Chapter 51: Escalation
Since he had received that Notification Morden had already begun thinking, and dots were already Connecting.
Due to the fact the notification only appeared when he, Darlus, and Lisa were Entering the Omnisphere and the fact that the Watchmen grouped them together was enough to solidify that theory.
But what he had expected was that their presence would trigger a city-wide event, and from the people’s faces, it was obvious that this wasn’t something that happens often.
’But what exactly is in the notification, is it the same thing as the one we received, how do I confirm that?’
Thought after thought came rising up in Morden’s mind, each one of them fighting for supremacy and the most amount of attention.
’No. All these are wrong; these questions aren’t what I should be focusing on right now’
’What I should focus on is meeting up with the rest,’
’I already heard someone threaten to get rid of the people with attributes as soon as possible; who knows what they are going to do?’
’I need to go,’
Having made that decision, Morden quickly got himself together and blended into the crowd while quietly leaving the hostel area.
Despite not knowing where the city square was, he was sure staying there wasn’t going to get him any closer to finding it.
’I just need to find a less crowded place and then find someone to ask.’
And he ended up doing just that; he found a less crowded area, asked someone there, and soon he was on his way to the city square.
Having experienced a lot of things in his past life, Morden knew there was a very diverse range of people, and people that would intentionally lead you towards the wrong direction aren’t a few, and that made him careful.
He tried using all the information he had about his current location from his surroundings to try and deduce the right way to the place and how much it coincides with the one he was given.
Standing alone, the two methods weren’t reliable, but standing together, it seems quite reliable.
After a few rounds of deduction, Morden confirmed that the directions he was given were most likely correct.
As if to confirm his thoughts, after one final left turn, he actually managed to see an open area not too far away; it was surrounded by traders, or better said Bearers that are trying to sell off whatever they were able to obtain.
In the middle of the open area was a podium, and leaning on one side of the podium was Darlus, currently looking all around with an extremely enthusiastic face.
Seeing one of the people he was going to meet up with already there, Morden quickened his steps in another to join him as soon as possible.
"You got here quite early," Morden spoke up from behind the unsuspecting Darlus.
Startled by the sudden voice behind him, Darlus suddenly went into the action mode and created an icicle, sending it flying straight at Morden’s head.
"Woah woah, teacher, relax a little bit," Morden shouted while briskly dodging to the side, allowing the Icicle to pass by him and land on the ground not too far away.
Strangely, despite the sudden display of ability in front of everyone there, nobody even reacted in any way; they just went by their busy life like nothing happened.
"Ohh, it’s you, you startled me," Karlus shouted when he finally managed to get a good look at the person that had just spoken to him.
"Yes, it’s me, and the first thing you do after meeting someone is throw an Icicle at their face; this is the second time," Morden said with a slight frown.
"I am sorry; it was more like a reflex, and it’s your fault for sneaking up on me like that."
"Why didn’t I hear the sound of the carriage when you got here?" Darlus asked.
"Carriage? what the hell are you talking about?" Morden asked with a face filled with confusion.
"Yeah, I know, it’s strange, right? There are no cars here, just carriages," Darlus said.
"I had to pay three stones to get here," He added with a pained face while more stones materialized in his hands.
"Where the hell did you get them?" Morden’s face showed utter shock.
The stones in Darlus’s hands—he had them too; they were the three stones he picked up from the corner of his living room just beside the Window.
"Ohh, this, I found them on the bedside furniture when I woke up in my spawn room."
At this spawn there was already a large question marking floating directly on Morden’s head.
"Beside Furniture, Red stones? is there Nepotism in the Omnisphere too!!"
Despite feeling that it was unfair to have situations like that, Morden didn’t even think to ask questions further on that topic and soon moved to another topic he was much interested in knowing.
"Is that the currency they use here?" he asked.
"I think so, because the moment I went outside the building and woke up in, I noticed someone get down from the carriage and then gave the driver this, and it was that same carriage I boarded over here."
Darlus’s answer gave Morden more questions than he answered, but realizing that his friend was also almost as oblivious as he was, he decided to drop it for now and ask the more experienced Lisa.
"Lisa isn’t here yet; she sure is taking her time," Darlus said while looking all around them.
From his face, it was obvious that he was already growing slightly impatient and had lost interest in watching the marketing people, but Morden, on the other hand, just began showing interest.
’Why would Bearers come to the Omnisphere, and instead of heading out to battle Genetic beast and grow stronger, they are here trading, driving carriages, and going all sorts of things?’
’It just seems extremely strange,’
Just as Morden was about to dive into the sea, Lisa’s voice suddenly sounded behind him.
"You two should keep your head low and start moving immediately; they are already heading here."
"Who?" he managed to ask despite his shock.
Lisa grew quiet for a short while before finally opening her mouth to speak.
"Bearers. A lot of them."