212 Arriving (2)
[Please follow the system’s direction to go to the evolution catalyst’s location.]
As the system finished its sentence, a new connection was felt in Blake’s heart. Just like how he could feel his connection with Robus and find him wherever he was, Blake felt that same connection with something unknown, supposedly the evolution catalyst that he needed for his evolution.
Blake knew that by following the connection then he would find the evolution catalyst.
‘I hope I don’t have to break in anywhere as that would be difficult without using nether. Especially if it was a police station or something even more dangerous like a military base…’
Slowly picking himself up without using his dislocated left shoulder, Blake spotted Robus who had finally started coming down from above. His jump was so high that it took seconds for him to reach the maximum height of his jump and more seconds for him to come down.
Blake adjusted his body and positioned it directly under Robus. He reached up his right hand and then caught Robus so that he wouldn’t fall to the ground.
Although Blake’s body was not strong enough to endure Robus’ casual might without receiving a non-negligible amount of damage, Blake’s body which had its physique stat raised was more than capable of catching the falling Robus that was only pulled by gravity.
Blake then put Robus onto his right shoulder since his left one was currently out of commission and started walking forward, following the connection that the system had put in his body.
“Let’s go, pal. This time I’m the one who’s walking.” Blake smiled as he carried the small monkey on his back, giving a similar sight to when he climbed onto Robus’ back and used Robus as his feet.
.....
“R.” Robus nodded as he found it quite comfortable to rest on Blake’s shoulder without having to do anything as Blake did all the walking for him.
While he followed the connection in his heart, Blake felt that the more he looked at his surroundings, the more familiar it was to him. And as the trees became more scarce and revealed the scenery outside of the woods, Blake finally figured out where he was exactly in the human world.
Quickly walking out of the forest, Blake and Robus saw another forest, but it wasn’t one that was filled with trees, but instead a concrete forest.
Tall buildings twice the size of the trees were commonly found here and there while smaller buildings half the size of it were even more abundant, filling almost the entire landscape. Paved roads with a neat water irrigation system on the sides covered the whole city, with people here and there walking everywhere in the small neighborhood.
However, one building in particular, caught Blake’s attention.
Different from the other buildings that looked similar to each other, having an overall modern look, the building that Blake had his eyes locked on to looked rather behind the era compared to the others.
The building was made with a combination of concrete and wood, with the former being a solid base and filling vital parts of the building while wood filled up the rest of the buildings, making out the details and giving a unique characteristic to the building.
With lines of semi-transparent fences trapping the whole building, it was only possible to look at the top half of the building while the bottom half was covered by the fences.
But Blake didn’t need to look at the whole building to recognize it. The sounds of children playing behind the fences, the half-opened front gate, the discolored wooden parts that he found in the exact same place as he remembered it, the building was none other than the orphanage building that Blake had spent his 15 years of life living in.
Blake checked the connection that the system gave him and it had indeed pointed him to go toward the building that he had lived in for most of his life.
‘But why was I sent here? Did I have something I left behind?’
Blake was an orphan from birth. Meaning that anything that was given to him and anything that he had was given from the orphan and its sponsors. And Blake could easily recall that there was nothing such as a foreign object that he didn’t recognize that might be his evolution catalyst.
He received weird toys that he and his brothers and sisters in the orphanage played with, but nothing other than that could be said to be unique as the rest of the donations were mostly clothes and food.
Blake then tracked back his mind, trying to find something that he might have overlooked in his not-so-organized memory. And when he came back to the very early days of his life before he went to school, Blake did find something.
He used to wear a locket necklace on his neck all the time. The caretakers said that it was already on him since the first day he appeared at the orphanage’s door. Thinking that it might be what his parents left behind for him, and he also liked the feeling of having the necklace on him, Blake used to wear it all the time until school arrived and so did the bullying.
And him wearing an accessory, despite one that was made of cheap material and not even eye-catching, was still more than enough reason for catching the other kids’ attention. Hence why he stopped wearing it altogether and decided to just store it under his bed.
‘That might be it…’
Now that Blake knew what he was possibly searching for, Blake began to think about how he would get it.
Walking into the orphanage as if nothing happened would certainly not work as he had gone for more than a month, and at least the caretakers would ask him where he had been and what he had been up to.
Although they didn’t give much care to him due to them knowing that Blake would probably not be able to give back to the orphanage at all when he grew up due to him being a powerless dud, the caretakers still took care of him and gave him the necessities for him to live rather comfortably. An orphan level of comfort that is.
They probably didn’t care much that he suddenly disappeared one day, but if he showed up again after being gone for so long then they would definitely ask him a lot of questions.
Although it didn’t matter much even if he had to give them made-up answers that didn’t even make sense since he would be gone anyways after getting what he came for, Blake did not want to deal with unnecessary problems.
He just wanted to get the locket pendant first, get out, check on Amy to make sure she was alright, then wait for the system to gather enough nether before he finally went back to the demon realm to finish his evolution.
He had thought about his earlier resolve about taking Amy with him back to the demon realm to live with him, but when he thought it over after everything, Blake realized that he would only be putting Amy in the same place as him when he was still a powerless dud.
Amy would not be able to use nether and she would live in a realm where the creatures living inside it were out to kill each other constantly. He would just be a cruel person.
‘Alright then, let’s finish this fast and tidy.’