The Origin Warden

chapter 9 : have you ever watched a horror movie before?

He adjusted his position to sit on his butt then finally noticed the ugly stitches sewing up his injury which extended nearly 9 inches across his thigh.

The strange thing was that he only felt some itching coming from his bones and no trace of any pain. Jack did not think about the matter for long. He turned to look at the woman with curly brown hair reaching her shoulders, her skin was dark brown.

Sensing his gaze she turned her head and stared at him with her blue eyes blaming him for what the situation had become.

“Ma’am thank you for saving my life, by the way the thing behind the door, it’s not an ugly cat with uglier tentacles coming out of its mouth or mouths, right?”

Sylvie shrugged and stared at him as though he were some sort of fool.

“How would I know, but if you are referring to the monster you killed then I don’t think so”

“Alright alright alright”

Jack muttered while staring around his surroundings. He noticed they were currently in the place he had been aiming for, the weapon storage room or at least part of it. Chest protectors and plastic shields were thrown chaotically on the ground.

His eyes continued roaming across the place until they settled on the sibling duo who were staring at him as if he were a potential threat, but Jack paid no attention to it and instead smiled lightly when he saw how the girl hugged her brother while staring at him cautiously.

' Nice '

His small thoughts were interrupted by the silence that fell over the place especially after his ears had become used to the loud banging sound.

' Thank God, did the monster finally give up!? '

Beside him Sylvie released a long exhausted sigh and muttered,

“Thank God the monster finally left”

“Umm, ma’am, I don’t want to be negative and pessimistic but, have you watched a horror movie before?”

“What?”

“I mean this is exactly how the protagonist group ends up dying, I mean I don’t think the monster gave up”

Ignoring Sylvie’s ugly expressions Jack decided to inspect the system interface. He wanted to make sure that everything he saw in that strange space the system called the spiritual sea was real.

He released a sigh of relief and smiled. Sylvie thought he had also become convinced that the monster had truly left.

But in truth Jack’s smile stemmed from the fact that he discovered everything he experienced was real and his smile brightened even more when he noticed that Azoth Armor was still among his items especially after waking from his coma only to find he was no longer wearing it. He thought he had lost it.

He cast a glance from the corner of his eye toward Sylvie who was comforting her children while still holding the weapon in her hand and said,

“Please ma’am don’t shoot, alright”

Sylvie was confused by this strange request and asked tiredly,

“What do you mean?”

Jack did not speak but instead closed his eyes then summoned the armor. Under the widened eyes of the three, small green lights appeared around the body of the man before them then took the shape of a beautiful armor that looked as if it belonged to a noble knight from the middle ages except that the one wearing it now was not a knight.

' This is better, although it’s still somewhat uncomfortable because of the clothes but who am I to complain, without this beautiful armor that ugly cat would have torn out my guts with its mouth and claws '

His body trembled in fear when he remembered how the monster kept trying to tear him apart. Without the armor he would have died a hundred times!.

“Awesome!”

Sylvie ignored the comments of her children who were clearly amazed by this strange magical display.

She stared at the man cautiously and asked while her finger slowly rested on the trigger of the pistol.

“Who are you?! And how?, how did you do this?”

She pointed with her finger which she continued raising and lowering toward the armor.

“How?” Jack scratched his head with a frown before asking,

“Ma’am, have you killed one of those monsters before?, I mean the zombies and the animals that are obviously no longer animals”

Sylvie nodded her head remembering how she killed a zombie for the first time. It was on top of Gina trying to tear off a piece of her flesh. She tried pulling it away but it was stronger than her. In desperation she pierced its brain with a screwdriver...

“Hello...”

The voice of Jack pulled her from the memory that had been imprinted into her mind. She nodded her head.

“It’s not something I’m proud of but yes I did...”

Then she added,

“More than one actually”

Jack raised his eyebrows but was not surprised. The woman before him seemed capable of more than that.

“Good. Then that means you became capable of accessing the system interface. Most likely you heard that voice... how do I describe it”

“An ethereal voice”

Sylvie said instinctively.

“Yes, an ethereal voice. Anyway, that voice belongs to the system, it’s like a computer interface appearing before your eyes showing your personal information, woah, that’s not even your original question”

He paused for a moment and continued saying,

“I got this armor from killing a giant wasp, you wouldn’t believe its size if I told you. Tell me when you killed the zombie didn’t a colored energy sphere appear above its corpse?”

Sylvie shook her head.

“No... maybe but perhaps I didn’t notice it”

Jack scratched his dry throat and said,

“The summary is that killing monsters can give you things called items and that’s how I got my armor. Actually I also got a mirror that can talk, believe me if you heard it talking you’d get a headache...”

Jack wanted to speak more and share the information he knew about the system. It was the least he could offer this lady or rather this small family for saving his life.

But the words refused to leave his mouth. His throat became so dry that he felt as though the walls of his throat had stuck together.