The rain had stopped. The sun was rising. Light shining through the giant trees. The air was clean and wet now. The T-800's sensors recorded the new environmental data.
He verified the memorized map data, the path as per the environment. He started walking north. His movements were now faster and smoother.
After walking for ten minutes, its audio sensors picked up a new sound. It was a low growl. The sound came from the trees to its left.
The T-800 stopped. It turned its head. A large wolf walked out from behind a tree.
The wolf was bigger than any wolf in the T-800's database. It was the size of a small horse. Its fur was pure black and wet because of last night's rain. Its eyes glowed with a faint red light.
[Analyzing lifeform...]
[Result: Unknown canine species.]
[Threat level: Moderate.]
[The same unknown energy signature is detected. Energy level is 95% lower than the human targets in the cave.]
The wolf growled again. It lowered its body, ready to attack. Then, it lunged.
It moved very fast. A normal human would not have time to react.
The T-800 did not move back. It moved forward. It met the attack head-on. The wolf opened its mouth wide. It aimed for the T-800's throat. The T-800 raised its left arm to block.
The wolf bit down hard on the T-800's forearm.
CRUNCH.
The sound was not of bone breaking. It was the sound of the wolf's teeth shattering. The wolf yelped in pain. It tried to pull its head back.
But the T-800's right hand was already moving. It formed a fist. It punched the wolf in the side of its head.
The wolf's head caved in like he got hit by a hammer. Its body flew sideways and hit a tree. It fell to the ground. It was dead. The fight was over in two seconds.
The T-800 looked at the dead wolf. It scanned the body.
[Scanning target... Energy signature is fading.]
[Calculating the variable changes - None Detected.]
[New Hypothesis: Energy transfer may be limited to human targets, or targets with a high concentration of the energy Or this is an Incompatible Source.] [Need more data.]
The T-800 left the dead wolf behind. It continued walking north. The jungle became less thick. Soon, it could see the end of the trees.
It stepped out of the jungle and onto a wide dirt road as mentioned in the map. The road was empty. The T-800 looked left, then right. In the distance, it saw three figures walking away from it.
[Scanning targets... Humans. Unknown energy signatures detected.]
[Energy levels are 90% lower than the bandits in the cave.]
[Conclusion: The energy concentration varies between individual humans.]
The T-800 began to walk. He followed them, his heavy body despite its weight was silent on the dirt road. It closed the distance quickly.
He was about to call them for directions when he heard their conversation.
[Analyzing vocalizations…]
[Activating language learning module. Processing all vocals.]
"Did you see the lightning last night?" the first man asked. "Struck that old tree, near those Uru cannibals bandits' cave, left a wide crater. Never seen a storm like that."
"The weather of this damned Boundless Seal Realm is getting stranger every year," the second man grumbled. "First the strange blood fogs, now these erratic storms, I tell you those Martial Heaven Alliance bastards are trying to kill us all with a natural calamity. They won't be happy until this whole prison sinks into the Chaos abyss."
The leader of the small group grunted. "Forget the weather. Just keep your eyes open. The Shadow Wolf Sect recruiting again, they must have lost a lot in last week's raid on Sun Lizard Bastards. We need to secure our spot before some other desperate fools beat us to it."
Suddenly, the leader stopped. He put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hold on."
All three of them felt it before even the leader could spell it out. "A pressure… a presence." All three of them raised their forearm and rubbed on the Brand they had.
They immediately turned and froze when they saw the T-800. He was still fifty meters away, walking toward them at a steady pace. His size alone was a threat.
"Heavens," one of them muttered. "This…this pressure!? It's coming from him?"
The leader drew his sword. His two friends did the same. Their stances looked uncertain. "Stop! Who are you?" the leader shouted.
The T-800 stopped.
He registered their bio-signs…elevated heart rates, adrenaline spikes, pupil dilation.
Fear.
This reaction was not his intent.
He stood away from them, did not make any unnecessary or fast movement.
He slowly raised his finger and pointed down the road. It used its vocal synthesizer to replicate the sounds it had deciphered from the map.
"Town?" it asked. The voice was flat, perfect, and without emotion. It was a question, a test to check if his internal neural translation was accurate or not, is it on the right pattern or not.
The three men were confused. T-800 did not look like a typical person to them at all. Several questions on where did this foreigner come from? His robes also do not look like the locals would wear, more like bandits.
Is he a bandit? Also, this foreigner's voice was also strange. They looked at each other. They saw the T-800's large, muscular body.
Then their gaze landed on the right shoulder, the Brand was openly visible.
They felt a deep chill.
A Bandit with such physique and such dark brand would not talk or ask but kill.
A brand only got that dark one way. He was a killer, and a very successful one at that, their eyes glued to the brand.
Maybe he is not a bandit but lost. Also they are not confident enough to deal with him even if they are three and he is one, so getting hostile here would not be wise.
They all silently decided to play along.
"Yes… Greenwater Town is that way," one of the men said. He pointed with his sword. "We are going there too."
[Neural Translation Pattern confirmed. Recording new words and sentence structure.]
The men started walking again. They walked much faster now. They wanted to get away from the strange man before any escalation or they reached some protection or more men to tackle or witnesses.
The T-800 followed them. It kept a distance of exactly 50 meters. Its audio sensors were focused on them, recording every word they spoke.
"...who is he?"
"...a barbarian from the Northern Wastes, tossed in with us… but his brand…"
"...it's so dark. How many has he killed to get a brand like that?"
"...Boundless Seal Realm…"
"...Is he a Penance collector?...
"...He didn't sound like one…"
"...Maybe he killed someone with a darker brand…"
The T-800's Neural Net processing cores processed the new words, new terms and new information. It correlated them with the situation. It was building its language database, Context database, one word, one sentence and one context at a time.
It was learning, fast.
Its directives were clear.
[Primary Goal: Gather data. Observe the population. Learn the language. Find maps and any information.]
[Secondary Goal: Locate more humans with high-level energy signatures. Test energy transfer hypothesis.]
[Ultimate Mission: Find and terminate John Connor.]
The sun was higher in the sky now. In the distance, the T-800 could see the small shapes of buildings.
The town was close.