章節 10: Workshop
As time passed by, Beta continued taking care of Brian's leg, using various kinds of herbs he got from the forest. It took five weeks for Brian's leg to recover to a normal condition. Of course, Beta didn't dawdle around within that time as he followed his usual routine. He hunted, explored and trained his body. When he had the time, he crafted some clothes for Brian, who took them with gratitude. Over the past few weeks, the both of them got closer. At first, Beta just wanted to use him as a useful pawn, but he was still a ten-year-old kid which had never had a friend before. Brian felt the same too, because he grew up as a beggar, he only had enemies so far. The villagers looked down on him and the other beggars were competitors over the food he got. It wasn't rare for him to have to fight for his meals. But this time, they both have someone to peacefully talk with.
"Since your leg recovered now, I'll offer you two choices again. You can either stay with me, or go back to the village. I would personally prefer it if you stayed, but I won't force you to stay. So, make your choice.", Beta said with a serious face.
Brian didn't think long before answering.
"I will stay with you!"
"That's great, then! Well, on to the second part then. I won't stay here much longer. I want to see the world and learn more about it. Do you still wish to follow me?"
"Yes, definitely! Staying at this place will only result in a boring future. Even in the best-case scenario, I'll only have a wife and tend to a farm every day. Compared to a life of excitement and discoveries, it's not worth anything!"
"Even if your life may be in danger?", Beta said with a smirk.
"When has my life ever been not endangered?"
They both started laughing and continued talking about the places they want to visit, becoming bigshots at the Explorer Union, and several other heroic goals that they could think of. The Explorer Union was one of the things that Brian told Beta about. They consist of people that protect the human habitat from monsters and explore the world. What's more heroic than fighting monsters and living in adventures only fairy tales tell about? They wanted to be just like that. Without having to depend on others to survive.
"For now we need to train our bodies a bit and get some better equipment. We could search the ruins to look for some useful things."
"Ruins? What ruins?"
"It's a few kilometers in that direction", Beta said while pointing with his finger.
"I got my spear tip from there.", Beta added.
"Alright. To enter the city, we will also need money. How do we get that?"
"A merchant arrives at the village every week, right? We can just try to sell some pelts."
Having planned everything out, they started to train together. Beta showed Brian how to train in an efficient way and that food is an important factor too. Ever since Brian got a taste of good meat, he barely ate vegetables, but he wasn't a picky eater so that still didn't prove a problem to him. Just like this, another few weeks passed by. In that period of time, they also started to search through the ruins thoroughly. They found several rooms, but there wasn't anything special inside. When Brian saw that Beta already had a base there, he became curious as to where he came from. But when he asked that before, he only got vague answers, so he didn't bother asking again. When he saw the capsule, which had the perfect size for a kid to fit in it, Brian had some speculations. He may be naïve and haven't gone to school but this doesn't mean he was that clueless. He let that thought just drop though, afraid that he might lose a friend if he won't let it go. So, he decided to continue searching the area.
One sunny day, Beta jumped into a pond near his house to wash the dust off his body when he saw that there was a broken tunnel within. What actually took his attention though was a door. It was a thick metal door. Beta had seen a door like that before so he dove down and looked through the glass that was embedded in the door. He got so excited that he let out his breath which forced him to quickly go to the surface again.
"I found something nice!", Beta shouted to attract Brian's attention.
Brian hurried over and looked at Beta in doubt.
"If you just found a beautiful stone I'll be very disappointed, you know?"
"I found the door to the workshop!", Beta said while rolling his eyes.
"Eh? Workshop? What?!". Brian looked at Beta thinking that his friend might have eaten something bad for him to imagine there's a workshop underwater.
Beta didn't plan to tell anyone about where he came from. Just by looking at the area, he noticed long ago that his parents were probably attacked by an army. All these craters and destroyed buildings were not just a hint, it's a definitive proof that a big battle happened here. If there are still enemies that survived and passed on their missions to others, it would definitely be bad if they took notice of Beta. So, he decided to keep mum about it, even to his friend, Brian. Although the possibility of anyone from that time being still alive is slim, he didn't want to risk it.
"Let's open it together!" Beta ignored Brian's weird look towards him and just urged him on.
"Alright!"
Brian jumped into the pond as well and followed Beta to the bottom where he spotted the door. They both gripped the door handle together, pushed it down and pulled. Because of the water pressure it wasn't an easy task, but they still succeeded. When the door was finally open, they thought that the water would rush in like crazy, but nothing of the sort happened. It was as if an invisible wall was between the water and the room. Brian's face was astonished while Beta kept a calm face, like he expected it and made sense.
They slowly entered the room, probing if the air inside was still breathable. Once they confirmed that it was alright, they entered the room and looked around. Shortly after they entered, the light in the room turned on. There were many things lying on the ground and most of the instruments on the tables were broken. When they looked at the wall ahead, they saw a glimmering stone embedded into the wall. Around the stone were what looked like runes. Sadly Beta never learned anything about runes, but he did know what it was. It was the energy source for the workshop. Back then, Beta didn't just want to know about weapons, he also wanted to know how they were made. That was when his parents told his brother to bring him in the workshop whenever he wanted.
His brother told him that this room has its own energy supply, because he didn't like to be interrupted in the case of a blackout. Beta liked tinkering to get new kinds of weapons that he could use, so he learned from his brother how to craft them. He wasn't particularly interested in the forging, but he had to learn it in order to be able to craft the parts he needed for his weapons. From then on, he learned earnestly from Zeta.
"Good it can still be used!", Beta said with a smile on his face.
"What are you even talking about?"
"See that in the corner? It's a smithy!"
"That looks like a piece of junk...", is what Brian wanted to say, but he held himself back, since his friend was very happy about what he had found.
"Hmm... We need to be fast. Considering the brightness of the stone, the energy for this room will only last another week or so!"
"And what exactly are you going to use as a raw metal? We're not exactly rich..."
"I have just the right thing.", Beta said with a sly grin on his face.
They then left the room and headed outside. After drying themselves up, Beta led Brian to a certain part of the ruin. There it was, right in front of them. The capsule. "It was down here for hundreds of years and doesn't even have a scratch on it, so it can't be that bad as a material, right?", Beta thought to himself. Brian immediately knew what Beta was thinking of. They slowly rolled the surprisingly light cabin over to the pond. But before they threw it in, they gathered some logs and build a slope, so that they can let it slide directly into the room. Although they can roll it on a sturdy ground, they won't be able to do so in the muddy pond. Just when they were about to roll it down the slope they suddenly heard a voice.
"See what we found here. Two little kids! And I was wondering who laid the traps out here. What I didn't expect, is such a nice find though! That huge amount of metal must be worth a fortune! Why don't you just give it to me?"
When Beta turned around he was stunned. It was Valsa, the man with the eagle like eyes who had almost discovered him before and his plump friend.
"Sorry, we don't plan to give it away.", Beta said with a cold face.
"Are you sure about that? And what exactly do you want to do if I just take it and silence you? Actually, what can the both of you even do?"
With a smile that didn't even reach to his eyes, Beta said, "Why don't you see it for yourselves?"
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