In the evening,
Akhil slowly opens his eyes and says, "I'm still alive." He starts looking around the place again. At this moment, he was lying on a velvet bed.
The room he was in was quite grand. As his gaze went outside the window, his eyes widened because there were thousands of yellow snakes floating in the air.
They were diving through the sky like fish. The sight was as beautiful as it was terrifying.
Just then, the door opens, and a sturdy man stands in front of him. His body was so strong that even his suit couldn't hide it. The man says, "So, you've come to your senses."
Akhil was about to say something when the man continues, "The Young Miss is waiting for you downstairs."
Akhil asks, "Where am I?"
The man replies, "You're currently in the Great Serpent Palace, the home of Shekhar Pratap, the current leader of the Hydra Tribe."
Akhil racks his brain, trying to recall what the Hydra Tribe is. Then it hits him that the Hydra Tribe consists of numerous families, and all of them form contracts only with serpent-type beasts.
People say the Hydra Tribe has, at some point in history, made contracts with every species of snake in this world. Meaning, there's no serpent-type beast they haven't formed a contract with. They have cures for every kind of venom.
But here's the thing to note: I'm in deep trouble. Shekhar Pratap is a merciless villain.
The sturdy servant standing in front of him says, "Are you alright?"
Akhil snaps out of his thoughts and nods yes.
The servant says, "There are some clothes for you. Freshen up and come downstairs in a bit. I'll inform the Young Miss in the meantime."
While taking a cold shower, Akhil was thinking that he's in huge trouble right now because, unknowingly, he's in a very bad place. First off, he has no identity or history.
"These people aren't fools; they'll definitely check my background. I bet they've already done it and found nothing. That could mean they might assume I was with that kidnapper."
That way, I'd be in serious trouble. And Shekhar Pratap, how cruel that man is, what can I even say? In this novel, he's practically a villain."
The character I am goes through all sorts of schemes to get his skeleton snake, because they'd never seen such a unique beast before. And on top of that, it's a serpent-type. So, the Hydra Tribe is hell-bent on getting their hands on my character.
Akhil slaps his face hard and says, "Don't stress. Maybe they haven't checked my background yet. I'll get out of here as soon as I can."
Akhil gets ready and comes down the stairs. A familiar face is standing in front of him. Aradhya is there.
Akhil says, "Thank you for bringing me here and getting me treated."
Ignoring his words, Aradhya says, "Come on, thank goodness you don't stink anymore. You finally look human. By the way, don't thank me, thank Jai Singh. He's the one who brought you here."
Akhil says, "Jai Singh?"
Just then, a bald man with one blind eye calls out from the side, "Khamma Ghani, lad!"
Akhil, delighted, extends his hand and says, "I've seen you somewhere."
Jai Singh says, "Yeah, for sure. My Jackie almost ate you. But back then, I had a question in my mind. I was in a hurry, so I didn't ask, but I'll ask now. What were you doing in that trash bin?"
Akhil feels embarrassed in front of Aradhya and can't say anything. Only a few words come out of his mouth, "Uh… I… well… actually…"
Aradhya lets out a slight cough.
Hearing this, Jai Singh falls silent. Aradhya says, "Don't pay too much attention to it. Come on, let's have breakfast."
At the dinner table,
Akhil was sitting comfortably. In front of him were various dishes, the names of which he probably didn't know.
Aradhya says, "By the way, thank you. Because of you, I managed to escape from there. You didn't exactly help, but by chance, you did. In the end, it was your help that got me out of there."
Akhil, completely flustered because Jai Singh, standing behind him, was glaring at him angrily, says, "I don't know what to say." He could feel the hair on the back of his neck standing up.
Aradhya smiles and says, "By the way, this is your old device."
Akhil quickly reaches out, grabs his phone, and starts checking if it's intact.
Aradhya continues, "If you need any help, you can tell me without hesitation."
Without thinking, Akhil says, "I want to awaken."
Aradhya asks, "So, you want to become a beast tamer?"
Akhil nods, "Absolutely. I've been thinking for a while that if I had a beast back then, maybe I wouldn't have gotten into that mess."
A little later,
Akhil had gone back to his room. At the table now, only Jai Singh and Aradhya were sitting. Aradhya takes a deep breath and says, "You're unnecessarily suspicious of him. I don't think he could be involved with the people behind my kidnapping."
Jai Singh says, "We tried looking into his background, but we found nothing. It's like this guy just dropped from the sky."
Aradhya responds immediately, "But he's not a threat. He doesn't even have a beast. And besides, you saw he was practically half-dead. And another thing to note is that the device he had seemed to be based on really old technology. I think he's not from around here."
Jai Singh asks, "What do you mean?"
Aradhya replies, "You said it yourself—he dropped from the sky. His clothes, you must have noticed, are quite strange. And all these things point to one thing—Chalkydri. A mythical beast that can even control time."
Jai Singh, shocked, says, "So you're saying that boy isn't from this time?"
Aradhya responds, "Exactly. What do you think all these things are pointing to? No need to be too shocked. It doesn't matter whether he's from this time or not.
He helped me, so it's kind of my duty to help him a little. First, get his identity sorted out so he doesn't face too much trouble. And yeah, don't tell anyone about this. It's better if fewer people know about the involvement of a mythical beast."
Inside a room,
Akhil, startled, says, "Are you kidding? You're saying this weird plate-like thing can charge any device's battery?"
The muscular servant says, "Yes, absolutely."
Akhil laughs, "That's amazing. And it charged 5% in just one minute."
The muscular servant says, "If you need anything, just call." With that, he leaves.
Akhil is at a loss for words, picks up his phone, and starts checking something on it. He feels grateful that he still has the drafts of the novel.
Akhil says to himself, "So, first, I need to make a list of things that will help me become stronger. Like the hidden evolution routes for magic beasts. This will be pretty easy for me since the draft has all the evolution materials and beast names written down. I just need to pick good beasts with better initial potential."
Extra Space Dimension: "Normally, everyone has just one dimension space where they can keep only one beast.
But with the help of a special ritual, an extra space dimension can be obtained. As I remember from the novel's story, the main character could contract as many beasts as he wanted. But ordinary people have just one dimension space.
However, in the middle of the story, there was a group of people who had two dimension spaces each."
"And with the Underworld Contract, I could summon a demon, but in return, I'd have to fulfill one of the demon's demands each time. I can't even consider this as an option. I don't think I'll ever use it in the future. Besides, people really look down on it ever since the Underworld folks started attacking the human world.
So, I should just drop this idea, or else all of humanity might become my enemy."
"So, the plan is that I have just two things that can give me a slight edge over others. And also, I need to get out of here as soon as possible before they dig into my background. Maybe they don't know anything yet, so I need to leave as quickly as I can."