Jeff's quick manuever paid off, and sent the two blinded hyenas crashing into one another like wild animals without a sense of direction. As the dust cleared, the white Hyena held its ally, dead, in its jaw. He spat out the corpse and backed away from Jeff in fear. "NO.. NO! WHAT ZOZO DO TO FRIEND? MONSTER! YOU MONSTER!" It shrieked, darting off into the distance.

With the last Hyena darting off in the distance, Jeff started to calm down a bit and finally let his guard down. He felt surprised that the situation went as well as it did, given the Hyena's didn't seem to be the smartest creatures, but still he wasn't expecting his plan to go as well as it did.

This left another question though, should he good into this danger sense of a village or find another way around? Jeff felt that were was probably gonna be more of these creatures and that there most likely would come back seeking vengeance after that whole fiasco. Truth be told he actually never intended to kill either of those two, more so just scare them off.

After considering the options for a moment, Jeff decided to peek into the village cautiously and if anything gave the vibe of him being jumped he would turn tale and try a different pathway.

Jeff looked into one of the huts, letting his curiosity get the better of him. The room inside was small, forcing him to enter bent on his knees, but it was rather sparse as well. There was a pile of black berries near the far wall, and a small thick piece of paper next to them, as well as a crudely made bed of hay and dirt.

Having a glance on those berries Jeff's stomach rumbled for a moment reminding him it been a pretty decent while since he last ate. Almost instinctively, he reached for the group of berries and ate some before grabbing the rest of the pile to keep in one of his pockets. Given two of the hyenas were dead now anyways so its not like they would be needed the food as much or at least that's what Jeff told himself to make himself feel better about the whole ordeal.

After leaving the hut Jeff scanned the area one last time to make sure nothing else of interest was around and then decided to head out. At this point, Jeff was really hoping that perhaps he could find way to other humans. Friendly, or at the very least neutral ones perhaps, but with little idea where to head Jeff decided to pick a random direction and stick with it, being that said direction didn't backtrack him to the gorge.

As Jeff left the hut, somebody was standing outside, near the center of the trio of housing complexes. It was a tall man with snow-white hair that was tied back in a braided ponytail. He wore a dark cloak, and had no shoes on, but faced away from Jeff and stood on one leg for some odd reason. "Oh ho-hum," he started in a sing-song voice. He then bent backwards and landed on one of his hands, bridging his back as he stared at Jeff with an up-side-down smile which revealed two sharp canines. "You ate the berries, didn't you?"

---

The man rose back to his feet and began walking towards Jeff, snickering to himself. His under-shirt was covered in blood stains and clung to his thin figure like plastic, and his pants did the same, ending at his ankles. "Confused? I would be, no- No I wouldn't! I'm no fool, not me! But you- You hungry little lad, you've just ingested a particularly unhealthy berry!"

'Well shoot. An idiot as always eh Jeff?' Those thoughts rang though his mind over and over, given he would have seriously thought it weird for Hyenas to keep poisonous berries.

"But that doesn't make sense.. ugh though this entire place hasn't made sense since I've discovered my wind powers. I mean those puffball Choofa creatures, buff mask people who kill villages for fun, Hyena people, and now the berries and you." Jeff felt the urge to ramble on about the mess he somehow gotten himself into, but decided against it. It was clear that Jeff at this point was more on the lines of not sure what to think or believe at this exact moment.

"Who are you anyways?" The inventor asked the man as he stepped back due to feeling a little cautious cause of the blood stains this guy's shirt had on them.

"Me? Oh not a whom, but a one! One whom, dare I say, defies the very essence of what makes one whom one is!" The man said with varying pitches in his voice, "Damien Valefor, though all who address me, do not live to say it again! Call me Vale, as it may be more suitable to your lifespan, I assure you. Now, those little berries in your stomach... You may want to find a way to remove them post-haste! Within an hour, the magic within will begin to corrupt your mind, and perhaps, your body as well, ahaha! Wouldn't want to end up a beastly little thing like those poor little Hyena brothers, would you?"

"so that's why they are insane..." Jeff said as he thought of ways to deal with the poison berry solution. Sadly and to very much of his disinterest, Jeff only could come up with one and he really was not a fan of it. "Yeaaaaaahh.. give me a second on that.."

Upon saying that the inventor depressingly walked behind one of the huts not wanting to do what he was going to do in front of somebody and proceeds to open his mouth and poke his Uvula with one of his fingers and thus causing him to well puke. The sounds of disgust echoed through the camp for about a minute or so before Jeff came wandering back to Vale holding his stomach in discomfort.

"You wouldn't happen to have any sort of food which could get this horrid taste out of my mouth by chance?" Jeff muttered sickly.

"Hardly," Vale spat, disgusted by Jeff's actions, "But you've met with the Choofa! What a wondrous day, I'm so relieved!" He cheered, raising his hands in joy. "Fate is a wondrous thing! So Wondrous! Jeff! My blade hungers for fate, and you have reached a point where I may be of service to your oh-so-horrid little existence. You wish to be a hero! This is true, yes?"

"Worth a shot." Jeff said as his stomach grumbled again in discomfort. Thoughts filled his mind with the questions on whether perhaps maybe those Hyena's he killed would be worth eating instead, but the fact the berries made them like they were told him otherwise.

Upon hearing Vale mention the Choofas, Jeff attention returned to Vale once more and curiosity about this man once more caught his eye. Then mentions of his existence being horrible and other such words once again made him unsure of this man's intentions. Quite a confusing fellow really.

Deciding to respond with an answer, Jeff said "Well, if wishing to bring down that mask man and preventing other people from suffering from any similar events to that of my village makes me a hero wannabe, then I suppose so."

Vale shook his head and snickered loudly, before looking back to Jeff as all the tension in his face melted away, replaced by a void expression. "Ra'Ja'Ka didn't kill you for a reason, there is no heroism to be found without challenging his resolve. Do you realize that? Are you even aware of his power, or the power of those who follow his greatest triumph? Of course not! Aiming high will only get you killed, fledgling!" Vale shouted angrily, unsheathing an ebony, straight-bladed Katana from a sheath on his back and pointing it at Jeff from afar. The blade's length revealed two lighter circles of white details near the base of the blade, which glowed with a soft intensity. He then offered Jeff a soft smile and tilted his head to the side.

"I believe in fate, m'boy, a fate dependent on what some may consider dead magic, from which taps, oh so gently, into the void betwixt our worlds. Do you understand, me?" Vale asked, shaking his head. "You wouldn't, couldn't shouldn't! Stupid boy! Alas, I find refuge in the story which depicts the order's ejection from this universe, I mind it very much as a possible outcome! But at your hands, as you are not, not even the slightest bit, weak little boy!" Vale twisted his sword vertically and pushed it forward slightly.

"You are needed elsewhere, yes?"

"Look.." Jeff began to respond back to Vale's statements calmly letting out a slight sigh in the process. "I get it, that guy's a giant monster with incredible power who didn't even have to put in any effort to stomp literally everything into the ground. Don't worry I'm not stupid enough to go charging in and trying to defeat him the way I am now. I just want to get stronger and find a place where I can help others from other problems in the process. Perhaps a guild of sorts I could join to aid with that and a workshop where I can begin working on inventions once again. Those sorts of things."

Jeff then paused when Vale mentioned the elsewhere bit. "What do you mean by that?"

Part of him feared the possibility of being attacked and thus prepared himself to blow dirt back up into the air if he this man decided to charge him with an attack.

"Elsewhere, yes. Perhaps I can give you what you seek, though it may be a smidgen too far for a starving boy such as yourself. Hmm, but alone in the wild near the gorge of magic, you'll die anyways?" Vale pulled his sword back and withdrew it. "Head north, north my friend! Look for the guild of heroic stature, Lilian's embassy!"

"Please.. I've gone way longer then this without food!" Jeff lied with his stomach grumbling yet again to reassure this as fact. "For real though, don't count on my death just yet. I'll make it through to that guild."

Jeff then began to head off in the direction Vale spoke of before stopping a moment. "Oh yeah, thanks for the advice with the berries and for giving me a direction to go."

"Don't mention it, fledgling! I'll be seeing you around, you won't be seeing me, not all that often, but be sure, 100% assured if you would, that I will do as I am guided! Ahaha.." Vale spat, skipping off in the opposite direction gleefully. "Until we meet again!"

Jeff was left with a direction now, but where would it lead him? Who knew, especially after the bizarre string of occurrences that'd just transpired. Hopefully he had a bright path ahead of him. Little did he know, the pay ahead was bound to be treacherous..

---

Hours passed, and Jeff's path seemed to grow even less direct than ever. The grass was lush, and the trees were scattered, but he was walking without a real sense of direction. It was just forward to him.

Thankfully, time was kind to him, and on the fourth hour, he saw it. The top of a massive dome, surrounded by smaller buildings, and a line of metal towers that seemed alien to what he was used to. This civilization was more advanced than he could have imagined, but it was a little difficult to tell what it was all about from so far away..

Jeff had been walking for ages, his legs were tired and his stomach growing almost constantly to where it was nearly reaching a point now where he felt that perhaps that this Vale guy was a completely insane asshat, but that thought process was soon changed when the view of the towers reached his sight. For a brief moment Jeff just downright halted to a stop where he remained to take the view in for a couple a moments unable to really do anything else. Well until excitement took over and Jeff sprinted at top speed for the town excited to finally run into humans once again. You know, ones that were not blood covered physcos or old cave hobos.

It wouldn't be long till Jeff reached the entrance with him heading at such a pace.

As he arrived closer to the city's edge, one of the many towers was close enough to see into. The top floor had several men armed with strange weapons that looked like crossbows, but more metallic and with interesting glowing modules along their sides. They also wore armor that didn't seem familiar to him at all. As he got closer, they all looked down at him cautiously.

The bottom of the tower was surrounded by vehicles, unlike any that Jeff had seen before, and one of them drove right up to his side and halted his progress.

"Hey! Where do you think you're goin'?" A man said from the drivers side window of the SUV-looking vehicle.

"Wow...." Jeff muttered as he froze when the futuristic riding cart thing pulled up next to him. Due to the shock completely taking his focus, it made the stunned inventor unable to take note of the person inside actually talking to him. Before he knew it, he found himself examining the thing further and inspecting each and every last detail of the thing from color to material, to power sources and methods of power.

"This... this.. this is AMAZING!!!! What do you call this?!" Jeff turned to the man in the car and asked in excitement now bailey able to keep still.