Chapter 121: Blackout
"Ugh! My head"
Cabrera's eyes opened as he instinctively latched onto his aching head while his eyes darted around.
Cabrera found himself in a dark cave that glittered and wondered...
'Where am I?'
It seemed the question triggered something within his mind, causing a massive wave of nausea to hit him.
Different memories began to come together like the mending of a broken vase.
The headache only increased for a whole minute, before receding like it was never there.
Such an ordeal left Cabrera sweating and breathing heavily, his face looking downwards as he let out quick breaths in succession. At the same time, his eyes gained a bit of tranquility.
'I see, so that's what happened'
He recalled the scene of him going out of Kingsmere towards...somewhere?
Cabrera's mind came to a halt as he tried to remember, but all he came to was a blank.
The name and location of the place he had gone to after Kingsmere, Cabrera couldn't remember.
No, more than that, a lot of things that happened before that...he couldn't remember!
'Maybe I'm still a bit tired' Cabrera thought in an effort to sort out a logical answer to the situation.
But he had to throw out such thoughts when he figured out that the blank slates on his mind were more than one.
He remembered traveling with the boys on horses for a whole week, but he couldn't remember where they were going.
And it only got worse from there.
Whether they arrived at their intended destination, and whatever it was that they had done there, he didn't know, nothing came up.
After that, he recalled finding the place they were currently in...and his eyes shined!
'A mithril mine!' he figured, before calming down moments later.
He couldn't be sure, but he felt that something was missing in the memories he was seeing.
But the moment he tried to recall it, an intense headache, a notch higher than the one before, hit him.
Then it clicked in his mind, making him spring to his feet.
'Where are the boys?'
Yes! His guild members, where were they? He needed to find out what happened to him, but more importantly, he needed to find his guild members.
His brain had already started thinking about how to get out of the cave when his leg hit something.
Cabrera turned around to see each one of his boys sleeping with their backs resting on the wall, no signs of battle on any of their figures.
He couldn't help but release a sigh of relief as he calmed himself from most of the tension. Afterwards, he began perusing all the details of the cave with his eyes.
It was then that he noticed something reflecting light on his finger.
Then it hit him...
'My space ring!'
And there were two of them!
Quickly, he focused his mind and commanded the ring to bring out all that was within it.
Wind fluctuated and then rations of food began appearing seemingly out of thin air into Cabrera's arm as he arranged them on the floor.
Afterwards came food rations, armor parts and weaponry of silver-rank, and then, vials of the blood boiling potion.
After seeing that nothing seemed unusual, he found that the memories of his meeting with the Alchemists were clear.
He also remembered the functions of the blood boiling potion, and then, the memory of him collecting an astronomical debt from the sentinel also popped up along with how he had spent it.
He could recall bits and pieces of a memory where he was sitting in the guild's former base with two figures. Their visage in his memory was shrouded in fog, so couldn't see or remember their faces.
In addition, some of things that were said seemed to have disappeared from his mind, but that which he was able to remember contained how he would deal with the debt situation and some other things he was to achieve before returning to Kingsmere.
He would have to rethink those plans though, because he needed to find out what was happening to him as soon as possible.
When he was sure there was nothing to see here, he sucked everything back into his spatial ring, then proceeded to empty out the other.
Only, all that appeared in his palm was a single scroll.
'Hmm?' he suddenly got curious.
There was so much stuff in the first ring, but only a scroll in this one.
'Maybe it has something to do with the current situation?' Cabrera thought as he opened up the scroll.
The minute he did, the scroll brightened up and, as if that wasn't enough, a voice suddenly began to speak, causing Cabrera to jump back in fright, leaving the scroll to fall to the floor.
He wasn't unnerved that a voice came out from the scroll, but that the voice...was his own!
His heart pounded as he stood still for a whole minute while he calmed himself.
Thereafter, he approached the scroll, which had stopped speaking, picked it up and brought it to his face.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the brown scroll full of different markings to his full view and, like before, it brightened up and the voice began speaking.
"*Clears throat*Clears throat* If you're listening to this...Wait, what am I saying? Anyways, if I'm listening to this...Okay, this is a bit confusing. Anyways, you don't have to worry about your lost memories. It was my...your...own doing. In time, you and all the boys shall have it returned to you. Before that...eh...just make sure to follow up with the plan till the end. Hmm...you, I, might want a more detailed explanation on this, but just do as you've doing and trust your instincts. Oh yes, I don't know if you'll remember, but leave the Mithril in the mine, Nathan will help us deal with it. Don't forget to kill lots and lots of beasts and bring them back to Kingsmere. Also, another three boys died to monster attacks along the way, that's why there are fourteen. And...that's it"
Cabrera stared blankly at the scroll for a few minutes after the message had ended before suddenly bursting into laughter.
True enough, it didn't really explain the situation, but he doubted anyone other than him would word such an important message in such a nonsensical manner.
"Haa.." once he was done with his hearty laugh, he looked at the boys still asleep.
"Let's get to work"