour isn't helping either. Karl continues walking for an hour or so. His entire body soaked in sweat. There are black trails under his eyes made from the dried-up blood. Finally, Karl sees something familiar.

The city gates.

"HAHAHA!" Karl laughs hysterically. He is walking in a very weird way. He reaches the city gates. The guard notices Karl from above. He yells something and goes away. Few seconds later, the gate slightly opens and a guard comes out.

"It's you." The guard recognizes Karl. On the other hand, Karl ignores him.

"Proof of completion?" the guard asks. He waits for an answer. Karl still doesn't look at him. The guard makes an annoyed expression and asks again.

"Proof of completion?"

Karl finally looks up. "I-I don't have that."

The guard notices the dull look on Karl's face. "Hey, kid. What happened to the woman that went you? Did you come across some bandits and they had fun with her? Or you watched her being eaten by some monsters?" The guard laughs.

Karl doesn't say anything. He takes a step ahead and tries to walk pass the guard. The guard catches Karl's hand. "Where are you going?"

"Inside." Karl says in a low voice.

The guard pulls Karl's hand and throws him on the ground. "No proof of completion, no entry."

Karl slowly gets up. "Just go away and become food of some monster."

Karl cracks his knuckles. A purple glow appears on his hands.

The guard steps back. "Are you trying to attack a federation official on duty?"

Suddenly Karl smirks and the glow fades away. "G-good choice. Now get out of here!" The guard yells.

Karl watches Ian and Andressa running towards him in a distance.