Bloons - the quest for heroes

Progressing down the skill tree of questions

The night was closing in and I was lying on the ground in a makeshift bed. Despite the uncomfortably large pillow, I was drifting off to sleep but Benjamin was having none of that. "Hey, don't go to sleep now! I've got so much to ask you, and I may be able to offer some help too." He whispered loudly. I didn't want to deal with him now, but I didn't have any other choice so I got up and lit the lamp. With a sigh, I rubbed my eyes but then opened them wide in surprise when Benjamin pulled something out of his pocket. I watched with curiosity until I saw it light up, and realised that it had a screen. "Honestly, I'm not even surprised anymore. Did Steven give that to you as well?"I sighed. "Yeah, how did you know?" he answered with genuine surprise in his voice.  I couldn't help cracking up at how although I have no idea how he does the things he does, sometimes he could be a bit ignorant. "I just knew." 

He didn't mind my remark as his eyes were now locked on the glowing device in his hands. "Where is it...Where is it... I knew I should have made some shortcuts... Ah, here. " He turned the screen to me, revealing large text sprawled comfortably over the monitor. "I think you might know something about this, who else could 'the traveller that seeks your help' be?" I read the words, suddenly realising that they were a perfect continuation to the incomplete prophecy that had started my journey, and the last line of the prophecy: "Answers shall be found where you shelter for the night". I stared at Benjamin in even more amazement than before. Could he be the kid in the prophecy?

"Where did you get this?" 

"I 'found' it somewhere, at first I thought it was a pure accident but it must all be part of this prophecy. But the thing is the prophecy never seems complete."

"That's because the other half was in my home village, that's what got me started on this journey. How do you just 'find' something like this? There's no way a kid like you would be given it."

"Hacks."

"Hacks? How do you- you know what, I don't even know what to say anymore." 

Benjamin looked at me and laughed like I've done to him. Realising that I must have seemed quite funny just now, I blushed. "Well, it isn't every day that you meet a kid who hacks into the other half of the prophecy that nobody should know about."  

"Well, yes. Have you noticed something strange with this part of the prophecy? It still isn't complete and according to the last line the next part should be 'hidden for you to find where you visit'. I looked and realised that was indeed the case, but felt too tired to think about what it could mean. "Could I get to sleep now?" 

"Wait, already? It just got dark! How about I show you this game I'm playing? It's really cool, there's so many things you can do and ways you can play."Benjamin protested and opened something else on his device without waiting for my reply. He's doing it again, asking questions and not waiting for the answer I thought, but didn't say it out loud because I was interested in what kind of game he was talking about.

"Huh, interesting. I've never seen anything like this before, it reminds me of the role-playing pretend games I played as a kid. And what are those?" I asked after watching him play for a bit.

"Oh, that's the skill tree where you can get super cool abilities, you see each node in the tree is an upgrade and every single thing you buy unlocks two more things for you to choose from." huh, isn't that what my quest has been like so far? "Want to hear what every one of them does?" Benjamin asked suddenly. "What? No, there's so many of them!"I answered quickly but he already started talking. "This one here turns your weapon huge and lets you smash all the enemies at once, but I chose this one over here that turns it into a dagger because it lets me sneak up on enemies. The next upgrade makes the dagger poison enemies, but I don't have enough stars for that. But this one is really cool because it freezes the enemies in a giant ice cube, and they can't do anything!" I sighed, not for the first time. It was going to be a really long night.

Benjamin's device isn't a phone, it's the thing he uses for hacking in the game.