Asterion's vision blurred, his mind buzzed, and in the next moment, he found himself lying on the ground. When he tried to stand up, he felt the urge to puke out whatever he ate for breakfast and lunch, but he held it in.
After some fleeting minutes, he collected himself, calmed his mind, and stood up to see his surroundings. The sight he saw momentarily took his breath away.
He was in the middle of what looked like a tropical rain forest, where the leaves of the trees were light blue in color, glowing faintly against the sunlight. The leaves were wet and the soil was damp, meaning it might have rained recently.
He went towards a nearby tree and sat with his back against it to collect his thoughts together. He knew why and what happened to him, but where was he? He didn't know.
Awakeners generally awakened between the ages of 16 and 18. The reason? Many speculate that that's the age when the Void energy penetrates our body and awakens us through our first Void Link.
Void Link was the phenomenon that occurred when one was going to become a new awakener or if an awakener was trying to increase his rank.
In the Void Link process, the person selected was sent to a different world where the Void Energy had recently landed with the Void creatures, and the trial taker had to complete the mission given by the will of the Void (that's what the humans call it) and assimilate with a Void Core to awaken and be sent back to Prymia.
After awakening, you could come back to the planet where you were taken for your first Void Link to explore the world or complete another Void Link mission to rise in the ranks.
There were currently 13 known different worlds that humans were transported to, but none were much bigger than Prymia.
This was because if a planet were much bigger, the gravitational pull would also be stronger, making normal humans unable to survive.
So now Asterion had to find out which of those 13 planets he was present on.
Just as he stood up, he heard a voice in his head, which seemed to say something, but he couldn't hear it. When he tried to focus on what the voice was, he heard it again, and this time it was more clear and distinct
"Survive with those around you."
Hearing the task given by the will of Void, Asterion furrowed his brows and looked around with a state of confusion as he couldn't find any other living being around him.
Who was he supposed to survive with? And more importantly, survive? How much more difficult was it for him that the will said not to kill or protect anything but simply survive?
But Asterion knew that this task might be nowhere near simple. He went to a tree nearby, and after checking for the presence of insects or anything of the sort but finding nothing, he climbed it.
After climbing up the tree, he started looking around to see any presence of living beings, but as far as his eyes could reach, he could only see the vast forest of trees with blue leaves, creating a breathtaking sight.
After looking around for a moment, he caught sight of something: smoke. That's when he knew where he might get the clue about those he was supposed to survive with.
He quickly came down to the ground and started moving in that direction, as he didn't even have food to eat right now.
Well, he could hunt the smaller animals in the forest, which he was seeing along the way, as he was well trained just like the rest of the teenagers due to the Compulsory Training and Education Program (CTEP) of the government to create stronger individuals for the future.
After walking for what seemed like two hours, he finally saw the location from where the smoke was coming.
It was a village surrounded by low walls of mud and bricks on all sides to maybe protect it from stronger wild animals.
Asterion now understood who were those that he was supposed to survive with. A whole village. Well, it looks like the difficulty was hard, so the rewards should also be good.
But he couldn't just enter the village like this. He took off his school shirt and innerwear and tied them at his waist, tore off a small branch from a tree, and, gritting his teeth, grazed it against his left forearm, causing a little blood to flow out.
Then he applied the flowing blood on his chest and rolled down on the ground, causing the damp soil to mix with blood and making him look like he had been roaming through the forest for days.
After making sure he looked like someone weak and lost, he started to head towards the gates of the village entrance, where two guard-looking persons were patrolling, maybe to be prepared in case of a wild animal or beast attack? Just as he was going to reach the entrance, one of the guards blocked his way. He eyed him suspiciously and oddly. With an unsure look on his face, he asked,
"Who are you? And what business do you have with our village?"
Asterion coughed weakly to act a little weak, and after hesitating a little to show he was unsure of what he was going to say, he responded, "I have lost my memories of how I arrived in this forest, but when I opened my eyes, I found myself here, and after struggling and searching for humans, I found this village after one night of searching."
Asterion made sure to not say the time in hours and minutes, as this world was different, and so should be its way of tracking time.
The guard narrowed his eyes and seemed to ponder my words slightly and said, "I can't let you enter this village myself; wait for a moment and let me call the chief of the village. He can maybe help you in your predicament."
After informing him, he spoke to the other guard and walked inside the village to call for the chief of the village.
After waiting for some minutes, which felt too long because of the stare of the other guard, which made him feel like he was going to bore a hole through him, the guard finally returned back, but this time, he wasn't alone.
He came with another person who looked to be around in his sixties but still strong enough to do small work.
He walked in my direction, nodded at the second guard who was standing here all this time and finally looked towards me.
"I have heard from my guard that you have lost your memories, and seeing your state, it looks like you might die from beasts or starve to death in some days. So, I can allow you to live in this village, but you will have to work to earn your keep. Nothing is free in this world, kid. You still want to come?"
Asterion quickly said, "Yes, I will do anything if you can give me a place to live and eat food, chief," to which the chief simply nodded his head and told me to follow him.
He avoided his habit of saying 'sir' to the chief or guard, as he used to converse with his teachers using the word 'sir,' but in this world, they might not even know what 'sir' means.
After entering the village, I finally saw how it looked from the inside; the houses were made of bricks and mud, and there were some small stalls on the roads selling some fruits, vegetables, etc.
After moving through different paths, they finally reached Asterion's new house. The chief looked at him and said, "Kid, my name is Thoren, and this will be your house from now on temporarily till the time you live here. You look to be around 30 pyu, so you can do light wood chopping. Rest for today and come find me tomorrow for work."
After saying this, the village chief went back from the direction they came earlier, leaving Asterion to check the house by himself. After seeing that the chief had gone, he walked up towards the door, opened it, and entered the house.
The house was around 5 meters long and 4 meters in width, made up of bricks and something like bamboo. There was a place for a bathroom, but the waste was collected in a big container made of mud and bricks behind the house.
They used it to keep the human waste and, after decomposing it, used it as a fertilizer for farming. The house was good, but what about the kitchen? But the chief did say that he shouldn't worry about the food.
The chief also mentioned that he looked like he was 30 pyu old, so that might be his age. If he was 16 years old and 30 pyu here, the age ratio could be taken as almost double.
Just as he was pondering this and thinking about which of the 13 worlds had pyu as a system of measuring age, he heard a knock on the door.
Asterion quickly got up to open the door while silently wondering who it could be, as he had just arrived in this village and knew no one except the chief, who just left him here, and the two guards who were currently patrolling the area around the village.