Chapter 271: The Impossible Mission
Jim just thought about getting to that place before he felt a surge of power surrounding him. The next instant a flashing blinding light appeared and enveloped his body before he vanished.
The next moment he found himself standing on the top of a hill somewhere he couldn't recognize. The world was dark, in contrast to what he thought for it to be slightly bright.
It was already morning at the academy, so being here made him feel weird.
But that wasn't the only strange thing here. When he turned to gaze at the sky, he felt there were strange shadows moving at the distant sky, covering segments of stars in shades before they passed and released the star lights off.
"Where am I?" This was the first question he had in mind and the most stressful thing he needed to know.
'If I'm not wrong then you aren't in the academy world anymore,' the old man slowly said.
"I can... tell that," Jim suddenly paused, "don't tell me I can't summon my warriors here."
'Yes you can,' the old man reassured him, 'don't worry about that issue anytime.'
"I can't help but to worry," Jim said, "after all without them I'm screwed."
'First things first,' the old man said, 'you need to go and check more about this world.'
"I know," Jim still hasn't moved, "but I have to be careful. This is after all close to the rebel station, right?"
'...'
The old man didn't speak while Jim turned his eyes to the area around the hill. He was moved here for a reason. And that would be to be close to the rebel's camp.
However the world was showered under deep darkness. He couldn't even see beyond the base of the hill.
The hill was barren. As he started to descend it he couldn't see any sign of a tree or plant anywhere. He also felt weird not to hear any sound of birds anywhere.
And that made this place look more desolate to him.
"Were I sent to a graveyard or what?" he couldn't help but mutter while reaching the base of the hill. "Not a single sign of anything living here."
He turned around yet couldn't see for a long distance. If not for his fear to attract attention to himself he would have lightened a fire or used his power to ignite the way to him.
And so he started this journey alone.
"This isn't just like I expected," Jim couldn't help but complain. He walked around in circles for hours yet he couldn't find anything useful at all.
All he met was barren lands and hard cold rocks. The atmosphere here looked very different from what was in the academy.
It was totally cold here. If not for him keeping moving all over the place he would have felt frozen and was tempted to light a fire.
'Why not take some out?' the old man suggested, 'you can distribute them all over the place. Save yourself more time to look for your target.'
"Nah, I can't do that either," Jim shook his head, "who knows if I was watched by my enemies or not. Who knows if I was sent here not to do anything but to be tested for my hidden powers?"
His worries weren't groundless and that made the old man sigh and return to his silence.
It wasn't until dawn shone over this world before Jim finally got a glimpse of the true face of this world.
And when he saw what was really around, he couldn't help but suck cold breath of air.
"This... all this is a monster?" The light shone and showed to him the true nature of what he was standing on top of.
He wasn't on the ground, instead he was on the back of a gigantic monster that was flying in the air like whales swimming in water.
The cold air he felt from before came because that monster was already flying over a huge altitude off the ground.
As for that hill he landed upon, it wasn't more than a protrusion on the back of that monster. Jim's soul shivered from fear when he spotted that. He didn't imagine anything like this before.
'Yet there is a good point here,' the old man couldn't help but say, 'you can get a good grasp of things in this world.'
Jim understood what he meant so the next minute he started running so fast towards the edge of the monster.
It took roughly an hour to reach one of the gigantic edges of the monster. The moment he reached there he felt like standing on the edge of a majestic chain of high mountains.
And the rest of the world lied underneath his feet, showing off like tiny things.
"There are many people living here," that was the first thing he noticed from this far. "How can I find my target then? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack!"
'And you landed over the back of a moving monster... That's bad luck for sure.'
Jim couldn't agree more to this statement. He wasn't only far away from the ground, he was also so far away from his target.
He couldn't even know where his target was. The monster was flying in an irregular pattern which made finding his target an impossible thing to accomplish.
But he didn't lose hope.
"I have less than two days to finish my task," Jim slowly said, "I need to scan the world first. The base must be on something unique, something that can be seen from such height."
As he reached this point in his thoughts, he dropped looking at the ground underneath and started examining the sky.
He was literally flying in the middle of the clouds. Thick layers of white clouds appeared at far distances. The scene was really breathtaking. If not for his current situation, he would rather prefer to stand still and enjoy such a magical scene.
However he knew he was tight on his schedule.
As he scanned the world around, near and far, all he could see were clouds scattered all over the place.
"That's weird," after a while he couldn't help but sigh, "everything in this world looks so calm and perfect."
'Maybe what you are looking for lies underneath your feet,' the old man said.
"I can't see clearly from such height," Jim moved his eyes to the ground. The earth far below was covered in endless dark dots that varied in size and shape.
He knew these must be settlements for people living there. He didn't know if there were any humans or not, any race he was familiar with or not.
However he couldn't tell anything from such height. He could see for hundreds of miles around, but he couldn't see anything specific either.
And that just got on his nerves.
"How can I descend?" he couldn't help but ask, "I can't do anything from up here."
The old man went into silence for a long time while Jim also kept his silence. He was thinking about what to do and how he could force this monster to get down.
Should he start fighting it? Should he wound it? He didn't know how this monster would react if a bug like him started biting it.
Or even tried to kill it.
Despite Jim doubting his ability to even cause an actual wound to this monster, the mere thought of being tossed off its back and falling on the ground to die wasn't pleasant at all.
He couldn't risk such a thing, and despite that he couldn't just sit here and wait forever.
He needed to locate the base of those rebels, and he needed to do that fast.
"I'm missing something," after a long hour of thinking he finally reached this conclusion, "the stele said clearly it will send me to the base of the rebels. Don't tell me this entire world is the base of the rebels!"
'That's ridiculous,' the old man didn't agree with his words, 'if so then you have already lost this mission. What did they think you are, a nuke?'
Jim couldn't help but smile. Yet the next moment his face changed and the smile over his face froze.
He suddenly heard a voice, a voice coming so nearby that he even doubted himself at first.
Then he hurriedly turned around towards the direction of the sound. There, where he first landed, at that protrusion from far, he could see a group of people appearing there.
They seemed to come from some sort of an opening in that cliff.
"Damn!" he couldn't help but suck a cold breath of breath, "I wasn't sent wrongly here... the base... the rebels are all inside this gigantic monster!"
And the next moment those groups of people froze as they noticed his presence. It seemed they never expected someone to appear here other than their men.
And the next moment an ear deafening scream came from nowhere else but the gigantic mouth of that flying monster.
And with that deafening scream, the alarm was set off and the gates of hell opened in front of him all at once.