Aiden didn’t know who or what the approaching blip was. The system couldn’t scan it, making him wary of it. Whoever or whatever is capable of such a feat is by no means a simple animal placed in this place as a means for substance, but most likely a test, or a predator to hone their skills.

There were quite a few of such cases already. One time they had to fight a whole pack of those black wolves all by themselves, and at another time, green- and brown-skinned humanoid-like figures attacked them with primitive self-made weapons. They were slightly taller than Aiden, probably reaching between 2 and 2.2 meters in height, and they were all very hunky. They were luckily sluggish and seemingly not very intelligent, as Aiden and Lily could just rely on their superior speed to shoot and claw them all down before they could properly react.

They didn’t know what they were called and never had the chance to ask Number 3 or Granny either. Since that particular encounter and now, they weren’t back home at all. In the end, they just called them Boar-men, because their faces slightly resembled the boars in the forest.

Standing still in a poise that would make him ready to pounce at his enemy in the brink of a second, ready to rip its throat out, he looked at the distance where a dark figure slowly appeared on the horizon. It seemed to be walking in a slow and steady manner, seemingly not bothered by them in the slightest. They couldn’t make out any of its features apart from it seemed to be bipedal and most likely humanoid-like.

Keeping his vision at the approaching wanderer, Aiden waved his right hand sideways back-and-forth a few times. This was another one of their devised signals, meaning “stand ready”. They quickly realized that they needed a sort of system that was silent and easy-to-understand even in the midst of the battle, and in the end, they came up with this hand-gesturing solution. They had hand gestures for almost all types of battle commands, designed in a way that during combat, most enemies will not even notice it, let alone decipher it…

With an arrow served and placed in the arrow rest, Lily was ready to stretch the bowstring in a second and fire at the newcomer if she receives the ‘FIRE’ signal from Aiden. For now, she just stood ready, to assist and protect her beloved brother.

Slowly, as seconds formed into a minute then to another a figure of an old man in ragged, used, and seemingly well-worn brown cotton robes could be recognized. The robe he was wearing had many holes and patches on it. Around her waist, a thick rope was used in place of a proper belt.

As the figure got closer even more detail could be made out now. The ‘belt’ had a few attachments hanging on it. On his left, there was a leather case with a knife sheathed, and a small dark brown colored pouch with some leaves peeking out from its corners. On the right, a few herbs were placed and were jiggling as he walked.

From his neck, a purple-colored and slightly glowing feather was hanging. He had several feathers placed on his head ranging in all kinds of colors, but apart from the one hanging on his neck, all others looked like to be normal feathers. He was using a staff as a means to assist his traversal. The staff looked simple, although the top of the staff was also crowned with feathers of all colors.

The “bird-man hermit” as Aiden referred to him on his system map, got to a hearing distance and stopped, looking at the young man in front of him, not showing any reaction, nor trying to initiate any types of conversation. He just stood still and looked at the young man.

Not knowing what to do with the awkward situation, Aiden nodded his head as to convey a silent greeting gesture to the hermit and to see a reaction. The response came immediately as the old man also nodded.

Looking at the figure, scanning him with his eyes Aiden broke the silence with his clear voice ringing all around the area. He had a lot of progress in using his Draconic Heritage innate, making him able to use other ‘features’ of it separately from the ‘full package’, not just the claws.

“Greetings wanderer! May I ask, who are you and what are you doing in this place?”

The old man didn’t respond for a long time and just kept staring at the young man. After several minutes, he finally opened his mouth and under the protective shroud that was his messy grey beard mixed with various leaves and such, he slowly spoke, emphasizing each word. It felt very surreal, almost as if this whole encounter wasn’t really happening and if it was just a dream…

“Hello… Aiden…” he twisted his head and looked at Lily’s direction for her next words “… and…. Lily.” Then he faced Aiden again, before continuing, in a similarly rugged manner. “I… am… the… guide.”

“Guide? Are you a part of the trial?” Aiden asked curiously. He still had his battle-ready poise up. What he learned over the course of this training, Number 3, or ‘master’ as he liked to call her nowadays, she could have devised any sort of trap to force him to be aware at all times.

The old hermit nodded his head in response to the question and without waiting for the kids to react, he turned around and slowly started walking back the way he came from.

Looking at the old man, Aiden motioned Lily to come, as they probably should follow along. She also got into a more relaxed position, but inwardly he was still focusing on every movement, every small change in the old man’s posture.

‘If he is not a real person, and just some illusion or a product of magic created for the test, that would probably explain the lack of information and intent gathered. But he is so realistic, so life-like, I’m beyond words… How powerful those two actually are?’

[Based on the detail of this world they created I would say they are both incredibly powerful. We already know that the elder is using an ancient form of spellcasting, and the mature female could even handle the mutated Worgen with ease back all those years ago.] Enya’s reply was instant, as usual.

‘Hmmm…’ Aiden got into deep thinking, while both Lily and him followed behind the hermit. One problem he faced was the lack of information about the rest of the world, and how powerful he actually was compared to others. The only information he had was that the 2 elders, Granny and Number 3 was both immensely powerful individuals, with seemingly unfathomable levels of power. And to top that off, there’s this mysterious Grandmaster that he only heard a few words about. He decided that once he gets out of here, he would focus on getting more information about the world.

Another thing that started to bother him was the lack of motivation, lack of goal in his life. He still couldn’t remember much of his early days, as there was a black fog over that portion of his memories… Even when he tried asking Enya, she refused to answer and just told him, this was a result of their decision, and will have to live with that. One thing she told that once the time comes, the system will assist him remember the important details. Apart from his family that he came to love and cherish, Aiden didn’t really care about this world at all. Good, bad these moral concepts meant nothing to him if siding with one meant that it would endanger anyone close to him.

However, there was this slight feeling, this bubbling sensation coming from somewhere deep inside him… the need to be respected, to be feared. He meditated a lot on this feeling but couldn’t get any higher insight other than this came from his Draconic Heritage.

This was another problem he started to face. It seemed that when he acquired the form of his defeated foes, he got more than just their appearances and abilities. He got an insight into their mind, a small seed of their thoughts was placed inside his Soul World, slowly merging with his consciousness, altering his way of thinking, steering the wheel slightly. He noticed this during their outbursts when he wanted to protect Lily, but after he got the Mutated Worgen form, and as he mastered it, his mentality also subconsciously changed. He got more vicious, cruel, he relished battle, he thirsted for his enemy’s blood. This was a frightening realization, and ever-since he worked really hard to suppress it. In the meantime, he also got afraid of acquiring new forms for the moment, as he already had trouble dealing with the ones, he currently got…

Aiden tried to keep all his worry a secret from Lily and forced himself to behave in a neutral manner as much as he could, but Lily long since noticed the changes in his dear brother. She also promised herself that she will do everything to help her brother and be with him all her life. He meant the world to her, even she wasn’t sure what she was feeling… Once they finally leave this place for good, she will be spending time with Granny and with Number 3 trying to express her concerns, and to try to help his brother dealing with his demons…