As I looked ihe cave Willow crashed into, I smelt familiar sts from around our vilge. The cave is extremely well-lit. So this must be their base.

  I see Maple run up to Willow the 2nd, whose body is slumped ihe cave and kick his body. “What the hell is wrong with you? That could’ve ended up bad.”

  Willow starts to whimper out of sadness. He ’t uand the heroes song, but I guess her tone was enough.

  “Maple go easy on him. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to find this pce,” As I say this, I see the light decrease in the cave. I look at the entrance Willow rammed into, and I know that it has started to reform itself, closing up.

  Seeing this, I walk he wall and touch it, when I touch it , the wall feels stiff, ruff and rigid, but the more power I put into my hands, the softer it bees, it’s even softer than the snow on Fimbulwinter, but as I apply more force the wall sucks me in.

  “ORB!” Maple screams.

  As I open my eyes, I see I am back outside. While standing there, I touch the wall again and end up oher side. When I got back, I heard, “You’re okay.”

  “When I touched the wall, I at out oher side.” I have never heard of anything like this in Capti’s books. I know of substahat are both soft and hard, but not anything like this. When Willow blew the wall apart, it reformed.

  Maple walks up to me and hits me in my back.

  “Ouch, what was that for.”

  “Be careful. You should take precautions with the unknown idiot.”

  I thought this was no big deal, but as I looked at Maple, I see the genuine worry on her face. She has lost lots of people I guess she didn’t take kindly to this. “Sorry, Maple, I will be more careful ime.”

  “Ok, Orb.”

  So, getting on Willow the 2nd back, we charge forward at full speed through the tunnel.

  -Break-

  Φ “This is so unfair. Why do we have to be o trol while everyone else is partying it up.”

  “SHUT UP, this is all your fault; we wouldn't be here if you didn’t lose all the cargo ba Fimbulwinter.”

  “How would I have possibly known that my singing would have attracted those monsters with six arms.”

  “It’s simple, your singing is so bad that god o make you shut up somehow. Every siime you sing, something bad happens, and this time, it made those giant monsters not only kill all our mates but destroy most of our cargo. We should just cut off your to will be a great favour to not only us, but the world at rge.”

  “Take that back, you dickhead.”

  “Why is the truth that hard to handle.”

  Angered, I say, “Facts my ass right here, right now. I am going to prove it is all bullshit.” I start singing my lungs out.

  Φ “SHUT THE FUCK UP,” I say as I punch the idiot. “My god, I thought my ears were going to rot.”

  “Stop exaggerating. Now see, nothing bad has happened, it was all in your head you retard, now watch me sing again.”

  As the idiot in front of me tinues his atrocious singing, I hear increasing loud stomps. “Stop you, idiot, I think I hear something.”

  But he ignores me and tinues with his singing. I tried to forceable stop him but ing out of the tunnels in front of us was a giant five-horned beast, and from that beast, something jumped from it and nded right on the idiot’s face when I got a look at the person; he had red hair.”

  “MY GOD, STOP SINGING,” he said as his feet nded on the idiot’s faow stomping his foot against the idiot’s face, he says, “Never open your mouth again. Your voice is a crime against humanity. How a person’s voice be worse than Maples?”

  “Hey, I thought he sounded fine,” I hear a girl’s voice say.

  “That’s because you have no sense of anything music-reted.”

  After he fiomping the idiot’s face, he looks at me. I draw my sword quick, infusing it with spirit energy and try to ssh him, but he dodges all my sshes effortlessly.

  So, I decided to take a giant leap bad use my left hand to reach for the unicator in my back pocket. I o tact the boss. We somehow have an intruder. This has only happened once, so no one would be expeg this. I bring the unicator close to my face, but as I try to turn it on, I ’t feel my left hand.

  Looking down at my left hand, I see it has been cut off, and the wound has been frozen. Barely registering what had happened, I immediately looked up to see that the boy was not in front of me. Then I hear, “This doesn’t seem to be some kind of on or poison, so if he tried to use it in such a situation, it must be a unication device of some sort.”

  I immediately turn around to see the boy looking at my unicator. I didn’t even sense him. Is he even using spirit arts? If he wasn’t, how could he make such a movement without it? After taking one look, I immediately reise that he is a legacy.

  That must be where the ice came from. I ’t waste any more time, so I put all my spiritual energy into my sword and go for his neck, but he stops my bde with his hand, and in a moment, it freezes and shatters. Seeing this, I fall bay butt.

  “Seems like I am getting a hand of this whole ice ability.” The boy walks up to me and says, “I am a bit lost, so give me some dires.”

  I tell him, “There is a map in my right pocket. Take it.”

  The boy holds the map in his hands, sits o me and asks, “So, where are we.”

  Using my good hand, I point to the spot we currently are at.

  “Where would your base be.”

  “In this big tre area here.”

  “Thank you for this.”

  “No problem,” I say with a forced smile.

  As the boy stares at the map, he says, “ I ask a few more questions.”

  “Go ahead”. I don’t want to answer his questions; I want this versation to end.

  “You and your friend are quite visibly unfit, so how you pull out those movements.”

  “I was using spirit arts.”

  “What is that exactly?”

  “It is the ability to use spirit energy to bee a superhuman. It makes you stronger and faster regardless of how in shape you are.”

  “How did you obtain this.”

  “Most of us was thought by the newbie Cole. I think his name was.”

  The boy hair ges colour as he makes a very pting expression, then he says, “Why are you here? You look like you’re patrolling the area, but I am pretty sure this pce is so well hidden that most people properly wouldn’t find this pce.”

  “We are looking fnamoles trying to plug up the tunnels.”

  “Well, they have a habit of stantly plugging up and digging holes so that checks out. Is there anyone else on the lookout close by.”

  “No, it should only be my friend ail you reach the base.”

  The boy then squats in front of me and says, “Now have you seen anyone dressed like me retly.”

  “No, I have never seen someone like you in my life.” I say, frightened.

  “Your heartbeat increased for the first time when you said all that. It’s a lie, isn’t it.” The boy says as his eyes stare at me with lethal i.

  Bowing down in front of him, I say, “I lied. I am sorry, retly we have had lots of merdise that has your aesthetic.”

  “What was doh it.”

  “We sold some of it while the rest is still in the base.”

  “People or objects?”

  The boy’s head turned red as he asked, this. I am in trouble. “People, but I didn’t do any of it because I wao. I just o make money by following the boss’s orders. I AM SO SORRY IT WAS JUST A JOB.”

  “o apologise. We all o make money somehow.”

  “Really,” I say as I look up.

  His fist smashes me in the face as he says, “GET A DIFFERENT JOB.” As I fall unscious, I think that mom and dad are right; I should’ve bee a farmer.

  Φ “Maple es down here. I got an update ouation.”

  When Maple es over to me, I inform her of the situation. “So, they have been sold off. We were too te, but if only some of them were sold. There should still be many of them here, so we have no time to waste.”

  Maple then climbs ba Willow as I strip one of the bandits.

  “Orb, what are you doing.”

  “This one is close to my size, so I am going to switch clothes with him.”

  “Why?”

  “If they reise, I am from the vilge, they might use one of their prisoners as a hostage.” So, as I finish sing clothes with that man, I climb on Willow, and we head off.

  As we travel, a series of thoughts travel through my head. This map is one of the ti of Terrafide, which is the one we are currently on, though the map shows tunnel systems throughout the ti. Does this whole tunnel system spread that far?

  Also, they’re already able to sell some of the people. I didn’t think we were far enough behind them for something like that to happen. I guess that the bandits who took the people already knew whom they were going to sell them to a directly there, while the bandits I was smelling were carrying objects and now went back to base.

  Spirit arts must be what Sequoia and everyone else was using. It makes the most sense—sidering Cole is the one who taught them, I should have to fear that anyone here is better at it by than him. I hope this will work out. Please, God.

  -Break-

  Φ “Everyo used to all this high-quality wine and food we have because we’ll be drinking this stuff for a while.”

  As the screams of all my employees ring through the tunnel, I drink my wihat job that Cole brought us is the best he has given us, yet it is good to be me. “This is the life.”

  “Boss, you seem to be enjoying yourself.”

  “I am just patting myself on the back for accepting that na?ve kid into our ranks.”

  “Speaking about Cole, he hasn’t returned with the st team we sent out. Do you think he might’ve run away again?”

  “No, he will be back. He is a sve of money, and since we provide it to him without a doubt, he will be back. He lived with all those people for a year yet betrayed them and sold them to us.”

  One of my men said, “Boss, speaking of those people, would we be able to have some fun with them.”

  I draw my sword and swing it near his neck, but iionally missing him, I say to him, “If any of you idiots touch a single one of those women and children, I will stuff a hundred swords up your ass. They are rare prime merdise. Their worth is something you guys couldn’t make in all your life. You got that?”

  “Yes, boss,” he says with a whimper.

  “Good, now take these lupas and go to a whore house.”

  “Thank you, boss, for your too kind.”

  “Of course I am, now fuck off.”

  As I sit ba my chair, I think to myself that I have made it. I have no fancy education or incredible skills, yet I have enough money and people loyal to me. I get anything I want. This is truly the life.

  “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!” I hear someone shout.

  I look over to the screaming and see a five-horned beast running through the entrance of our base.