My grandfather was a retired explorer. Meaning that he journeyed and explored through old caves and temples or ruins writing down what he found, he described almost the exact details of every spec of the temples he was exploring. He became known as The first explorer to ever visit and survive more than 100 expeditions in their lifetime. With him holding the record of 205 expeditions done with not a single piece of the expedition not recorded by him. With him also holding the shortest recorded time of being an explorer, it being about 38 years. When the norm was around 60 to 80 years. 

When asked why he chose to retire at the age of 38. He would tell everyone who asked the same story. 

“Why did I quit after my 205th exploration? Well to tell you that i need to tell you what happened that day. On my last expedition” Is what he has been stated to say. 

The story goes like this.

My grandpa was going for his 205th exploration, in an old mansion that had sunken into the earth. He found it during his 204th exploration, where he walked and crawled through an old mineshaft. Said mineshaft later entered a cave system that opened up to the mansion deep beneath the earth. 

So during his 205th exploration he attached his “EREL” or his “Explorers Retracting Emergency Line.”, as it's also called, to the opening of the cave and headed into the mansion. 

“It was something out of old tales” He would say. 

“Halls made of marble and stone. Paintings covering the walls from top to bottom.” 

“Emblems, Maps, history books in foreign languages, suites of rusted armor and storages filled with dulled weapons.”

Explorers had a tradition to never tell other explorers which destinations they went to, not even reading others' discoveries. letting the rest of the world enjoy their tales of old structures. Since this tradition has been at play for thousands of years my grandpa would never know if this place had before been discovered or not. 

So he wandered throughout this mansion, writing down every inch his eyes would let him see. taking short rests to write down all that he saw. He wandered, rested, ate, wrote, hid from wild beasts, sometimes fighting them, taking what he would classify as important items. Repeating until it was over.

Though there was something with this mansion that would make him feel stressed. The entire mansion looked fresh yet old at the same time, since the maps would indicate the building being hundreds of years old, yet the food in the pantries was fresh. There was no sign of life there except him, so he would always say it was due to arcana, but he couldn't be sure. Every hour he spent there the more nauseous he felt, it would go to such levels of him almost passing out. Yet he still persisted, even though it felt like something wanted him to leave there was also something calling upon him. 

 It had taken him three days to get through the entire mansion. So on the third day walking through pristine halls He entered the last room. Expecting to find riches beyond belief since it was guarded by a giant door and that looks so strong not even fire would melt it, but since time is cruel to all, my grandfather could easily open it with just a whack with his hammer. He could feel adrenaline build in his body as he slowly pushed the door open waiting to see its riches, but to his surprise all that was present was a desk and a sword mounted upon the wall behind it. Disappointed he walked in to see if there was something of value. 

All he would find was some old half-burned papers in an old tongue he could not understand. Leaving the notes on the desk he walked up to the sword.

It was old. He might not have been good with weapons but that he could tell. 

It had no mark to show. It was a “Clear Blade '' as they are called. Meaning it was a regular blade without any Burst modifications. Clear Blades aren't rare to be precise most people use them but they don't really sell for much on the market. 

The blade was sharp unlike any other weapon that he had seen before in the mansion. Black like the night sky, the blade of the sword was like glass. yet it seemed it could slice a mountain in half. When he reached for it, he described that there was like a wall of pressure surrounding it. 

Once my grandfather finally got his hands on it he would usually stop his story. Telling people that it was for the disappointment of nothing of spectacle to find in a mansion so spectacular that he lost interest in the field of explorers.

But that is not where the story ends. My grandfather would only tell what happens after to those really close to him. He said that after he held the sword in his hands something strange happened. He told of strange visions and voices but never told us what they said or showed. 

My grandfather told us that after that his body moved on its own and next thing he knew he was outside staring at the cold winter moon. He looked down at his hand to see that he took the blade with him. As he was heading home he heard a rumble coming from the mountains. 

“It sounded almost like something was laughing at me.” My grandfather would tell me. 

Ever since that day my mother would be subjugated to hearing my grandfather telling her to get him a grandson. Apparently he would keep telling her to get one even after she and my father met. When my mother asked him why he was so persistent on getting a grandchild and how he was so sure it would be a boy. 

“It has to be one, it must be one. Otherwise the meaning of the sword would be unresolved.” My grandfather would respond in a cryptic manner. 

Not wanting to hear any more cryptic messages my mother would leave it be, but as he said she would bear a child and that child would be a boy. 

The blade never “spoke”, as he called it, to him again and he hung it on his wall over his fireplace saying that when I would be able to wield a sword the proper way it would be mine.

Before then I never had any interest in anything, mostly since I was a child but there was never anything that would make me want to see the world beyond the forest I grew up in. So when grandfather started to tell me his stories of the sword and the world I was enthralled. I wanted to see how big the world was and I kept telling my parents this. I would ask them to take me out of the forest but I was always told that it would be dangerous, so I needed to wait. 

So I did and on my 10th birthday I got to follow my mother out of the forest. She told me to stay close to her, I nodded my head as she then gave me some coins. 

I held her hand tightly and decided to follow closely behind her. The forest was rough to walk through. The tree branches would lash onto my clothes and gently scar the skin on my legs as we would pass them. Eventually we would reach a clearing with an actual path. When we had reached this clearing was when I could see the birds that had been singing, feel the sun envelope me and I would also notice what it was that mother had brought with her. It was a sleigh full of wooden logs and sculpture from the trees that father had cut down. 

We kept going on the path that had appeared and I could slowly see the forest reach its end, but before we could reach whatever was out there my mother knelt down and said to me.

“I need you to promise me one thing Adam. Don't mention your dad or the Giants.” mother said to me.

“Why not?” I asked, looking into my mothers hazel eyes with confusion. 

“Just promise me.” she said with a stern look in her eye as she presented me with her pinky.

"Okay then. I promise." I said as i binded my pinky to hers, forming a pinky promise.  

my mother gave me a smile and brushed some leaves out of my blond, messy hair. She then put a small hood onto my head making it harder to see my eyes from further away. 

After that we continued to walk and I started to hear the voices in the distans. Then they were a bit closer and then closer and then when we exited the forest I could hear them all around me. Since what was just outside the forest that i had grown up in was a smaller village enough for maybe 400 people. 

The town was full of people roaming around. Small houses and buildings that the townsfolk lived in and worked at.

As I looked down at the village I felt the excitement building inside me. I wanted to see everything. I wanted to know all that they knew. As we began to move down the road we would be greeted by many different townsfolk that seemed to know my mother. 

I held my mothers hand tightly as we walked through the crowded streets. I could barely keep my attention on the road. 

My eyes would dart from building to food vendors to signs and to giant metal furnaces that blew out giant balls of steam. My mother noticed this and got down to my eye level. 

"Hey. I just need to make a quick stop and leave all these wood carvings that your father made and once I'm done there why don't we go and explore?” she whispered to me.

My eyes lit up and I only shaked my head in agreement to excited to talk. 

My mother went down a small alley until she got to a old door with a sign that said: 

“the fisherman's dream”.

unlike what the name would suggest it was a small toy shop. 

“Hello there Henry!” my mother shouted as we entered the shop.

"Miranda! oh i'm glad to see you” a balding gray haired old man said as he stood up from behind the counter and went to greet her. 

"Oh! And who might this little one be?” he said looking at me. 

“Well Henry this is… my son” my mother said softly roughing up my hair.

"Oh! so this is the little warrior I've heard about.” The man named Henry says smiling at me.

“So I'm guessing the father is…” Henry begins.

“Yes he is Fendriks son.” my mother says.

“Isn't it a bit risky bringing him here then, especially since members of the Uranos 

have been spotted in the area?” Henry whispers a bit louder than I think he meant to.

“That is one of the reasons I wanted to come to you. Any news on them? have they set up camp?” my mother asked him, her tone getting more serious. 

“No nothing new since the last report bu-” Henry says but gets interrupted by my mother. 

“Then we should have no problems today. Well i'll be leaving these here with you.” my mother says gesturing to the wagon of wood. 

Henry lets out a sigh and gives my mother a leather pouch with payment. Before we leave Henry gives me something.

“Something to mark your first leave out of the forest with.” he says as he hands me a wooden ball.

It seems to be some sort of puzzle. 

“It has a hidden pattern that you need to find.” Henry said to me before we left his shop.

I look confused at the wooden ball. It consists of wooden sticks that rotate with some sort of mechanism. All the thin sticks are painted in different colors and all of them are scrambled so it would either take me ages or be outright impossible for me to solve it. My mother takes the puzzle away from me and puts it down in her bag.

“Now why don't we explore a little, my little warrior.” my mother says to me as she puts her ashen blond hair up in knots.