The Forgotten One

Ch 2: Where am I?

The spell was successful as Victor drifted into a deep slumber. He had no dreams felt no pain it was all just black. Until he heard unusual sounds, the sounds of horses clopping, the sound of wheels turning and the sound of an old man singing. Those made him stir in his slumber until Victor woke up to the unusual sounds. It was not the birds chirping, it was no the river waters crashing against itself. It was the sound of the early market as people were setting up and haggling. Victor tried to get up but his head was pounding and his chest was burning. "Where am I?" Victor asked himself as he struggled to his feet. He held onto the side of the carriage for balance as he walked out. He was greeted with the presence of a city market. The smell of a multitude of different herb, spices and foods being cooked simultaneously. The amount of people like a herd of buck grazing as the haggled and shopped. All of this was unusual and different from the isolated life Paragon lead. A merchant came around and was surprised to see him on his feet. "Where am I?" Victor asked the merchant. "Welcome to the kingdom of Dualia. Well you have always been in the kingdom of Dualia, this is its capital city, Apex. Your mother begged me to help you get in. You were sick and about to die." Victor pushed past the merchant as he was not making sense. "Paragon..." He mumbled as he tried to use his heightened senses to find a trace of her. It hurt as his senses overloaded forcing him to stop. After about an hour or two of aimlessly walking around he returned to the merchant he met as he woke up. He had concluded that she was nowhere to be found. Victor crumbled to the ground as he felt helpless. The merchant handed Victor a pair of gloves made out of her platinum scales. "She said to give this to you when you woke up. It nearly slipped my mind. She told me that you would get strong and find her so you needed theses." Victor wiped his tears and took the gloves. It smelled like her, looked like her and felt like her. I gave him a sense of familiarity as he put them on. "Yes, thank you." Victor said but his stomach grumbled so loud.
The merchant bought something for the two of them to eat. Victor and the merchant sat with their feet dangling of the side of the carriage as they ate cheap soup the merchant had bought. "I am glad you are okay. I have three children and I know the fear of losing them." The merchant said to Victor who looked up at the merchant. "Your mother will make her way back to you. Don't worry about a thing. It is the strength of us parents." The merchant gave Victor a big smile but what was grabbing his attention was a strong sense of malice. A bunch of locals hoodlums wearing torn up clothes walked up to the Merchant's stall. "Hey, you look new here." One of them said to the merchant with a smile as he touched his goods. "Yes, I am a new merchant here. My name is Miles Bernard and I sell alcohol and other local made products from my village." The merchant said as he showed them his product but they pushed him aside taking what they wanted. "That is nice but we are just here to warn you. There are some rules we have here. Protection fees, you never know when someone decides to steal from you or worse." The others snickered at the merchant. Victor could sense their evil intentions. It was something Paragon taught him in his fifteen years with her, empathy sensing. The merchant nodded in understanding what they were trying to do. "I have 50 silver. Will that be enough?" The thugs snatched the sack of coins. "We will be back for the rest old man!" Victor watched them walk away. "Could you help me clean up shop kiddo?" The merchant asked as Victor. Victor nodded with a smile on his face.

After helping the merchant Victor went out to explore the city. It was a completely different experience from a village. There were so many people is such small spaces. Some of them liked each other, others hated each other. Why would Paragon send him here? He wandered as he jumped from roof top to roof top. Mid jump, his head began to pound and the burning sensation in his chest returned. He missed his landing and fell of a building as the pain spiked in his head and chest. Victor fell five stores into an alley with a crash. He groaned as he saw how far fell. He did not seem to be in pain in any other places except his head and chest even after then fall. "Well well well look at what fell into our TERF." The thugs said as they surrounded Victor. Victor pulled himself to his feet as he looked to see the people surrounding him. The boys pushed him in between them punching, kicking and spitting at him. Victor snapped and fought back. He was easily stronger and faster than them. He was able to land a solid hit and knock a boy into a trash heap. Victor was frightened by his power, it was fun and when he used it on the beasts. It horrified him to use his strength to harm a human. The boys were now angry and the ganged up on Victor. He could not find the strength to fight back as he let them beat him. They beat him into the ground until an adult came to stop them.
A man with dark hair walked into the alley to find the children ganging up on something, someone. He man watched with a smile on his face but he noticed one of the boys walking out of the trash heap. "What are you doing who is this child? What is going on here?" The man asked them. "So no name kid with a merchant. He started it." They kept beating on Victor until the man told them to stop. The said as they spat on him one last time. The man looked around to see if anyone was watching before turning to the kids. "Take him away, let us see if someone will pay for their missing child." The boys reluctantly carried Victor away. Victor could swear that before he fell unconscious his hand became a claw.
Victor had been taken away to the thugs underground hideout while he was unconscious. They had stripped him of all his clothes and threw cold water on him to wake him up. Victor shook his head at first he noticed that all his hair was gone. This was his second time losing consciousness and it annoyed him. He then realised that he was naked on the cold stone floor behind bars. The stone of this unknown place felt different form the one in Paragon's lair. Paragon's lair had a sense of warmth and life. This prison floor was just cold. "Hey, kid. What is your name?" The man from the ally, who told the boys to bring him here asked Victor. His face was no longer hidden and his facial scar was clear and visible. It was a mark across his nose, a scratch across his left eye and one more down across the left side of his lip. He had short neat hair cut and a sword hung on his hip. "Victor, my name is Victor." Victor told the man as he rested his back against the prison wall. The man watched Victor as he did not strain himself to get up. "Who are your parents boy?" The man asked Victor hoping to get more information about him. Victor hung his head as he was reminded once more. "My, parents are gone, I am all alone now." He said as he started crying. "Why do you cry?" The man asked Victor a confusing question. "What do you mean?" Victor asked as he sniffled. "Will crying bring back your dead parents? Will it make me show you mercy? Why do you cry?" The man asked Victor as he got up to move to the next kidnapped child. "You are a nobody in nowhere. Get used to it." The man said before walking away.
For the next couple of days Victor was feed once a day. Victor remade his clothes with his mana like how Paragon taught him. Every time he did, his clothes were stripped and he was beaten. The way he felt pain was not as intense as it used to be. What was a hammer to the hand became a smack on the wrist. Before he came to the kingdom, before he lose Paragon, pain was sharp and intense. Now there was just a numb feeling. Victor was allowed to walk around his cell as long as he did not make too much noise. He was not allowed to be standing when they gave him food and he needed to be away from the bars when a guard came by. Victor gladly obeyed the rules given to him. He thought if he was good and obedient they would let him out sooner. He spent his time trying to grasp mana like the village taught him, the mana here was not as difficult to control as the mana in the village. This mana was lighter and more submissive to its users. In a mater of a weeks Victor's muscles mass had decreased with his new diet but in that time he had mapped out the whole underground hideout using his mana sense. "So you were telling the truth. You really have no parents. Not a single missing child request came in for you." The man said to Victor as he opened the cell. "Consider yourself one of the unlucky ones, it is time to put you to work." He said with a solemn look on his face. The man gave Victor clothes to wear before attaching him to other children in a chain.
Victor was taken to a place with others just like him. Children from the streets with no parents or guardians. There were as young as 10 to as old as 18. Boys and girls were placed together. It was not the first time Victor was around people similar to his age. It was how ever the first time he felt like the biggest kid around. They were always gentle with him as if he was fragile and easy to break. These kids looked like they wanted to test Victor's breaking point. Victor entered the room with a smile and confidence. The man shook his head as he left Victor at the door. Victor walked up to the nearest person and introduced himself. "I am Victor, what is your name?" Victor said as he held his hand out for a handshake. The group of kids ignored him and walked away. "Do you have a death wish? Those are the elites." A weak scrawny boy with blonde hair and glasses said to Victor. "The Elites?" Victor repeated what he sad clearly confused. "Yes, everyone here has a rank based on their strength and they are the strongest here in the 'Tank'. They are the next to be chosen by the association to become association agents. The perfect soldiers and tools." He boy said as he adjusted his glasses and avoided the gaze of everyone else in the room. Victor turned to the boy. "I am Victor, what is your name." The boy was about to tell him his name but a girl came out of nowhere. "We don't have names we have numbers. He is number 40, I am 39 and you are 41." The girl had blue hair with a pink streak in it said as she came to drag #40 away. Victor agreed to the game she proposed. "I will be 41. What does it mean to be forty one?" Victor asked her as he did not understand his rank. "It means you are the weakest out of the forty-one of us. Number one is the strongest." She said to Victor as she subtly pointed at an average height muscular boy with purple hair and green eyes. He sat with four other people by the beds at the end of the room. "Everyday we train then once a week, we are given tasks to try and reach a higher number." Victor paid attention to every word she said. "The higher you are the more privileges you have. We also get meal tokens, outside time and even beds." #40 said as he looked at the amount of limited beds. "You came in just after meal time so you don't get to eat anything to eat to day but you will get two meal tokens tomorrow." #39 said with jealousy. As the three talked amongst themselves. A big person approached the three of them with a smirk on his face. He was fat with short blonde hair and Victor sense that his mana core was not that developed. "Hey, #41. You have new clothes. I want them." He said to Victor clearly trying to start a fight with the new comer because Victor's clothes could never fit him. "My clothes? Why?" Victor asked confused and then he noticed embraided on the back was #41. "That is obvious because I am #20 and I am stronger than you!" He shouted at Victor as he failed to hide his annoyance. He kept checking behind him looking at the person who sent him to do this. Everyone cleared away as they sensed #20's outburst coming. "Just give him your clothes. You can't afford to get injured before tonight's event." #39 told Victor. "But I am stronger." Victor told her calmly. Everyone around him laughed as he said that. "You! You think you are stronger than me!" His annoyance turned to irritation as he knew the teasing he would face if he let Victor, #41 get  away with what he just said. #20 got ready and threw a punch at Victor. Victor easily saw the wind up and the punch coming his way so he caught the massive fist. #20 growled as he struggled to pull away, he thought #41 got lucky and kept swinging at Victor. Victor was able to easily avoid all attacks but he did not counter. It was clear that Victor had no intension to fight back despite his amazing battle sense from training with the first humans. He was faster than #20 and stronger without mana enhancements. #20 managed to tire himself out before landing a hit on Victor. Before he could further embarrass himself his allies came to intervene. "You got luck, just wait until next time." #20 said as he followed his allies to they side of the room. "That was fun. Do you guys play like that all the time?" Victor asked as he barely worked up a sweat form the fight with #20 just now. #40 starred at Victor with an open mouth while #39 took the chance to claim Victor as her ally. "That is right, the new guy is on our side." She said as had the two boys under her arms. Later, Victor returned to #20 with clothes. He handed him the clothes he had made for #20 out of his mana. "Here you go. I noticed yours were worn out and maybe you would like these ones. The spar was fun, we should do it again next time." Victor said before running away.
#39 was being #40's punch trainer as she talked to Victor. "So tonight is nothing special. It is just sparring requests." She said as she caught #40's punch and swung for him to dodge. He forgot to dodge and she hit him in the side of the head. "The top five are going to give you the initiation special you. They are going to challenge you to a duel and usually beat you to a pulp even if you beg for mercy. With the fighting skills you showed just now, they will be even more determined to break you." Victor was nodding as he sensed everyone in the room. He seemed to be the only one with such a strong core and mana capabilities but there were some people with decent potential, #40 was one of them. Victor opened his eyes to see #39 waving her hand in front of his face. "I was not sleeping, I was meditating." He told her. "Sure you weren't. You were just resting your eyes." Victor looked towards group of kids by the beds. There were only ten beds in the room and forty one kids. #40 and #39 were clearly tired and fatigued. Victor had an idea to help them out. "How about you two rest, I will watch over you two while you sleep." Victor said as he patted the spot next to where he sat. #40 was quick to accept this deal as the other option was shadow boxing with #39. "Why do you suddenly want us too sleep?" #39 asked as she was reluctant. "You both have been watching over each other but that was not enough to keep the others away. I will make sure no one disturbs your sleep. She let Victor watch over them because no one was willing to mess with he after what he did to #20. As they slept beside Victor he started to glow a dim white light. Victor always had an aura of healing for those he consider his friends. Right now, #40 and #39, these two were the only two people he could consider as friends right now.