262 Another Dimensional Realm?
The fear of the unknown was something anyone would face in that situation. Arthur did not know where the portal would lead him, but there was no other way to leave the cave.
“It is what it is.”
He thought of trying to contact George to see if he knew something about the portal, but Arthur was avoiding contact with him, as he was still uncertain if George was trustworthy or not.
Arthur tossed all these thoughts to the back of his mind and passed through the portal. His vision blurred, and for a moment, everything around him was pure darkness.
Then, sunlight hit his eyes, making him close them for a second.
“Snow?”
The ground beneath his feet had a thick layer of snow, and all the surrounding trees had snow as well! It was not uncommon to have snow on the central continent. In fact, the entire central continent was snowy during winter!
But it was not winter. Arthur had traveled for quite the distance inside the central continent, and there was not a single place on the entire continent that was snowy!
Well, maybe the highest mountains or the Icy Cave, but that was it! It was no winter on the central continent, which could only mean Arthur was somewhere else!
“Don’t tell me I am on yet another continent, or even another planet? Wait, a have a familiar feeling here…”
Arthur stayed right here he was and analyzed the surrounding area. Something felt familiar, and after some time, he understood what it was.
“A different realm! I am inside a place built by a mage!”
It was just like the dimensional realm he went when getting the inheritance from the chalice, but that one felt more vivid, and more like a normal world, not a place with tests and strange creatures!
Now, what truly shocked Arthur was what happened right after he acknowledge that. He wanted to use his flight spell and explore the place more carefully to find a way out back to the central continent, but he could not use mana!
“No way! This place blocks mana?”
When he thought things could not get worse, an arrow came flying right beneath his feet. Scared, Arthur looked up and saw a few bearded man wearing fur armor staring at him!
They looked similar to the people Arthur saw on the continent Signy came from, but those looked even more primitive!
One of them approached him, as they clearly saw Arthur had no weapons hanging on his waist, and looked fragile.
The man had a long, thick blond beard and a scar that crossed his left eye. He spoke in a language Arthur could not understand, as without his mana, he could not use his spell, which allowed him to learn other languages in an instant.
“I don’t understand!” Arthur said, but the man only frowned in response.
Without other options, Arthur grabbed a nearby stick, making the rest of the man to aim their bows at him, afraid he would use that as a weapon.
Then, he drew on the snow two men talking, and an interrogation mark in hopes the man would understand. It worked.
The man who went to talk with him return where the others were to have a chat.
“He cannot understand our language.”
“But how? We are the only tribe in this place. And he does not seem like one of us.”
“Correct. Could he be from the outside world?”
“Outside world? That is impossible. The last person who came from the outside world was centuries ago, and it left without helping us.”
They kept talking, and Arthur could listen to it as they weren’t that far from him, but could not understand a single word that came from their mouth.
After some minutes of waiting, the man he talked to returned, making some signs which Arthur understood as ‘follow me’.
“They will not kill me, which is good! I cannot use mana, but maybe there is a way for me to use my dragon skills? Or a way to break the seal of this place and use mana!”
What made Arthur think he could use his dragon skills was because of his lost limb! He could still sense the healing taking effect, and his body still had the same power. Whoever was blocking his usage of spells could not block the power of his bloodlines or the attributes he put using his system.
It was a good sign, and one that gave Arthur hope. Other mages would be helpless without their mana, but he was different. His body was his strongest weapon!
Now, another thing that annoyed him was his magical pouches. They worked using mana, as their name suggested, and now that the mana was blocked, there was no way for him to open them, which meant he could use none of the items he had.
No weapons, no food, no money, or ingredients. His spare clothes were also inside those pouches, making everything even worse.
“Will I smell like a pig?”
He kept following those men, passing through a forest, and even crossing a river using a crude wooden bridge. Then, they finally reached their tribe, which was glooming with people!
There were kids running around, playing some games. The parents were always close, watching to make sure none of them got hurt.
Some men patrolled the area, some went out to hunt, and some trained with the others. Women also shared the same tasks, and everyone worked together to create a prosperous and friendly village.
When all those men came back from the hunting trip bringing along not only their food but also a strange human, everyone glanced at them.
Whispers quickly spread throughout the tribe. Arthur wished he could understand what they were speaking, but it was not possible!
They led him to the biggest house of the tribe where the chief lived.
“Chief, we found this young man not that far from the village. He does not speak our language, and we have a strong guess he is from the outside world.”
“What? Did someone finally come to help us?”
“Should we give him the diary from the others who came before? That would help him learn our language.”
“Yes, yes, of course. We shall help him with everything we can, as this might be the only shot we have to leave this place.”
The chief of the tribe was excited after getting the news about Arthur. They went to a seclude part of the tribe where a wooden cabin was.
They tossed Arthur inside of it and closed the door.
pan-da-n0vel.com “What is happening here? Why did the chief of the tribe look rather excited? Are they cannibals?”
Arthur hoped that was not the case. He then looked at the cabin, and the first thing he saw were small notebooks scattered on a table.
“What are those?” He thought, grabbing one to have a look. The first sentence he read shocked him, as it was not written in the unknown language of those men, but in the common language of the central continent!
“If you are reading this, then it means you are a mage from somewhere and now you are trapped in here. This notebook contains all the things I learned inside this place before I ultimately perished.”