The Forest

Silas proceeded into the forest, the trees were close closely knit together and the leaves only grew out of the top. There was dense foliage and shrub covering the ground and there was an abundance of wild animals, critters, and unique flora. About half an hour into his walk he noticed that the mana pressure around him had lessened, a seemingly invisible weight off of his chest, and that he wasn't able to send out his mana sight as far as he could before. 'That's odd.' Was his only thought, not thinking of it anymore.

What he didn't know was that his master Luis had set up an array surrounding the area where they lived so that Silas could get better attunement with mana. An array is a sort of magic circle and formation that you can use to protect against outside attacks, attack outside forces, or draw in the surrounding mana to heighten the mana of the inside. Advanced arrays can do multiple or all three of these things. An array runs off the mana of the creator or the group of people that are operating it. Certain materials can also be used to power an array. These were just the basic principles of arrays that Silas had briefly touched upon in his training. Nothing of how to set up or operate one.

Silas ran into a few beasts at the start of his journey that attacked him with no regard to their lives because he stepped into their territory. In several not so easy battles he managed to walk away victorious with virtually no wounds. It was only after he had walked for a few hours that he noticed the beasts were becoming more frequent as well as stronger. He continued onwards, now actively avoiding the territories of the beasts because he was not confident in fighting a large number of opponents at once. The most he had ever done was 3 to 4 of the weaker ones around his home. Most of his training was 1 on 1 with Luis.

Night slowly encroached upon him and he looked for a safe place to rest. and found a tree with relatively low branches, not low enough for something to get to him but low enough for him to make an easy escape if needed. He slept on tree branches for 2 of the nights and on the dirt ground the other 2 he couldn't find a spot to do so in. His clothes got matted with dirt and stuck to his skin due to the high humidity of the forest. Even with his effort to avoid fighting, Silas still had to do a few battles and in those his saber unfortunately got nicked from a tough, oversized, scaly lizard.

Four days into his journey he sensed a decently sized clearing in the trees and five mana signatures. Silas realized that a confrontation would be unavoidable and readied his saber and waited for the charge of the beast, until it spoke. "Easy there man, we ain't gone rob you." It was a gruff sounding voice that spoke with a reassuring tone.

Silas sat there for a second and responded "You can speak?" He was dumbfounded, he had never run into a beast that had spoken with him in the forest before.

The gruff voice sounded confused as he replied. "Whad'ya means I can speak. We human ain't we?" The voice belonged to a towering man that stood a foot taller than Silas. He had silver knight-like armor and a towering shield. He stroked his wild black beard that seemed unkept and tidy at the same time. This was a man that took pride in this beard of his.

The man then saw the blindfold on Silas' face and that he was still in a guarded position. "Humans? Oh that makes sense." Silas lowered his saber put more energy into using his mana sense trying to feel the people before him more clearly instead of the rough signature he was using for the journey before. This method took more mana but Silas could now make out what the humans looked like, albeit roughly.

One of the humans exclaimed, "What was that? That felt like a faint mana detection." Silas turned in the direction of the voice. It was a younger female with a billowing robe and long hair. She had a wooden staff with a crystal attached to the top laying by her side. The female let another question in a low manner, "Is there a member of the Order here? How strange."

"What happened Rebecca?" The man with the beard asked the girl puzzledly. She replied with an shocked expression, "I felt a faint bit of mana scour this area. There must be a member of the Order around here."

"The Order eh. Them upright pricks don't have jurisdiction here'n Ardor." The man spat and looked back at Silas. "Don't worry lad, Order can't do nuthin with me here." Silas stared back aghast thinking to himself, 'Are they talking about me, maybe I should tone it back.' He gulped and then nodded back at the man. He stopped using so much mana to use his mana sense, just enough to see the outline of the people there, like looking through a blurred lense.

The bearded man smiled, "The names Ed, what you go by." Ed said to Silas, getting closer to him.

"Oh, my name is Silas. Nice to meet you." The two shook hand in the proper greeting that Silas had been taught.

"To you as well. You've any helpers boy? No matter un how merciless this world is now I ain't believe it if they were tuh send a blind kid as yurself out to temper in the jungle. " Ed asked. "Way too dangerous!"

"Oh I live here. I can get around pretty well by myself. I'm trying to make my way to the town." Silas said the last part with a bit of excitement. "Do you know where it is?" The group of 5 were shocked. "You live here, in the jungle, by yourself?" A different voice let out, this time from a young man about the same age as Rebecca, who looked a bit like Ed. His voice sounded fairly similar but it had a more refined sound to it.

"Well no, I lived here with my father but well, he's no longer here." Silas replied, his voice becoming dimmer. Ed looked at him with a rather somber expression. "No matter now, quite a feat to live in the jungle with just you and you's dad. Let me introduce you."

Ed then pulled Silas by his arm. "This my wife Anne." Silas shook the hand of an older lady, who unbeknownst to him, was quite stunning. "There my brother John. And my sister Rebecca." Silas shook both of their hands. "And this be my lil boy." Ed picked up a young kid, around 5-6, lifting him with a huge smile. The kid had the same smile on his face. "His name is Ed just like his dad here." The kid waved his hand and said shyly, "Hello Sir." Silas smiled back at the little man.

The group talked with Silas for a little but he learned that this part of the forest wasn't that dangerous and that was why Ed had taken his family out for a little adventure. He also learned that the town, or rather city as they described it, was near. The city was called Newport and was the biggest trading hub around for ages. it was quite grand and was the biggest source of income for all of Ardor. It had many five story buildings, the highest in the entire region, and its harbor was breathtaking in its industry.

Ed explained that he had explored the jungle with his brothers and sisters ever since they were little and he was quite confident in his knowledge of it as well as his own strength. He then brought up that he was a part of the adventurers guild back at Newport and he had brought his family up from poverty into the state they were now. Ed had managed to send the rest of his family to school and they were now quite well off. He thought that his son was old enough to come on a little adventure with them to the safest parts of the jungle to get out of the city.