"What's a number one?" a voice startled him.
"Oh shit!" Damon almost dropped the egg.
"Jeez, you startled me!" he almost shouted.
Ms present glanced at him.
"I only asked a question, it's your fault for being sneaky. Besides where did you find that thing?" she gestured at the egg in his hand.
Damon shrugged.
"Just lying around somewhere. I thought it looked good, so I took it."
After that they stared at each in silence until Damon finally couldn't take it any longer.
"What?!" he asked.
"You didn't tell me what number one was."
"Oh, that!" Damon shifted uncomfortably, "It means going to take a leak!"
The dark haired woman stared at him weirdly.
"You're a weird one little brother." Before she put on her signature smile. "But that only makes you more amusing."
"Ahhhh!" Damon sighed exasperatedly. "Would you stop addressing me like that!"
"No." she replied flatly. "Now that that's out of the way, it's time we have a real talk on how we'll proceed from now on."
Damon agreed. It was about time they had that talk. Ms present called Mira, breaking her out from her concentration.
Soon the three of them were seated in a circle, with Mira and Damon glaring daggers at each other.
"If we want to get out of here, we'll have to get along with each other." Ms present broke the ice.
"And if we want to be able to fight better together, we'll have to know what each of us is capable of. Our specialties, our abilities, or at least part of what they can do.
Damon nodded.
He felt that Ms present was up to something, but couldn't figure out what exactly, so he left it at that.
"To show my sincerity, I'll go first." Ms present popped her chin on her palm.
"I'm at the Eta+ rank, my ability allows me to ramp up my momentum, and I'm good with the sword."
Damon stared waiting for her to say more.
"That's it." she said flatly.
"Really?" Damon scoffed. "What happened to 'to show my sincerity, I'll go first?"
"Oh I did say that?" The dark haired woman smirked slyly. "But if you remember correctly, I also said our abilities, or at least part of what they can do."
Damon wasn't bothered by it or anything, in fact, he planned to do the same. After all what kind of idiot would tell a stranger what they're fully capable of.
"Fine then." he grumbled. "I am at the Eta- rank, I'm also good with the sword, and my ability is for scouting."
Ms present glanced at Mira, which prompted her to speak.
"I don't know if he's lying or not, after all he didn't particularly use any distinct ability while we fought that abomination." Said Mira.
"Why would I lie? I only withheld some part of my abilities like you did." Damon protested.
'A whole lot part.' he added in his mind. But somehow, he was sure Ms present also did the same.
"Well, it's your turn Mira." Ms present ignored Damon's protest.
"I'm am at the Theta- rank, my ability is basically ice manipulation, and I'm good with sorcery." Ms present already knew what Mira could do, but Mira had to say it for Damon's convenience.
'Ah, sweet ol' sorcery.' Damon thought, remembering how he boring sorcery class was.
'Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have bunked those sorcery lessons.' He sighed.
After Mira finished speaking, the dark haired woman continued, "Any ideas on directions?" she inquired.
Damon frowned, "I'm not quite sure if you've noticed, but there's no sun here. And even if there is, we can't see it due to the fog. So we have no idea where we even are in the first place, or where we're supposed to head to."
Ms present raised a brow.
"So what you're basically saying is that we have no reference of direction whatsoever."
"Yep!" Damon popped the p.
"So what? We'll just pick a direction and see it to the end." Ms present shrugged as if it was obvious.
"Uh, I think you're forgetting something." Damon called to attention. "If you want to die so badly, then count me out."
As if the horrors in this hell would allow them to see any direction to the end. Hell, picking a direction itself was a massive gamble. What if they were just a few kilometers from the edge of the Ashen Deadlands, but instead ended up picking the opposite direction.
"It won't be as dangerous as you think, we'll keep to the shadows, and avoid any horror and since we have a fine scout like yourself we should be able to do that right?
After all you did manage to survive by yourself for a whole day, and I doubt you could do that if you weren't able to avoid them. But don't worry, even if we do," she smiled brightly, "This big sister will protect you."
"Keuk!" Damon almost barged from the cringe.
He glanced at the dark haired woman. She was right and wrong at the same time. The only reason Damon survived was because he was able to swap his real body away. But him reaching this place wasn't due to his 'scouting' abilities or anything.
He was just lucky enough not to encounter any horror, simple as that.
But since he already said he had 'scouting' abilities, he couldn't back out. Worst case scenario if they encountered something they couldn't defeat, he'd simply swap away.
"Fine, which direction are we taking?" Damon inquired.
The dark haired woman shrugged.
"Who knows?, we'll pick one after we set out in a few hours."
"Okay but before that, I gotta go do a number two." Damon muttered.
Ms present frowned.
"What's a number two?!
"You already know number one, you figure it out." Damon said as he placed the cerulean egg on a soft cushion.
It took a few seconds before it clicked in her mind.
"Ah, I think I understand!" Ms present muttered as if she had just discovered a huge puzzle.
"What is it that you understand my lady?" Mira who finally couldn't keep confusion inquired.
To her, Damon only said he was going to do a number two, so what was it that her lady understood?
"You won't understand." Damon said as he leapt out through the hole.
After he got on the roof, Damon mentally tugged on 'one of many'. Two uncanny reflections of him appeared materialized on the roof out of thin air.
They looked like an exact copy of him, only these weren't regular reflections. Damon had made each one with twenty percent of his aether each. So they were twice as strong as a regular reflection.
But that wasn't the main reason why he had made them. The main reason, was so that they'll also be able to make a regular reflection.
Yes, as long as his reflections have more than the aether required to sustain them, and had another ten percent of his aether, they could also make more reflections.
Damon had been thrilled when he figured this out during the week he spent training. But he hadn't touched much on it. But now he kinda needed them.
His reflections were the 'scouting' ability he mentioned earlier. Once the trio had decided on which direction to go, the reflections would go ahead of them, so if there was any danger ahead, Damon would know beforehand, hence the scouting coming into play.
And also if the reflection comes across a path that splitter into two, the reflection would also split into two.
With that decision made, the reflections jumped away into hiding, and
After creating the reflections, Damon waited for about half an hour before going back inside.
"Good that you're here, we're planning to set out in half an hour." Ms present said the moment Damon dropped back into the room."
"I thought you said in a few hours." Damon frowned.
"Well that was before, the fiend downstairs began sniffing around here. It's like it's noticed something was wrong." Ms present gestured at the door leading downstairs.
'The hell?!' Damon glanced at the door warily.
"Also, there is one last thing we forgot to put in the equation." the dark haired woman added.
"What?" Damon inquired.
"Food."
"Food?" Damon frowned–confused before his eyes suddenly widened.?
"Don't tell me you guys don't have enough...." Damon began but was cut off by the dark haired woman.
"Us guys? Ms present frowned. "So that means you have food." Her frown ceased into a smile.
"Wait a minute, what is that supposed to mean?" damon asked. "You really expect me to believe you went on an exploration without enough sustenance to last you weeks if not months?"
"Of course not silly." Ms present waved her hand. "We did came with enough, but captain Baldor was carrying the bulk of it, and you know he's..." she made a gesture of cutting on the neck.
"I'll be damned!" Damon muttered. 'Their luck stat must be really shitty.' he concluded.
********
A/N: Well, here we go. If you like my story, support it with power stones, and leave a review. I'm open to suggestions.
Anyway, I'll try to end this arc in the next chapter or two. I feel it's time we head for the academy arc. What do you think?