My Guardian System: The Trader

Jem rushed towards their house.

"Grandpa!"

He couldn't find him in the sala.

"Grandpa!"

He wasn't in his room either.

He searched in all corners of their house, but there was no shadow of his grandfather. Jem let a sigh escape from his mouth before letting himself fall on the shabby wooden chair beside the table.

"Where could he be?" Jem mumbled. There was a hint of regret in his voice.

.

His grandfather wasn't the type of person who would go away without letting him know where he would go. 

'Wait! Could there be something that happened to him while he was gathering some herbs in the mountain?' This thought crossed his mind.

Jem stood once again and ran to the mountain. While on the road, a wild boar appeared and bolted towards him.

"Get lost!" Jem spoke with cold eyes. As though his voice echoed, birds were flying away from the surrounding trees. And noise from scared animals could be overheard as they scuttered away.

The wild boar suddenly stopped and trembled. But it only happened in an instance as Jem canceled his [Intimidation] skill right away. However, it was enough for the wild boar to understand the danger it was facing.

The wild boar disappeared like a streak of lightning. It escaped away in fright.

Jem had no time to deal with it. He needed to find his grandfather as soon as possible.

Around him, a 25 feet Python Snake went back to hiding. A massive bear was trembling behind a tree. And a fierce-looking gigantic mutated bird flew away.

The other hostile animals around did not come out. They were scared to come out after witnessing that brief moment. This human was not someone they could threaten. All of them were trembling in fear as they were trying not to cause any sounds that could catch his attention.

Although the [Intimidation] skill could only target his opponent in front of him, the murderous aura he was releasing a moment ago told them that he was in another league compared to them.

He used to be scared to wander this part of the mountain as there was much gossip about hostile creatures appearing in this area. But the current Jem wasn't afraid of them anymore.

He continued searching around the mountain. He also went to the neighbors and asked about the whereabouts of his grandfather. Unfortunately, no one had seen him. And he could not find any traces of him.

Jem was at a loss. He went back to the shabby house with crestfallen. He failed to find him. It seemed as though his grandfather disappeared like smoke.

The sun was already setting to the opposite horizon when he came back home.

He glanced around.

It used to be a happy house, albeit small. Now it was a gloomy house in which dust and pests were occupying a large quantity of it.

Creak!

He threw his body on the chair, once again, without minding the dust on it. The room was dark and quiet, and he was sitting there for almost half an hour without doing anything. Jem was blankly staring at the space in front of him, reminiscing. Perhaps, if he didn't leave that day, his grandfather would not have gone.

"Grandfather…" he called out in a whisper, wondering where he went. He was so worried.

After closing and opening his eyes again, he caught a glimpse of something white on the table.

He looked at it and realized that it was actually a piece of paper covered by dust. It was under an old ceramic bowl beside an energy lamp.

He took it.

'A letter?' A question came across his mind. But since it was dark, he could not be sure about it.

He reached out on the energy lamp. This energy lamp was with them for a very long time already. His grandfather bought it when he was still a little kid.

Regardless, not all families in this place owned this kind of lamp. The reason for it was because, to light it, he had to feed it with ex-energy. Exactly, only ex-humans could light it.

Jem produced ex-energy on his hand and let it flow towards the lamp. The small luminous crystal in the middle had started to glow.

Once it absorbed enough ex-energy, it would glow and give off pleasant greenish radiance on its surroundings.

He remembered playing with it when he was still a kid. Since he had such a pitiable amount of ex-energy in his body, he always ended up depleting his ex-energy every time he tried to light it.

Well, because of it, he ended up good at controlling his ex-energy. He also learned the fortification ability without someone's guidance.

He remembered his grandfather's words at that time. His grandfather said that his learning talent was higher than normal ex-humans. 

So he shouldn't be sad if others had a higher amount of ex-energy than him. He added that when the time comes, he could become a great person.

After a couple of seconds, the energy lamp finally delivered greenish radiance in its vicinity.

He placed it back on the table. Then blow away the dust before he unfolded the paper in his hands.

As expected, it was truly a letter.

The handwritten was no doubt from his grandfather.

The first line of the letter was to greet him. Then it was followed by some questions about him. Next, he instructed Jem not to search for him and instead search for his happiness.

"....."

But his happiness was to see his grandfather. Just what kind of happiness was his grandfather talking about.

Just by reading the letter, Jem could comprehend that he left on his own accord.

But where did his grandfather go? And why did he leave here in the first place? He didn't mention it in the letter.

He needed to find him and asked him personally. Right. Since his grandfather told him to search for his happiness, he must search for him.

He had to find him even at the end of the world. And one day, when he finally saw him, he would tell him his story.

Regardless, he needed to figure out what to do from here on.