“Welcome to Yggdrasil Earthling!” The bald man said while running towards Arvin. While he was running he was waving his hands towards Arvin like an idiot. Arvin on the other hand was confused…

Arvin has an ability called eidetic memory. Commonly known as photographic memory. It is an ability in which a person can recall an image from memory with high precision for a brief period after seeing it only once. With such high learning capabilities, a person grows mature earlier than his age group. After all, they grasp knowledge like a sponge absorbs water. That makes them more intelligent than children of their age group. ​​

This ability also helps him with astonishing analyzing speed. His brain could analyze various data with speed and accuracy that can make a computer look like a kid in front of him. When the bald man was running towards Arvin he noticed that man spoke a foreign language. But strangely he was able to understand every word that he said. Arvin has never heard this language before in his life. Then how could he understand this language?

When the bald man came close to Arvin, he saw the big burn mark on the face of the kid in front of him. He was astonished by the mark, but then he noticed the posture of the kid in front of him. The kid’s whole body was leaning towards the right. It was like that this kid was giving all his weight to his right leg. But why would he do that? Unless he was cripple.

‘Ugly and cripple. Fuck! Why I am so unlucky.’ Bald man inwardly thought. Still, with a big fake smile on his face, he bowed in front of the boy and said…

“Nice to meet you kid. My name is Alman.” That bald man said. Then that bald man raised his body and looked at the boy in front of him. He then said…

“You must be confused. What is happening to me? What is this place? Various questions like this should be swarming in your brain. Don’t worry. Follow me, and I will take you to orientation. It is totally up to you whether you want to attend the orientation or not. You can join the group that is behind me if you decide to join me in orientation..” Alman said. Then he pointed to the people that were following him.

Arvin looked at the people that were following him. In the group some were male and some were females. Some were wearing a business suit while some were wearing pajamas. But he analyzed straightforwardly that these people all have the same expression on their faces. That was despair.

He saw that some people have blood on their clothes. Some of them had claw marks on their body. Arvin didn’t know what happened to them. When he recalled the big birds that he saw a while ago and when he saw that despair on these people’s faces, he had a bad premonition.

While Arvin was thinking about what to do next, Alman had already moved on. Following him, a group of people has also passed by him. Arvin then came up with a decision…

‘For now, I am in an unknown situation. An orientation might help me understand a few things. I should follow them.’ Arvin thought…

……

Soon Arvin and the group of people were escorted towards a small wooden platform near the city walls. It was a temporary platform. Alman the bald guy escorting people of Earth from earlier ran towards the platform and ran towards the stage. As he got on the stage like a politician he started giving a speech…

“Hello everyone! My name is Alaman. I will be taking your orientation today… First of all, don’t be shy guys, sit down. There is green and cool grass beneath you. Please everyone sit down. Then all your orientation will be started…” Alman said while gesturing everyone to sit down….

Most people sat down on the grass. Arvin could see that these people were very exhausted. He didn’t know what they had gone through, but every one of them was exhausted. He also sat down to hear about the orientation…

“First of all, welcome to Yggdrasil everyone. This piece of land that you see all around you is the 1st floor of Yggdrasil. And yes, I literally mean that you are on the first floor. If you still don’t understand what I am trying to say, then look carefully at the sky…” Alaman said.

Soon every person that was present there started noticing the sky. After a minute or two, I finally noticed that the sky was filled with blue haze and beyond that blue haze is what appears to be underground soil…

“Well, I have been told from earthlings that came before you guys that it is a very strange phenomenon if compared to Earth. Something like that was not present in the world from where you guys came from. So as you can guess, you are not on Earth anymore….”

“So where are the hell we are? And how the hell those wolves were so big?” A middle-aged man asked Alman in between.

“Well, I was getting to that. And understand this everyone, if next time someone tries to cut me off while I am speaking, I might get angry. And you don’t want to know how I look when I get angry.” Alman said with a creepy smile on his face. Then he continued …

“Some of you guys would be thinking ‘What am I doing here? I am not supposed to be here? How can I get back to earth’. I am afraid that I don’t have answers to those questions.

We just know that around 25 years ago suddenly beings from different worlds started coming out of the Kalgan forest. People that came before you told us that they were from the earth and they also had no clue why or how they came here.

For 25 years people that came before you have been traveling around Yggdrasil to find a way back home, but still no results have been found.

So, in other words, you guys are stuck here.” Alman said with a smile.

Soon panic started spreading through the crowd. People started murmuring in between them. Few scared people got up and started screaming at him like this was all his fault. Alman with a big smile started calming them all down. But strangely nobody took a swing at Alman. Which seemed weird to Arvin.

Arvin when heard their arguing points he sighed. This situation is a pain in the ass. But then he noticed an abnormality amidst the people that were attending the orientation…

He couldn’t understand it. But now he started feeling that he was being watched. It was a weird feeling. It was like the back of his neck was tingling because someone behind was staring at him. Arvin wanted to turn and take a look, but his instinct told him that if he turns around then it would be very dangerous for him.

As a kid, he had developed a sort of sixth sense that could tell when someone dangerous was standing behind him or not. Scared he didn’t turn away…

“Now about Yggdrasil. Now I will start the real orientation for Yggdrasil. Earthlings have told me about the society that you guys lived in back on earth. But here in Yggdrasil, everything is different…

If you guys remember then I have told you guys that this is the 1st floor of Yggdrasil. And I repeat this once again. I don’t mean it figuratively. According to records of our ancestors, there are around 50 floors in Yggdrasil.

Some of you guys have met the monsters that roam in Kalgan forest. Earthling told us that these types of monsters are not present back on earth. But this type of monster is pretty normal around here.

We survive on this floor while fighting those monsters. And trust me as a veteran hunter and HTC, I could guarantee you that those monsters are nothing when compared to monsters that are found deep within the forest.

And for those who are confused, HTC means hired task completer. It is a job that will be taught in detail if you guys will join groups.

Now let me tell you something about the conditions and powers of the 1st floor. There are 7 major cities on the 1st floor. These cities are ruled by 7 different families. Those families are called great families. They are the overlords of the 1st floor. Nothing happened on this floor without them knowing. So, beware of the people belonging to those families.

Back on Earth murder was seen as a very serious felony. But here it is a normal thing like breathing air. And I don’t want Earthling like you to die after just coming to this place.

As soon as you go inside, I will escort you to God’s pillar. After a small ritual there, you will be scouted by different groups of people. If you want more information about this world and its power then join those groups. They will help you to survive in this world as well as they will teach you the customs of this world.

That is all for orientation. Now off we go. Let’s go inside and roam around the city and see this wonderful world…” Alman said while finishing his orientation.

As soon as the orientation was finished everyone got up to enter the city. Arvin also followed their suit. While the group of earthlings was walking towards the city, Arvin noticed that a few groups of men and women who looked like locals of this world came to Alman and started talking to him in hushed voices. Arvin was not able to hear what they were talking about, but he noticed the eyes of these people.

They all would take glances towards the group of earthlings and then avert their gazes. He had seen these types of gazes before. He had seen this back at colleges. Few boys back in college would check out girls like this. And from that, he was sure that they were talking about them.

More especially, they were checking out selected people of their group…

But why?

#mystery

#editor man