Temporal Pearls

Seth's body trembled and he looked back, he saw a girl, her eyes glowing as she looked at him before she pointed at him and shouted to her grandpa in a strange language. But the old man waved his hand, pacifying her.

"So, your eyes are special. What can you see with them?" Vincent asked.

Seth forced a smile and pulled out a box, in it was Aura Lense, "Try it on your eyes!" The man stared at and read the instructions and he wore it. "Wow, so colourful, I want this too. How much!?"

Seth laughed seeing the man excited.

Floating Dom City was the first defence after the walls, everything and every one no matter what it was, was either a weapon, a surveillance device, or information gathering and also constantly preparing for war!

The next city they reached was called Heavenly Guests, foreigner that came would settle there until one obtained a condition to go beyond, if not, that would be their home.

But the city was also the third largest and anything anyone would desire in the Garden Of Eden was there. Seth wasn't surprised to find Players of different attire wandering around. In fact, they have a little district for themselves.

∆∆∆

Seth satisfied his curiosity for 24 hours before he met with Vincent inside the Knight Order District in the House of Shining Order. These knights were meant to be flashy, boastful and arrogant in their actions, using that to instil a sense of safety and hope in the people.

They were the propaganda that convinced the outside world that the Garden Of Eden was all good and pure but also powerful and mighty.

Their main role was hunting monsters and beasts with the exception of dragons and other intelligence races. They were truly forbidden from killing any human no matter what. Seth wonders why Vincent killed those Blood Warlock guards but he remembers he didn't but dismantled them.

But what about the list the warlock made, Seth shook his head and just left it at that. Either the rule can be bent or everything was just a front.

"This is a Delivery Mat!" Vincent said as he examined a thick 4×4 flat but thick bushy rug. He explained how Seth could use it to send and receive items.

"The moment you set it, this device will alert me and I will send you the stuff you bought!"

Seth bowed and thanked the knight before he left. His business with him was over, in a way Seth felt like the man was holding his stuff hostage until he sent Fourleave embrace but he knew it wasn't the case. Because the sheer amount of the things he owned was staggering and some of them were large and heavy.

"You are a player right?" A man with maroon attire ran to Seth and asked. "Yes, I am!"

"Good, come with us, we are playing a tournament, and the one that wins will get a special item!"

"Okay!"

The place of the game was a small arena, barely 20×10 meters but the surrounding area was filled by about 60 players. As someone who was a noble and had a knack for leadership, he immediately grasped the situation.

The sport was designed to invoke the desire for the players to show their cards to obtain something. The King Prize set was a flaming sword and the owner was at the centre of the arena, a powerful man with maroon attire.

Whoever defeats him will get the sword but if they lose they give up something.

"My name is Smith, if you want to join place an item you are willing to part with inside that box but it has to be useful."

"Also you can place something you want to wager and challenge others to get many items if they defeat you!"

"Even if you did get many junk things, we can buy it or provide you a way to exchange it with something at an upcoming auction!"

The man explained but Seth has no desire for the sword, in fact, he dislikes any form of combat that will involve physical ability.

The maroon attired player defeated three players before the fourth won the sword. The next one was a shield, then a spear. Mostly, they were weapons before a book was placed.

[Fire Arrow Skill]

"Oh, I forgot about my tome!" Seth exclaimed. He had forgotten one of his goals and that was gathering important materials to create various types of Red substances.

"This city has all the things that I may need!" Seth lamented he didn't use the knight to procure them. Nonetheless, he knew of a place where he could go and demand all that.

Seth left the small arena to Market Paradise, a place that was said to have everything. He entered the Library Of Items and before a ball of energy he ordered all of the items needed and many more.

It will take a week to assemble everything and will cost half his remaining pocket. Turning around to leave he met with a man in a blood robe.

"By any means are you a Blood Mage!" The man looked young and the way he spoke seemed nervous but his eyes held experience.

Seth's robe changed to red and a beaming smile adorned his face, "A brother I see!"

"Yes, my name is Crimson Silk. Blood mages are hard to come by and most of us hide!" Crimson Silk said as he observed the red cloak.

"Well, we are just too great, that's why people are wary!" Seth said, "Where are my manners, my name is Seth Enoch!"

The smiling young man grimaced before he said, "You should take an alias. Names have power and some can harm you using them. Especially other blood mages!"

Seth has never hidden his name even though most of the people he met use aliases but now he thinks he should begin hiding too, right? "In that case, call me Red Canvas!"

"You are new to this!" The man seemed disappointed but tried not to show it but Seth perceived that nonetheless. The reason was that he was not hindered in this place, he could choose to be a Grade 5 human.

"Sort of, you see!" Seth walked toward him and said, "I'm new but I hold tons of secrets. But I would like for us to share knowledge and understanding, perhaps I won't stay ignorant!"

"Red Canvas, blood magic is secretive and dangerous, not many will like to share. But I can guide you to a school where they can help you!" He was losing interest but added, "As you can see, if I was caught teaching you my art, I would be punished. As I said, it's dangerous!"

"Grade 2 Human Blood Mage!" Seth said, and he shifted from Grade 3 to 4, this made the man flinch for a moment but held on.

"I'm a wanderer, formal learning isn't my thing. All I knew was swinging my staff there and there and escaping danger!" Seth said.

"I see, you are not weak. No wonder you throw your name casually!"

"I'm ignorant about that!" Seth said truly.

"It's alright, meet me here tomorrow!" Crimson Silk said but he was sceptical.

They bid themselves farewell and Seth left. The moment he left, a drop of blood appeared out of nowhere and dropped on the floor before a young beauty swirled out from it.

"Oh, what was his name?" She asked but her voice sounded old and throaty.

"I forgot!" Crimson Silk said as he turned to leave, his face scrunched with fear and defiance. "Hmm, I heard it!" A red shadow appeared, "how much will you pay!" He stayed in the shadows as he asked the young girl.

"10 Gawee Beast Core!" She said in her aged and throaty voice.

"Seth Enoch!" The red shadow answered, immediately ten cores appeared and they were swallowed inside the red shadow before he vanished.

"You refused to answer me, boy, hehe. Good riddance, you built some nerves after a few months of peace." As she was saying she walked to him and hugged him from the back. His heartbeat increased.

"People may think I'm bullying you." As she spoke, vitality in the form of red energy was seeping out from Crimson Silk to her, her voice was becoming young until she sounded like a young girl of the body she was showing.

But a necklace on him lit up and the vitality stopped streaming out. While that happened to her, he appeared to have aged, wrinkles appeared on his face and his black hair started fading becoming white.

"You are the sweetest of them all!" She whispered, now it contained a beautiful melody enough to charm a strong mind, "Don't worry I will guide him properly. You know I won't harm him!" She then became a drop of red and vanished.

With a pulse of energy, he comes back to normal as if he never aged, only the hair that faded remained before it became longer.

Crimson Silk was a powerful Mage but unfortunately, he was a sacrifice to Red Moon witch by his father to sustain her life.

Red Moon was the sole reason that the Garden Of Eden won a war against the Medos with Human Intelligence, she was able to pinpoint it and drain the life force of many dangerous creatures it commanded that seemed to be immortals.

She was also the one who tracked down the Medos in its lair and fought it when even those infinitely more powerful than her couldn't. She failed to kill the Medos but marked him.

There were no other Medos like it, so it couldn't evolve into Genos by eating other Medos, rather it found a way to feed on special humans to evolve.

In conservative estimates, it needs about 3 million Garden Of Eden native humans to evolve. Thanks to Red Moon, any time it comes close it will feel pain but also they will be alerted.

Crimson Silk returned home in a foul mood, he had sacrificed himself to maintain the witch's life force but he hated it when she tried to hurt others because of him. That was why he didn't even have normal friends except those who were protected from her.

He worked at a Library Of Items, he was however, the chairman, which was why he was alerted by the items Seth ordered, which he came to conclude that only blood mage may need them because they are mostly blood of animals, insects and plants. There were also red substances found in mines, such as red iron, copper etc.

He sighed, before his wife came, they made love. Before sleep, he jolted awake. Red Moon was above him, in her real form, and she bit him in the neck Like a vampire.

His body aged and became too old before she moved away. He returned back to normal and she repeated that four times before she left.

"Damn it. What happened to her?" He cursed, it had been years since she became this ravenous.

∆∆∆

The next day, Crimson Silk went to the office, and later, his guest came and he seemed to have lacked sleep. "Let's see how much she took from him and what she gave him!"

He brought out a red silk and rubbed it as he exited his office, "If she made him her thrall he will be loyal to her as long as he was in the city!" He commented.

"Red Canvas, good morning!" Crimson Silk said.

"Aha, Crimson, sorry, I'm late, I didn't sleep last night!"

Crimson Silk was in a trance, he didn't register what Seth said, because his red Silk told him Seth wasn't touched.

"Hey?" Seth snapped his fingers at his face and Crimdon Silk snapped back to normal.

"Are you alright?" Seth asked,

"Yes, I am. Sorry, I was thinking about something!"

Seth nodded but stared at the man suspiciously. "Did you try something on me yesterday?" He asked.

"Nope, I'm not evil. Come to my office, please!" Crimson Silk said full of smiles but Seth stared at the man before he shook his head, "Nah, I'm fine. Besides, I have to sleep to catch up!" He quickly left.

Seth has learned from his mistake many times, no sanctuary was safe. Who knows what dangers he might face in this so-called Paradise?

"Hey, Red Canvas, I mean no harm. I'm the chairman of the Library!" Crimson Silk Said.

"I believe you, nice to meet you too!" Seth said from a distance before he disappeared into the crowd. The chairman just stood there wondering what he did to scare the boy away.

Seth went directly to the Small Arena, yesterday he had spent the night there waiting for a good item to fight for.

Among the things he saw he liked but failed to get was a flying sword made of red metal. Because it has requirements for one to be a Sword Master.

Now Seth met with an uncanny item placed as a wager. It was a palm-size Turtle, and to his amazement, there were hundreds of people all wanting to fight to get the turtle. More are coming.

Seth went to check what its speciality was, "What does it do?" He asked a woman, with ample bosom, and dark skin, she flashed a smile to him and said, "Place your hand on it."

He looked around and found that there were even City Guard here. He felt safe and touched the turtle's back.

The moment he did, at the centre of the shell, a round gem appeared and he was sucked in. Seth appeared in a 10×5 meters room, it was well furnished, with a refrigerator, bathroom and even some fruit at the centre table.

"Are you amazed!" A voice from above said, and as he looked up, he jumped back with a fright as the face of the woman was large, looking at him like he was an ant. Of course, to her, he was the size of an ant.

"You can come.out any time you want, but if you stay I will pull you in about 3 minutes." She said, Softly so as not to scare him.

Seth smiled and looked around, "Isn't this supposed to be in Auction!" He muttered but no one answered him.

Seth then went to the refrigerator, found some water and drank, and then sat and began eating the fruits. It was amazing that if he looked up, he would see the woman's face and the large building behind her, but her attention was on the challenge going on.

Three seconds before three minutes he willed himself to come out and he did, more people waiting exclaimed seeing him out. They wish to enter too.

Seth immediately went to the Collector and gave him Ovalmoom. The man placed it on a device and he nodded. Now he was in the challenge.

Seth looked at the number of people there was 1hr before the challenge closed and he was the 17th to be in line.

Last inline for now but others come and registered.

There are some rules but the important ones are that, if a challenger defeats the defender, he will be the defender and if he defends against 9 challengers the items belong to him.

A defeated challenger or defender can't join again and they automatically lose what they paid.

A challenger can pay one of the 100 fighters to fight for him. These 100 fighters were confirmed neutral and they looked powerful.

But Seth didn't trust them because yesterday none of them won an item when they were hired. Even though not all of them fought.

Seth sat among the challengers in waiting, 'damn it. If it was last night, things would have been great!' Seth thought. He was thinking about Moon Blessings, it won't work normally during the day.

"Nohhhhh!" A group of people shouted in lament, the last defender before Seth lost, he was powerful, and he defended against 5 people but the sixth was too much.

"This is a scam. How could a person fight with no rest against 10 people!" The defeated shouted angrily.

"This is our rule and if you can't win now, how do you think you can defend the Turtle Dome?" The Collector yelled, his voice echoed and people became silent. He is powerful.

"Red Canvas!" The collector called and Seth walked out to face the new defender! He held a sword that seemed very special.

"Fight!"

The moment the defender moved, he was sent back and slammed into the arena wall.

"What?" People were confused, they didn't see what happened. And that was what Seth intended.

"The new Challenger Red Canvas becomes the new Defender" the collector shouted.

"Ludo Mage!" A girl came out, carrying a long staff with a strange head.

"Fight!"

She slammed her staff on the floor and a solid barrier appeared in time, the girl smiled. She was a tall girl, with silver attire and a white hooded robe. She further smiled as she raised her head enough for Seth to see, taunting him.

Her eyes became red and two red spots appeared beyond the barrier between them bursting into flames.

"FIRE ARROW!" The people shouted. She was the one who won the Spell Book yesterday. Seth cocked his head to the side as he tried to stifle his laughter.

The bursting flames moulded into an arrow and pointed toward him. Her smile increased. People exclaimed because that control was very high. Most can only handle one arrow let alone 2 or 3 in a short amount of time.

"FIRE!" she shouted and the flames moved toward Seth. The surrounding area became hotter. But Seth's hand was moving by then and the arrow reached him.

The explosion covered Seth and his surroundings as the audience moved back to do heat as the fire kept burning.

Ludo Mage smiled in contempt, she was ready to turn off her barrier when the burning moved and then sucked into a single point. The defender was now holding his chin contemplating as he stared at the red flame floating above his wand.