Limits

I walked towards the western direction, alongside the Black Gazer Sea. I don't know for how long I did that but I learned couple of things, about the giant creature next to me. The sea would spew out some Liquid Gazers once in a while. It turned out that my theory was correct and this was the place of origin for those Liquid Gazers. I didn't know why it only spew out a few of them, every once in a while but I guessed that, the new Liquid Gazers were born inside and the space was limited. Therefore, the sea had to spew out some of them, in order to make space.

Other monsters such as Rotting Hounds were not an issue. The amount of them, I met during my travel, was abysmal. 'One would think, that the place would be crawling with monster and creatures but it's eerily quiet. Could it be because of the Black Gazer Sea?' I thought. I still had enough food left for over a month, so this meant that I travelled for over a week in the North.

One day, or should I say, one interval of me sleeping and walking. I encountered a forest consisting of dead and rotting trees. There were always some trees around when I travelled but the area in front of me, was different. It felt as if, I was about to enter a new section of the North. When I approached the Dead Forest, I noticed something… or rather someone sitting on one of the trees. I was a bit shocked but more importantly, I became much more focused and prepared for possibility of a fight. 'I don't know what that is. If it doesn't want to fight me, I will just leave it alone' I thought as I moved closer to the forest.

When I was about 100 metres away, I could make out the features of that something on the tree. It looked like human, with tattered clothes but human nevertheless. There was even a cape behind its back, although worn as well. The face was covered and I couldn't make it out.

The thing on the tree spoke in human language. "Welcome traveller. Is this your first time visiting here?" it said. I wasn't shocked that it could speak in human language. The amount of weird things that I saw in the past, was not small. It looked human as well, perhaps it or rather he was a human, or maybe a member of a different race.

I decided to ask "Are you human?". The humanoid figure answered laughing "No, but you are". I wasn't shocked by this either. Humans had to come here before. Otherwise, how would a map exist of this place, even though it was a small region of it. I still wondered why the map didn't show the Black Gazer Sea but it didn't matter.

I said "Yes, that I am. Do you want something from me?". The humanoid creature laughed and said "No. I was just welcoming you. There aren't many humans that come here. I always found your race interesting but you are the first one to actually continue talking with me, even though I just told you, I'm not human". I wasn't the sort of person, that would attack for no apparent reason, even if I knew that the creature is from different race.

I decided to ask something "Are you Eterian?". The guy on the tree got visibly pissed and said "No. I despise those filthy creatures. Don't you humans do the same? I thought every human knew about the past and what Eterians did". I responded "I know what they did but I met only one, so I don't know much about them. What is your race then?"

The creature answered "If I tell you, will you attack?". I was a bit stunned. 'Is this race also at war with humans or something? Just how many enemies did humans make?' I thought then answered "No, I have no bias towards races. As long as you are not hostile, I will not attack either". The creature laughed and said "I'm a higher form of this" and he pointed at something.

What he pointed at, was exactly the Black Gazer Sea. I was baffled and asked "You are a Gazer?" but then I realised something. This was the name, I gave those creatures. Humans might have called them differently. The creature was confused as well and said "Gazer? I don't know what that is but I'm talking about the Black Sludge. This whole thing is a factory of Black Sludges". 'So they call them Black Sludge, not very interesting name to be honest. I think that mine is better' I thought and asked "What do you mean by a higher form?".

He explained "The Black Sludge is just the basic form but it has the potential to evolve, just like the animals outside of this place. I'm sure you know what I mean". He was right, I knew what he meant but the changes in appearance were astonishing. I decided to ask "So, you are still a parasite?" The guy got a bit angry and said "I'm no parasite! I have my own body now!".

'Interesting. If what he said is true of course' I thought and decided to test something. I took out a torch from my bag and lit it. The guy got scared and shouted "You said you would not fight me!". I extinguished the torch and said "I was just testing something. So you are still scared of fire. How did you get a body?".

The guy was still scared a bit but calmed down when he saw, that I extinguished the torch. He said "I foun… I grew it!". I knew immediately, that he was spouting bullshit. I said "I don't care if you took a body of another human. It's not my problem. Tell me more about this place" and started walking towards the creature. He saw my actions and said "Don't move closer! I will tell you from here. You can hear me just fine". I didn't stop and responded "I told you that I will not harm you and I shall keep my promise. I just want a conversation and eat something. You do eat right? You can treat it as, food for information kind of exchange".

When the guy heard food, he became hesitant. When I was about 10 metres away, I sat down next to a tree and said "Calm down. I told you, I will not harm you. Come down here and let's chat.". I took out some meat from my bag and waved it towards him. The guy finally decided and came down from the tree.