Arlo could see nothing but darkness, it was very similar to when he was first waking up in the trial he went through a while ago.
After who knows how long passed Arlo started to regain senses in his body. First it was his legs, then hands and torso, it gradually made its way upwards untill he could finally feel his eyes. He took a couple deep breaths in and slowly opened his eyes.
A massive grey cloud hovered over him, the sky had a hint of blue and the sun looked to be setting. Arlo stared at the cloud above him, he was able to move his body but didn't have the energy to do so. The transition from Earth to the Fallen world had severely weakened Arlo to a pathetic state.
He didn't mind staring up at the sky and peacefully laying on what to him felt like rock until he suddenly felt a droplet of water land on his right cheek then another and then another.
"It's starting to rain"
He quietly mumbled
The already grey cloud started to become even more greyer, the rain got heavier and Arlo began to get irritated.
'It's time to find shelter'
Before getting up Arlo closed his eyes and listened to everything around him. He could hear the whistle of winds coming from all directions, the sound of water droplets smashing on the ground and small waves of water crashing into each another.
A couple seconds passed by, then some more and some more after that, untill Arlo finally used his hands to make himself sit up straight so that he could see his surroundings.
To his right was water which stretched for as far as his eyes could see and to his left was land.
"That's good"
Currently Arlo was sitting ontop of a piece of rock which was tall enough to not get completely covered by the water and wide enough so that he wouldn't fall of it.
The rock wasn't far away from land so the water was shallow, which meant that Arlo didn't have to swim and could make his way to land by walking as the water would only reach just below his knees.
The rain had been lightly drizzling before but now it was strongly pouring like it was mad, this meant that Arlo had to find shelter fast or else he would be completely drenched, might catch a cold and Arlo always thought that heavy and strong rain brought bad omens so he wanted to be safe from it as fast as possible.
He moved to the edge of the rock, took his shoes off, folded his trousers up to his knees so that they wouldn't more wet than they already were because of the rain, he pressed his hands firmly on the rock and pushed himself off from it. His legs plunged into the cold water, the ground was a bit uneven which made Arlo slightly loose his balance for a moment but it wasn't bad enough to make him fall.
Without wasting anytime Arlo grabbed his shoes placed ontop of the rock and started to head towards land, thankfully it didn't take him too long.
His feet's buried deep into the sluggish sand, every step he took increased the number of sand grains clinging on the bottom and the side of his feet's.
Arlo was headed towards a big tree placed near where the sand made its contact with solid land. His reason for choosing this specific tree was because it had a big hole near its trunk, which to Arlo seemed big enough for him to fit in.
He hurriedly made his way to it. Up close the tree seemed pretty old, the trunk looked to be in bad shape and the branches were skinny.
"Hopefully it doesn't fall whilst I'm in it"
The hole was big enough for him to fit in but not enough for him to comfortably move around, so he had to find a position for himself which was comfortable enough to sit in for a long period of time.
Arlo placed his shoes beside the tree, turned to the face the water and slowly moved backwards. He bent down, ducked his head and made his way into the hole. His knees were pressed against his chest and his arms held them together.
It was a bit cramped but Arlo didn't mind it too much. His head faced the water and his eyes closely followed the sun as it set. The light got dimmer and dimmer, darkness started to creep in until it was completely dark. The sun had set.
A couple minutes after the sun set Arlo unexpectedly felt a strong sharp pain in his head which made him scream in agony.
Thankfully for him it only lasted a couple seconds, but nonetheless it was a horrible experience for him.
"What was that"
Arlo weakly said
Why had he just felt such a immense amount of pain in his head? Arlo couldn't come up with any explanation for it, it might have something to do with it being his first time in the Fallen world, but it just didn't sound right.
The rain kept on hammering down, it seemed to have no end to it. As Arlo stared outside he heard a familiar sound:
"Grrrrrr"
It was came from his hungry stomach, and it wasn't that astonishing. Arlo didn't know how long he had slept for on the rock or how long it had been since he had been transported to this world. His hunger was an indication that it certainly had been a while, because he was quite full before he had entered his human shaped box.
"When it stops raining, I'll look for food"
Unfortunately for him, it didn't look like the rain would stop anytime soon, so he had to find a way to past time.
A thought popped into his head
His eyes glistened
'Makutu bloom'
Everything had gone so fast that Arlo wasn't able to check the sword he had been given. His stats displayed infront of him, he now had two tools , however near the bottom their was something new written which Arlo hadn't expected.
Name - Arlo
Title - ?
Soul - ?
Identity - ?
Natural abilities - [untold fragment], [Good luck], [Unusual eyes]
Power - [Servant of Air]
Weakness - ?
Tools - [Star], [Black blade]
Guards - none
Soul strength - 0/1000
??? - ?
"What is Soul strength?"
He stared at the text for a couple more seconds, pondering about its meaning, thankfully it didn't take too long to decipher.
Him, Seer and Luna had vividly talked about it in the institution.
"Strengthing your soul, strengths your power"
Arlo said quite excitedly
The Soul strength stat must be related to what Seer had said about increasing your power by absorbing a soul.
Without realising a huge smile had appeared on Arlo's face.
All of this was really fascinating to him, it made him smile in excitement.
"I have currently absorbed 0 souls"
It wasn't that shocking to Arlo as he hadn't absorbed a soul before nor had he seen one, unless you counted the white glowing crystal, but was it really a soul.
Arlo didn't think so, but it still made him curious about the white crystal, what really was it? Arlo knew that it allowed the institution to know whether the person it the Fallen world had died or not, however he was sure their was much more to the mysterious crystal than what he knew about it.
The new stat wasn't the only shocking thing to him. He was shocked a second time when he realised the number of souls he had to get to reach his limit.
"1000 souls is a lot"
Arlo couldn't even fathom getting anywhere close to that number, it would seriously take him a long time.
"How do people reach their limit so fast?"
He was pretty curious, but not enough that he would actually sit down and think about it.
Satisfied with his new stat, Arlo's eyes moved up to the tools section
"Black blade"
It was the name of the sword he had received from the institution. Arlo knew that it wasn't going to be anything special, just a plain sword, but he was still grateful.
He moved his hand and pressed on the name
Black blade -
Rank - Regular (1)
Type - Offence
Abilities -
Woodworking - Is able to cut wooden objects with more ease
Story - [ A tree cutter lived in harmony for most of his life, till an event out of his control occurred and made him live a life he didn't want to live]
Arlo wasn't surprised by the low rank, however the swords story was quite intriguing to him.
"An event which turned his life upside down. What could that be? "
It was stupid to ask cause Arlo knew he wouldn't be able to answer it. The man could have lived thousands of years ago, so their was no way of knowing how his life became so messed up and miserable.
Arlo wanted to bring out the black blade and see it first hand, but the space inside the hole was way too small for that.
He agreed to be patient and view the sword when he was outside the hole, so for now he had to sit tight, look at the ocean and wait for the rain to stop.
However, that was easier said than done. It hadn't been that long since Arlo had woken up so he wasn't tired enough to go to sleep.
The waves had gotten more aggressive than before, the rain still kept on pounding down. Arlo hid in hole, where he continuously stared outside.
Nobody else was there except from him. The scene he continued to look at was plain and repetitive, he didn't have anything to pass the time, which allowed for something heinous to creep into his mind...
His own thoughts.