Grand Adventures of the Witch King

Secret Hideout

Ezekiel who had been moving stealthily for half an hour suddenly froze and stopped moving, not out of fear but vigilance as he even halted his breath. Keeping very still at his position high above in a tree of this strange dense forest.

As soon as he did, heavy and large footsteps could be heard coming towards his direction, he could even feel the intense vibrations transmitted into the ground from the tree at the beast coming and soon it was in view, a hulking beast that was akin to a mixture of a deer and an armadillo!

A mid-level Fierce beast, known as the Noni.

Perched up high in a tree, he calmly watched the massive black and brown beast that moved in a leisurely manner, it had a wicked-looking rack that was full of dagger-like pointed ends that could break metal, its limbs thick with muscles that could be seen even under its tough scales.

It was a terrifying beast that attacked anything in its sight, hence the reason it was solitary, that and it was male too.

This creature at the defensive scales that can withstand blows from a peak level Fierce beast making it one of the hardest beasts to kill as well as having the vitality and endurance to match one, even predators stayed clear of it.

This was not a beast he wanted to tussle with it in his current stage, not to mention he had no weapon on him, as his sword was turned to ashes and its essence absorbed by him if it was in the vicinity of the ritual.

He might have the strength of Ulo’s former level as he tested that along the way, the problem was that if he wanted to take it down swiftly with no external help, he might have to touch his essence to boost himself with the techniques that Ullo used when he took the chief on.

But he had a plan for it, it can continue its leisure a little longer for now.

Ezekiel thought as he looked at it pass by at its own pace as if it was the king of the forest, he just waited for it to move on so he can get to the hiding spot quickly. He had been in this forest for half an hour so far and for 6 times he met exotic and powerful beasts that were above or at his level.

This was the first time he met one on a lower level but couldn’t fight it due to its toughness, Ullo was able to fight a high-level Fierce beast with his bare hands, he could take on a Peak once boosted and defeat one when using the forbidden technique, and seriously wound one when he used his sword to fight it.

This made Ezekiel curious about the type of crafting and blacksmithing this world had. As soon as he found a properly civilized place he might just have to try and see it.

Soon enough it was out of sight, each step causing a faint tremor on the forest floor a clear warning to any beasts ahead that it was coming through.

‘Tsk! To think a deer would be so arrogant. This is one messed up planet, if not for the thick green trees and foliage I might have thought that am on that planet of those tall blue humanoids with long tails from that movie I saw once on Earth.’ He mused a he looked at the lively yet deadly forest trees that had occasional roars of beasts and cried within the far distance.

Still, in stealth form, Ezekiel glided from tree to tree as if he was a ninja, being sure not to land on one that had snakes or the beast equivalent.

With his new body recreated there were advancements within his senses and organs, so innate abilities came along one being telekinesis. This didn’t need his essence to come into play, but minor abilities unlocked within his body due to the technique he used to reform his body with.

There was a reason he called it minor and that was because at the current level the most he could do with it was currently lift a 5kg rock. And that was the best he had ever done in this stage, what can he do with a force that can lift a 5 kg rock at a height of a meter at a radius of 2m with him at the center against a beast that could tank arrows being shot by a human who can uproot a 30m tree with his bare hands?

But that was just it for now, once he had access to his magic energy, o as it was known, ousia, all his current abilities would be boosted greatly, that and he gets a few more too along not to mention being able to finally perform his arts.

This brought a smile to his face as he glided across the forest like a swift shadow.

The telekinesis, though minor was a great help, it helped reduce sound and enable longer distance leaps as he used it to aid his movements though it was not even strong enough to lift him entirely.

Just then, he reached a very tall cliff about 500m in height. This made his eyes shine.

‘Finally here.’ He said to himself mentally.

Giving himself a gentle boost both from his body and telekinesis. Ezekiel shot off like an arrow, he reached a footing that he used to leap on once more, and not once did he drop his stealth mode.

Ezekiel didn’t leap to the top, but merely ended halfway there, the place he reached looked no different from the rest of the side of the cliff, yet his hands began to search for a hidden spot according to the acquired memories, and as expected he found it.

Pushing it, an area a few meters from him that was more obscured from view opened an entrance only large enough for an average-sized man to enter. Slipping inside quickly, the entrance shut itself as soon as he entered and was greeted by nothing but pitch darkness for a moment.

Then his eyes quickly got used to it, enabling him to see about 10m ahead of him as if it was as clear as day further than that it got dimmer and dimmer until a good 200m where it was just dark, this was one of the other abilities he had, night vision.

The range was similar to the other ability that he used to sense the Noni to too long ago as was approaching him, it was a special sensory ability that he had, but like the rest, it too was limited and for a range of about a good 20m in diameter all around him.

That aside, he took a good look at this cave that Ullo discovered by shire luck and chance.

‘This dude had the luck of a protagonist indeed.’ He mused.

But the time he did it was not from the entrance he came through, but at another one that was on the other side of this cliff at a lower yet also secluded spot.

This place was empty and dusty as hell when Ullo first here, but it was void of beasts for some reason, though there were strange writings on the walls that Ullo couldn’t understand as well as a deep body of water in a chamber a few hallways from Ezekiel’s current spot.

So Ullo used this place as a storage place and a hiding spot in case things with the villagers got south or when he was about to leave, which he would have if Yuje and Assini hadn’t ambushed him.

Walking towards where Ullo saved his food and water to get a drink and snack, Ezekiel moved at a leisurely pace in the long quiet corridors that were clean, yet only a little dusty as the last time anyone was here was 3 months ago after all.

He soon reached the storage room with great familiarity, pushing open the stone door that Ullo personally added, Ezekiel entered and saw a large number of large red-yellow fruits that had thick brown corks, they seemed like gourds and these were for water storage from the memories.

Reaching for one he weights it in his hand for a moment before concluding.

‘Hmm, about 500ml of water.’ He estimated.

He then uncorked it and took a sip of the water inside and sniffed it first, from what Ezekiel got from his memories was that these containers could store water and keep it fresh and clean for almost half a year if not longer.

It was fresh, cool, and sweet. Nodding his head, he took a drink again with much larger and longer gulps finishing it as he released a satisfied sigh, this went to say that he currently was capable of self-sustenance. Yet.

Placing the empty gourd on the side, he looked around and could finally see the place that was used as storage for rations, there were racks and lines made by Ullo for hanging meat that he had hunted and salted to become dry jerky, there was even fish that gone through the same processes. He had even smoked some of the meat too.

He took a piece of some of the smoked meat and turned around and left towards the weapons storage room while snacking on it.

From the memories this armory had very few weapons so it was not even deserving of being called an armory, still, it is where he stored his weapons and of course tools that he had collected over the years.

And it was as he had expected, there was nothing much but a couple of shelves and container with bows, some quivers and a bunch of arrows at one side, the other was a few spears and swords, some leather armor with only a few that were made of metal, at the shelf and corner there were even some crafting tools that he had collected as well.

“A 3 bows with all of the arrows, two swords and spears with one leather armor beneath this one I have.” Ezekiel quickly calculated what he would carry.

Sure he had armor and it was something that the special forces of the secular world back then would drool to have, even if he used to troll them from time to time.

However, at this stage, it was not invincible. A couple of stomps from a Fierce Beast could break the defenses, he wasn’t even sure that he might survive an attack from a Greater Beast yet, as they say, better be safe than sorry.

With that he willed his robe to recede, after that he picked up the leather clothing and put it over his shirt that was a short-sleeved grey shirt with a green collar and sleeves and a cool flaming green pattern on the chest and back.

Though it might seem that he now had three layers of defenses, it was just two. The defense charm was like a layer that surrounded Ezekiel like an aura, as long as there was a piece of his armor active, even his boots while being naked would still protect him from harm, but he would lose the stealth and temperature resistance.

Summoning the robe once more, he went to the weapons. He searched for rags and wrapped around the weapons like bundles, he wrapped the bows with the arrows and weight them in with his hands for a moment before unwrapping them again and removing a bow, he weighted it again and nodded in satisfaction before chanting a strange tongue-twisting word that made the bundle of bows and arrows flash green and vanish.

This was the storage function, it was a special ability that like the other grow as he advances, like the video games in the past it was an inventory or dimensional storage. There were restrictions as to how much he could carry, see the storage was like pockets and each pocket at his current stage could carry only 5kg, and he had 4 pockets at the moment and the thing was that they had to be wrapped or placed in a bag for them to go to one pocket, else they get distributed to all the pockets.

Even if they were wrapped he could retrieve any item, not the entire wrapped bundle in the middle of a fight, that would be embarrassing and frustrating in a fight to struggle to remove an arrow from a tightly wrapped cloth full of other stuff.

He then repeated the same with the swords and spears, he picked up the bow and another leftover quiver that he left out and slung it on his back. He then strapped a sword on his waist and hung a spear on his back. He leaped a bit in place to check for anything that might be loose, readjusting again and feeling satisfied he went back to the food storage room and collected some water and a few dried slices of meat which he also placed in his pocket dimensions. He could hunt that is true but not every place could allow that.

Three pockets were now full, with that he headed for the room Ulo used for sleeping and resting when he was out here. Pushing the stone door open, he came into a simple room that had a bed and a table. The table was bare other than a cup made from a horn from some beast and the floor was covered in soft furs too, the same with the bed.

Standing there for a moment, Ezekiel pushed the bed to the side and reached for a spot near the place of the pillow, and pulled out a parchment made from a soft yet tough material, perhaps hide from a beast.

This was the map that Ulo received from this strange mysterious father.

‘Perhaps this could help me leave this place, but Ullo was told that he needed to reach the Moveo realm. Do I need to reach that level too?’ Ezekiel pondered.