Chapter 6

"Who are you?" asked Glade.

Anissa was frozen on the spot! She realized that she had seen something she shouldn't have!

The men didn't feel embarrassed at all.

Being the only woman in the group made her feel awkward and embarrassed! She didn't know what to do!

As for Kyle, finding himself surrounded, he raised his hands in surrender, a meaningless gesture, considering his captors didn't understand what it meant.

The problem he was now facing, was: What the hell were they saying???? What kind of language were they speaking???

With a light cough, he said, "Hello there, my name is Kyle … Do you understand what I'm sayin' ??"

However, his captors suddenly had puzzled expressions!

This meant one thing, none of them understood each other!

It was only after Anissa pointed at the clothes which had been left on the cave floor, that Kyle realized he was naked! And right in front of a woman too!!

He suddenly felt embarrassed, as he walked over to the place where his clothes were, and started wearing them.

As he was wearing his clothes, the dark-skinned warrior asked, "What do you think happened to those ants?"

"Oh my … h-how is t-this p-possible??" the young priest stammered as he looked around the cave. His party noticed that his eyes were glowing with a blue light.

"What's he doing?" Glade asked, looking at Anissa.

"I-I don't know!" her cheeks turned pink. It seemed like she was thinking about something else other than the question she had been asked.

The young priest started praying, "Lord of Light, bless our paths. Give us our daily supplements, and protect us from harm."

"Hey hey, what're you doing?" Glade asked, grabbing the young man by the shoulders.

That's when he saw that the young man's nose was bleeding!

"Is he going to be alright? Something is happening to him!" Glade started panicking.

"Calm down! I'm sure he's going to be fine!" Anissa declared, trying to calm things down a bit.

The young man kept on mumbling prayers, one after another, while holding a rosary artifact.

When Glade realized that something was off about this whole situation, he went to Kyle, who had just finished wearing clothes.

He then activated the common [Gaze] skill, which allowed you to see someone's stats and skills. This skill only worked on people who were a level lower than you, of course.

The skill could work on people ranked higher than you, if it evolved into another, more elaborate skill!

What Glade didn't expect, however, was that this skill would fail!!

"N-no way! What the fuck? Who is this guy??" he started sweating as he realized that he might have made a mistake.

There were two ways in which the [Gaze] skill would fail:

1. If the person whose stats you're trying to view was more powerful than you, like having a level or more, stronger than you.

2. If the person had a very powerful mental barrier skill!

Now, since he didn't know which of the reason had caused his [Gaze] skill to fail, he assumed it was due to the first reason! And that made him break into a cold sweat!!

Seeing his partner shaking and retreating, the dark-skinned warrior decided to use the same skill, only to get the same result as Glade.

"What's going on?" Anissa decided to ask, when she realized that something had happened.

Since Kyle was now wearing clothes, she approached him, and tried to use the [Observe] skill, which was an evolved version of [Gaze].

Of course, it didn't work either!

Anissa's eyes widened in disbelief.

Meanwhile, the young priest was still mumbling prayers, but he was now shaking uncontrollably. The artifact he was holding was glowing with a pale, blue light.

"Someone should probably stop him from what he's doing, otherwise he's going to kill himself!" the leader of the miners had stopped mining.

"W-what d-do you mean?" the dark-skinned warrior asked.

"You see, the only time I have seen priests performing a ritual like this, was when they were trying to obtain [Holy energy] from the church! I'm sure this place has some, which would explain why those ants couldn't come in", the miners' leader paused.

He continued, "If he continues trying to get more, he's definitely going to die!"

Anissa rushed over, and then knocked the young man out using the hilt of her sword! The young man tumbled over, unconscious, while the artifact stopped glowing.

"Quite a waste of a sword made with Clarian steel", Glade snorted.

Anissa didn't care, and she knew that explaining anything wouldn't make much of a difference.

"It appears we'll be quite safe from monster attacks as long as we're here. So, we're going back to our job", the leader of the miners started walking away.

Everything returned to normal, if you're using this world's definition of normal, of course.

When the miners had finished, they went outside and dumped the crystals they had obtained into the back of a carriage.

They also left the unconscious young priest, Kyle, and Glade. The only reason they left Kyle was because he was useless inside, and as for Glade, they needed someone to protect the crystals.

Kyle was happy to see the outside world, and one of the things that shocked him was the fact that there were two suns shining in the sky!

What kind of world was this?

Didn't this mean he was still alive? If he was, where was he? How did he get here in the first place?

More questions, no answers … at least not yet.

After a few more trips, the carriage was almost full of crystals.

"If I was to sell these, I'm sure I'd be able to retire and buy myself a house in the city! They should fetch quite a price", Glade spoke with an evil smile.

"If you want to die sooner, keep having those thoughts!" Anissa's guard spoke.

"Do you ever say anything other than that sentence?"

"…"

"I guess not… Anyway, shouldn't we start moving? It would be hard to defend ourselves at night!"

"Let's start moving!" Anissa declared, as she mounted her horse.

They started moving, with Kyle, the unconscious priest and the crystals riding in the carriage. Kyle wasn't enjoying this ride, since it was so bumpy. Looking at the wheels, he realized that, there was no spring, and definitely no shock absorbers!

The things you miss when you used to take them for granted …

When they were about half-way through their journey, they saw a burning caravan blocking the road. There were bodies strewn all over the road!

Anissa gave the order to slow down, as she readied her sword.

It was then, that arrows started raining towards them!

"Not good!" Anissa yelled, as she jumped off her horse, and took cover.