Elemental Dissonance.

"The caravan leaves at Sun's First hour we have around 3 hours in our hands, you can prepare if you intend to join us" Dayes said "Though you aren't obligated to come with us, greater manpower equates greater chance of succeeding in this predicament, even Captain isn't comfortable staying here especially at the Eve of Darkness descent"

"I've made up my mind, I'm coming with you guys" Bilal said sternly.

Dayes smiled a little "That's great then, we'll have one more Attainer in our caravan….along the way I'll also teach you to synthesize Battle Energy"

"Yeah sure" Bilal too responded with a smile and greeted the busy Soldier off, since he would have lot of work to do.

Bilal would've agreed to join along, even without expecting anything in return, the Battle Energy thingy was just a bonus. The best gift they offered was their protection.

Because he knew, if these Soldiers are afraid of the upcoming danger what could a Weak guy like him could amount to anything. And the Caravan would be his best opportunity he'd ever get to familiarize himself with this World's Local customs and traditions. Most of the conversations he held in these 2 days was him being passive, as he had to watch out for tongue slips and suspicion arousing words.

'The time currently is 9AM and there's 3 hours for the Sun's First hour, then their First hour starts at 12 not at 1, so confusing! sigh.' Bilal inferred that much on his own as he went walking towards the gate.

He saw the preparation that went on, as he reached the gate, a group of Soldiers stood guard rear to a pair of Wooden carts with roofs attached, their appearance was shabby in quality and looked quite old with tens of cracks here and there, but were large in space for the job intended, they were upto the brim filled with something and covered with yellowish fabric and tightened by fiber ropes to act as a closed cover.

Seeing the entrance, he decided to take a look outside and took a few steps forward. The vicinity of the Camp was surrounded by Large humongous evergreen trees which effectively rendered his sight from the inside. It should be considered surprising that he was able to locate it.

"System, create a waypoint named 'Camp'."

[Custom Marker created on Map#1]

[Waypoint: Camp, Co-ordinates: E2138:17:1134]

He created the waypoint to be ensured he won't get lost.

He then went ahead to have a look at the Twin mountains, he didn't d.e.s.i.r.e to be anywhere near because of obvious dangers associated with it.

Unlike last time, he took a greater look of details in the surroundings, as he wasn't in a hurry and neither he had to be careful

Everything in this World appeared bigger and most likely tougher, the trees, the stones, the animals and even the things immaterial like Wind and Sunlight were stronger.

Steering his way towards the Twin mountains, he saw himself getting farther and farther from the camp.

Along the way he occasionally got peeks of the Mountain, yet couldn't get a complete view due to large obstructions in between.

With tens of more minutes of unfl.u.s.tered walk, he noticed a gradual elevation in the ground, by that time he had crossed half the path already and deviated from his path way too much, despite that he kept his pace constant as he just wanted a place of high elevation to take a look.

The trees grew sparser and huge rocks became increasingly common.

The hard rocks too became fewer and within a minutes or so, a grand and majestic view was offered to him at the edge of the Small Rock hill.

Yet the Twin mountains wasn't as majestic as before, instead it bleed red by the dying ambers of a flame.

With his now enhanced sight, he got a clean view, the woods burned with searing flames at various patches which he inferred as Human settlements.

Around a tenth of mountain was lit and still propagating rapidly, yet it couldn't be helped since the Mountainous area was too humumgous.

The scene was dreadful since he knew the people was murdered and incinerated.

'How come their ruthlessness don't surprise me…?' he pondered yet left eventually.

Since his curiosity was satisfied, he felt no need to wait there any longer.

The road back was simple enough, he followed the System waypoint on his Minimap and treaded back the path with his unfl.u.s.tered pace to conserve energy.

Along the way, he noticed the winds flowing above the trees, unlike normal it had a speckled tinge of green.

Under a more careful observation he noticed green dots blended into air.

'Green?Which Element is this?' Bilal tried speculating,

As he stood fully concentrating on those green elemental dots, the background dimmed within a fraction of a second, and a sea of Elemental dots filled his vision.

Transparent dots fluttering freely in the sky, Green dots circling the tree trunks, Dark-Brown dots creating ripples on the floor, and a sparse number of White dots descending slowly from above the clouds, and a sea of Red dots roamed the direction of the Mountains which burned.

Like a sudden bursting of a bubble, the dim world flickered out, bringing him back to the disillusioned state.

'Wha…'

This was the third time he was dragged in this strange state of mind, it causes his mind to be numbed of any reason or feelings, he would get an illusion of being one with the World itself and be able to observe the Elements closely.

Although he could see Elements outside this state, they weren't even half as lively and radiant

Whatever it was, other than increasing a sense of urgency in learning the Magic technique, he realized nothing else.

when

-------------------------------

2 hrs later.

Federation Camp.

"Here, equip this" A Soldier hurriedly handed him a standard set of metallic armor and left.

It included a c.h.e.s.t plate, a set of bracers, knee guards, and pauldrons.

Though the straps looked confusing, he had grasped the method seeing the ones before him strapping the armor. He was the last one in the camp to get them.

The journey back didn't take much, instead he spent the 2 hours with Trake asking all sorts of random questions.

It puzzled Trake to no ends, but the kid answered everything he could sincerely.

The one to be horrified was Bilal instead, Trake was way too intelligent for his age, he definitely was some sort of genius, he knew things that kids of his age didn't. Besides having learnt History, Geography, Writing, Arithmetics and Etiquettes, he possessed copious amounts of livelyhood skills and Martial Training as well.

When asked for the origin of this knowledge, the kid attributed it all to his mother.

Bilal wondered whether his Mother was a noble of some sort, but he dismissed such notion because which Noble would be mad enough to abandon his status and live in some Lower tribe which stood hundreds of miles away from any of the nearest City state.

Although it got him to be somewhat late, it helped Bilal broaden his worldview and expand the knowledge for this World. Atleast, he would now be able to interact with people without being on guard all the time.

Quickly equipping the armor pieces on top of his Hide clothes and regarbing himself with the dusky cloak, he stepped out.

He glanced at a huge band of Soldiers that stood near the henged gate, with a few wooden carts on their left.

He also saw Trake amongst the workers, mingling with the happily. He decided not to bother him and simply went ahead towards the Soldiers.

They apparently were waiting for everyone to assemble quickly. After him came a few more scattered souls and quickly gathered along.

The last to appear were the Old Captain and the Buffy Dayes, along with two Soldiers.

As soon as they appeared, both distinct and indistinct clamour suddenly went dead, no one from the fake Soldier candidates knew who were they, yet they guessed soon enough thanks to the cold glares received from the Soldiers in Blue coats.

"As every expected one is here, I'm now going to designate everyone their roles" The Old captain stated sternly "No need to wait for cowards, they won't be here anyway"

"Me, Tuek, Befer, Dayes, Monar, Berat, Tyler…would be present on the Vanguard"

"Bedsa, Poqir, Tunfei, Argent, Uikuz, Qtera….They are assigned the Flanks"

"On the core Iracua, Rachmen in co-ordination with Candidate 7, 8 and 6 would guard and superwise the Refugee workers"

"As the Rearguard leader Bilal would co-ordinate and superwise the remaining Candidates"

Abruptly, Bilal felt a powerful gaze locked onto him.

Tracing the strange feeling he saw the Old man staring at him intensely.

"Since all the supplies are acquired there's no reason for further wait, Commence the Caravan!!!!" The Old man shouted "Get in Formation!!!"