Chapter 16: Sharphorn ruin
The exceedingly large and majestic Sharphorn ruin was right in front of them. Sharphorn was originally a D grade city, the same as Edan city. Cities were graded according to their size and their current state of development. Cities were divided into six grades and they were automatically graded by the earth when conditions were met.
The lowest grade is E with its minimum size of approximately 3,000 kilometers and the highest grade is S with its minimum size of approximately 1.5 million kilometers.
Sarphorn city's landmass was around 5,000 kilometers the last time it was measured by humans living in it. It was a cultivator city that was even a little bit better than Edan City until it, unfortunately, met with a disaster.
It was attacked by a huge monster tide which managed to overwhelm the city due to its greedy and vain leadership that chose to invest contribution points in aesthetics and entertainment instead of fortifying the city's defenses and encouraging the growth of cultivators.
Whenever there was a monster tide, the city's teleportation array which linked it with another city gets temporarily disabled by the earth in order to keep monsters from using it and also stops humans from easily abandoning the besieged city.
Everybody in the city was quickly massacred and the city's hunters association was immediately converted to the varmint association which is its monster equivalent. Contribution points were used by the monsters to gradually terraform the once magnificent city into an abode for various beasts.
Only high-level beasts in the evolved realm and above who had gained intelligence were allowed to enter the city. The land 1,500 km around the city was terraformed into a huge forest with contribution points to cater to the low-level beasts which would enable them to fight for resources to improve themselves.
"The vehicle will not be able to go any farther. So I will stop here and wait for a period of three weeks. After three weeks and you are not here yet, I will head into the forest to look for you. When I find you, I will kill you and take the child with me back to Edan city. Am I clear?" said Mr. Abdul nonchalantly.
"We will be back in three weeks' time. No need to issue meaningless threats" replied Abel as he and his student began preparing to leave the vehicle. Mr. Abdul watched them closely as they moved around the RV. Even though he could guess that Kane's master was powerful, he would not compare Abel to the outstanding cultivators who belonged to the Storm Cradle clan or the powerful students of the various schools that were located in the Nobel district of Edan city.
He even suspected that Abel had used some underhanded means to keep Kane by his side for unknown selfish reasons. They soon left the RV but not before Kane Cheerfully waved goodbye to Mr. Abdul and headed into the forest. Abel was helpless as he knew that kids tended to be like that, most of the time.
There was a sharp contrast between the forest they just left and the dense forest they just entered. This area was relatively safe as no beasts would stay out the outskirts of the forest since this was the part where humans who came from other locations would usually come to hunt.
They were surrounded by abundant greenery as they walked deeper into the forest. The only thing odd was the absence of sounds made by beasts. This area was obviously poached clean by humans or the beasts were not daring enough to be this close to the edge of the forest.
"This is as far as I am going. Don't worry I will be close enough to make sure nothing serious happens to you but far enough for you to not notice me" said Abel. He took out a waist pack and handed it to Kane. The storage waist pack was also a spatial storage device which was just like its counterpart, the storage ring. It was specifically made for cultivators who had not yet advanced into the evolved realm. The difference between the two was that it used mana crystals as a power source and its storage space was a lot smaller than the storage ring.
"This is a storage waist pack. It contains rations that would last for two days. Use it wisely until when you can find prey to hunt. I suggest that you first look for a clean water source and make your shelter not too close to it since you might not be the only one using it. Also, one more thing. Remember you have an adaptation mutation. don't be too afraid of food poisoning or even mildly poisonous substances.
In fact, I suggest that you seek them out and consume them moderately so you can build up your poison resistance. You can also hunt monsters to get a lot of cores for your advancements. Remember, use this opportunity to practice your archery skills. When you are in battle, your hunter's association id card stops working so always be prepared. You can also spend your contribution points as you see fit from now. Yup… there's nothing else left for me to say. Off you go" said Abel.
"Thank you, master. I will definitely remember your advice and make you proud" said Kane as he turned around and walked cautiously into the forest. He suddenly stopped and turned to look at his master "master, there is something I wanted to tell you but I could not do that when we were with Abdul".
"What is it?" Abel look interested when he heard Abdul's name. Kane continued seriously "On the first day of our trip when you called me into the bedroom, I actually remembered what I forgot." said Kane. "What did you forget?" Abel became serious.
"I forgot that the car was not moving, I forgot we had a driver, I forgot our destination, I forgot why we were going to Sharphorn ruin, I forgot many other things but the most important thing which scared me was I forgot that I forgot those things. Do you understand master?" said Kane with a hint of fear in his eyes.
Abel had his brows furrowed why would Kane suddenly forget so much at an instant. He was thinking that something might have happened to the boy's memories. He suddenly widened his eyes in shock when he remembered Kane's last sentence, he forgot that he forgot those things. He became even more serious and on guard as he said "It's definitely not normal for you to forget that amount of crucial information all at once.
I suspect that we were under the influence of a dao. Even I might have forgotten just like you. The only difference was that your observation mutation reminded you that something was wrong with your memories. The only person who could have done that was Mr. Abdul, but why?"
After a long pause, Abel continued "Mr. Abdul was involved with all those memories, why would he want us to forget them, and even make us forget that we forgot those memories… of course, he wanted us to forget his existence".
Abel turned grim. What a terrifying dao ability. He understood that what Kane mentioned was only the tip of the iceberg. They also forgot Mr. Abdul's scent, sounds that his body made while moving like footsteps, or even when his body makes contact with other objects.
They essentially forgot Mr. Abdul's existence. They could still be talking even when their throats were slit open by him. This was a perfect dao ability for assassination. He quickly calmed down though.
He had the dao of fate. He would know when he was going to be in danger like how he was about to be killed when Kane fainted because of the crushed core solution. Kane would also be alerted when he notices that he had forgotten something with the aid of his observation mutation. He had to be more careful while dealing with Mr. Abdul from now henceforth.
"Don't worry your little head about it kid. I will handle everything from now on. You have done well. Now go on in, you don't need to waste any more time" said Abel as he put on an assuring smile on his face.
"Ok master, take care," said Kane as he walked into the forest.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone