Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

Welcome back Valuren-san~

Good thing you found a safe place for her, hopefully she enjoys it there~
... I'm afraid I don't know what spirits eat though... Ask her and found out?

I wonder if Maga-san will be happy about it... We'll find out sooner or later I guess? I'll tell him about it in case he asks~

As for the snakes... Well, the people of Moon Village are probably able to clear them in case they become an issue, so it's not anything worrisome~

The reward is of 10 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points~

Take care now~

((Well, if you feel like poking him, just do so! xD

... He might not see her letter if you don't though... >.>))

 

"I seem to have completed the quest, but for some reason I don't remember the exact details. To be exact, how I managed to overpower the opponent seems to have slipped my mind---Maybe he wasn't really as strong as he was rumoured to be? How weird...Anyway, I have turned his head over to the guards already~"

Elaine ran a hand through her black hair, of which some silvery streaks could be seen. She didn't seem to have noticed anything.

Spoiler: Alternative

“So, a bandit...Eh. Let’s get this settled as quickly as possible. Hey, you there.”

Elaine was hanging around some caravans, sizing up the various groups that were prepping and ready to move up. The merchant she had directly addressed flinched, balking slightly under her gaze.

“Y-Yes?”

“Are you transporting valuables of any kind?”

“N-No, we transport mainly dried goods and firewood…”

“Then begone from my sight. You!”

“Y-Yes! We’re transporting alchemical reagents for the Doylors Magic Academy!”

“Very well. I’ll be coming with you guys, then.”

“Eh?!”

“What’s that shout of surprise for? I’ll just be accompanying your caravan for a short trip. The roads aren’t safe these days, and if the fish bites the bait, it’ll be much easier on my end. Think of me as a temporary escort of sorts.”

The merchant glanced back at his fellows, who shrugged.

"Uhm, then, on the subject of payment for your services…"

“I do not require any, since I’m the one who’s insisting on coming along. If nothing happens, good. If we encounter highwaymen, I will deal with them. It’s a satisfactory outcome either way.”

"Al-Alright…"

Elaine sat on the front of the first carriage with the driver, having unequipped anything that resembled armour and instead wearing a simple outfit that would allow her to move about with relative ease instead. A few ten minutes into the journey, once the small convoy crossed into the first forest along the way, Elaine grinned. She could see a figure sitting at the side of the road in the distance, armoured and geared for a fight.

"The fish bit the bait, all right. Alchemical reagents are worth quite a bit considering their weight, so one could say they're more than worth their weight in gold. Fufufu. Then, I'll be bidding farewell to you guys here. If you value your lives, I suggest you find a detour to Doylors."

* * *​

The fight was quite challenging at first, when Elaine was still getting used to an opponent that wielded Ki. Her body's rhythm also matched a rapier's piercing style, not a longsword's slashing style.

That changed the moment she got the hang of things, and stopped trying to force the longsword to swing as fast as her rapier did. Flinging the blade at the opponent, it was parried away easily, but Elaine wasn't very worried. Her eyes, darkening like rusting silver, blinked slowly, and she smiled thinly, without parting her lips.

"Seems like I've gotten the hang of this---Now then, I shall try it out. Hopefully you'll turn out to be competent prey, even if only a little."

Another longsword took the place of her thrown one; but while the earlier one was a common metal one, this one was black, red and grey, and glowed dimly.

“I do not like the look of that blade, lady. It’s giving me chills.”

“Oh? You seem to be able to detect the unique aura that this sword possesses. Is this the results of that Ki you're so proud of?”

Having taunted him in return, Elaine waited patiently. Sure enough, the bandit could not resist replying.

"Bring it on, then! You think this is going to be easy!"

While his taunting was still loud as ever, the bandit seemed slightly fazed by the change in the girl before him.

"Think? Well, of course I pray that it won't be the case, although reality is often disappointing. Now, if you're ready, here I come."

Elaine lunged forward, moving her sword about delicately, swinging widely. She didn't use too much force to throw her off and leave gaps in her defence, but it was not very effective waving the sword around.

Playing around; that was what she was doing.

“Your moves are useless against me if they don't hit!"

“Big words for someone who can’t move at all. Look.”

The bandit's eyes boggled as he strained, suddenly realising his newfound inability to move, freezing up mid-dodge.

“What foul witchery have you --- GAAAH!”

A sword erupting through the chest was surely among the best ways to interrupt a talking person.

“I’ll explain it to you anyway, even though words are wasted on a dead man. Simply put, I am able to paralyse someone fully, although the effects wear off once I strike the affected target once. And then there’s this sword that I can temporarily conjure up.”

The dim black light from the blade provided meagre illumination for her cold smile, as she slowly pushed the blade deeper into the wound before giving it a sharp twist. The cracking sound caused by a snapping rib could be clearly heard, even as the girl leaned in and spoke in a slow, nuanced manner.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? This isn’t my blade, even though I can summon it. I'm not sure what it's name is, but it's the sharpest blade in my possession. Of that I have no doubt.”

The bandit cursed even as he coughed up blood.

"You...bitch…!"

Frowning, Elaine raised an eyebrow.

"How uncouth to cuss in front of a lady. However, I'm a generous person, so I'll drop the matter if you surrender. How about it? I know better Ki users can temporarily suppress a fatal wound for a bit, and I've deliberately avoided going for the heart, but if you don't agree, all I'll have to do is to add another fatal wound."

"Guh...I...I surrender…"

Elaine extricated the sword swiftly, pulling it free of the flesh, upon which the bandit exhaled. The wound could be seen regenerating slowly...except that it would never be given a chance to close.

"UUGH?!"

Elaine had done the same thing, but this time the blade's exit point was right out of the bandit's stomach instead, before it was once more swiftly withdrawn, exposing the innards and splattering blood all over the floor.

“I guess third-rate fighters will remain third-rate forever, even with training, don’t they? Ah, you're not in a condition to be replying, so I shouldn’t be expecting an answer from you. My bad.”

"You...liar! You...pro...mised…"

The sword cleaved a gleaming path through the evening’s gloom, leaving behind a trail of darkness in its wake. A wet sloshing sound indicated that it had found its mark.

"Promised...what, exactly? I said I would drop the matter if you surrendered. I have not promised to spare your life, nor have I promised to let you go free. You should have known that this would be your ending when you became a bandit, no matter how strong you are, you are not above justice. Such is the end for a thief."

The lifeless body collapsed onto the floor, without the lodged blade to keep it upright.

Stepping back to avoid the squirting fountain of blood, Elaine smiled, looking down at her handiwork. The bandit---sorry, former bandit---slumped across the floor with gaping holes in his chest and abdomen, both arms chopped off. Let’s also not forget his lack of a head, which was tucked away neatly into a cloth package and was dangling from her right hand.

“Quest complete in record time, no casualties no less. Let’s go turn this in.”

* * *​

It was only about halfway back to the city when the girl paused, blinked, and looked around, confused.

"What was I doing again?"

Then she noticed the package she was holding, blood still dripping from the bottom, and realised.

"Oh, it's already over? Let's head back to the city and turn this in then. Mhm, hm~"

Spoiler: Skills Improved

[Keeper of the Sacred Sword]: Elaine can temporarily borrow Excalibur (sans Avalon) to use as a weapon due to the Stigmata of [Vivian, Lady of the Lake]. However, since the sword does not actually belong to her, she knows nothing about it's name or legend, and all it is worth to her currently is nothing more than a pretty sharp blade with no magic. Excalibur only appears in her grasp for a full minute, and cannot be summoned more than once per day.

[Voice of the Emperor] evolved into [Nightless Rose] due to the influence of [Elizabeth II of Tudor]: Same effects, same radius, same cooldown, but can be activated with a mere whisper instead of a shout.

@AliceShiki

 

Your memory is failing you Elaine-san? Well, that's troubling... Maybe some of that is related to your weird hair-color change? Might be a good idea to get yourself checked with a healer.

Well, the job seems to have been done regardless, so please take 42 Large Copper Coins and 16 Guild Points.

Take care now~

 

"Job's Done. That escaped cultist isn't a problem any more, either. I suppose it's a small world, after all."

Spoiler: Report

Suffice to say, dead bodies are very heavy. This one was no exception.

I had come across Loveric's remains deep in the Cave of the Dead, as the requester had suggested. He lie crumpled at the bottom of a long vertical shaft. The poor fool had lost his footing in the darkness and taken quite a spill, according to my reaper eye. I let out a sigh. The quest DID call for me to retrieve the body; there was no way out of this chore.

I'd like to say that I pulled some fancy reaper trick out from my sleeve and got the body up out of the shaft with ease, but in actuality I spent the better part of a day slogging that body up steep inclines, stopping to catch my breath wherever there was somewhere I could plunk it down without it rolling back to the bottom. I was almost to the top of the incline, the body and myself tucked into a slight alcove inset into the stone wall just below the lip of the drop off, when I heard voices echoing from above. I doused my lantern and pressed myself further into the shadows of the alcove, just out of sight.

From my hiding place, I could see shadows slowly dance across the opposite walls of the cave, weak flickers in the torchlight that was emanating from the tunnels above. The lights slowly got brighter and the shadows shrank as the unknown visitors approached, their voices getting louder until I could almost make out what they were saying.

Or, rather, I could make out that they were chanting in what I believed was gibberish. I couldn't make out much, the words and phrases were foreign to me, until I caught a single name that sent a chill up my spine. Manakhos.

I gripped my scythe in my hand and pressed myself even further into the alcove. I held my breath as their footsteps marched closer...closer...closer...until they were almost on top of me, then they stopped. The air was still in the cavern and, other than the crackling flames of the torches, you could have heard a pin drop. Finally one of them spoke, breaking the silence. I recognized the voice, and at the same time the small bottle of glowing green energy that was in my pocket began to hum slightly and vibrate against me. I cursed under my breath, before silently flicking the blade out of my scythe. Hooking the blade on the lip of the ledge directly above me, I quickly flipped up onto the ledge, right behind the man who was speaking to the crowd of torch-bearing harvester cultists.

I cleared my throat, and the aged cultist spun around to face me. His eyes glittered in the darkness, and just above his left temple was the remnants of a large, fading bruise. At his hip hung the same wicked dagger that had been jammed into my back only a few weeks before.

I shook my head disapprovingly.
"Well. Had I known that we would run into each other, I'd have brought you a cake, Connor."

He took a step back, eyeing the scythe in my hands.
"Oh well," I sighed, "At least you're lucky I'm forgiving enough to NOT stab you in the back, especially considering prior events."
I reached into my pocket and withdrew the humming bottle.
"However," I grinned darkly, "I've got some friends who'd like a word with you."
With that, I pulled the cork and a whirlpool of green energy erupted from the bottle and enveloped the crowd of cultists.
~ - ~
The spirits of the manor victims, finally able to have their retribution, tore into the crowd of cultists like a vicious pack of animals. The hatred and anger was almost palpable in the air as they churned through the cultists like a red-hot knife through butter. I turned back from my handiwork to Connor, who opened his mouth to speak.

*KRAK* went his ribs as I slammed the butt of my blade into his right side. He let out a pitiful gasp and crumpled to his knees.

I tut-tut-tutted, "No, no, no, Connor. I don't remember asking you any question, so I don't understand why you think you can speak."
I snapped my fingers and the manor spirits, having eviscerated the crowd of cultists, manifested from their glowing green cloud into a crowd of ethereal people. There were about a dozen or so, with their wounds still present on their ghostly bodies. At least one of them was a child no older than five. I grimaced in disgust.
The spirits grabbed Connor, hoisting him from the ground and dragging him to his feet. I could see that his face had paled and he prickled with gooseflesh, no doubt at the touch of so many vengeful spirits. At the sight of his comrades slaughtered, and faced with the many he had killed himself, Connor broke down into terrified sobs.
"P-Please! L-L-Let me go and I P-Promise you'll N-N-Never hear from me again!" He wailed, blubbering with terror and guilt. I laughed.

I walked over to Connor, with a sly grin on my face, and leaned close to him. My grin shifted to a look of pure disdainful hatred.
"You didn't let them go." I spat.
I turned my back to him and snapped my fingers once again. The spirits released their hold on him, stepping back to envelop us both in a circle. They linked arms and began to spin around us in a clockwise fashion, whirling faster and faster until we were in a whirlwind of spectral green energy. Grasping my scythe, I began to spin it around myself in the opposite direction, gaining momentum as the steel blade whirled in spirals around me.
"I've got someone I'd like to introduce you to, Connor," I laughed grimly, "Someone you've been trying to get ahold of for a long time."
With that, I flipped my Scythe into the air and slammed the base down into the stone floor with a resounding *KRAK* as the world faded to blackness.
~ - ~
The darkness just beyond my ring of green spirit-flame skittered with the hungry movements of a trillion tiny beasts with as many legs, stingers, and teeth each. They scampered and crawled over each other, invisible save for the occasional limb or talon or mandible peeking into the edge of the ring of light. I raised my scythe and slammed the base back down onto the floor. "Manakhos!" I shouted into the darkness.

A single fiery crimson eye blazed to life in the darkness. Nodding wordlessly, I grabbed Connor and thrust him outside of the circle of light, toward the reaper who awaited him. As the living darkness crawled over him, burrowing into whatever crevices or orifices it could find, the terror in his eyes was palpable as he screamed for help, for mercy.
"No! please! help me! someone please help me!" He shrieked, "I don't want to diiiieeee!"
Hearing this, Manakhos let out a laugh like the sound of shattering glass. He reached his long, slender arm out from his cloak and grabbed Connor, bringing him close to his desiccated, pale face.
"Nnnnneither did theyyyyyyy" He hissed, and let out another shrill, painful laugh. He opened his maw impossibly wide and, as Connor let out another scream and cry for mercy, I severed the circle and awoke to the empty cave.
~ - ~
The ring of spirits slowed to a crawl, then stopped. One by one, they all dispersed and moved on from this world, until one, the small boy, was left. Rather than disperse like the others, he shrank to an emerald green flame roughly the size of a field mouse, which flitted through the air like a firefly and ducked itself into my cloak. My job completed, I sank to my knees and passed out on the scorched cave floor, mere feet away from the remains of about six or seven liquefied cultists.

When I awoke, I remembered the body I had been sent to retrieve. I climbed back down to the alcove below and retrieved the cadaver. I dragged him from the cave and returned him to the possession of Levi. With my job done, and my strength thoroughly spent, I hopped on the back of a nearby horse-drawn cart and lay down in a pile of straw. I had beaten the cult today, but that just meant that I was on their list now. I couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't strike back harder now that I had taken severe action against them, my only hope was that, if they did decide to retaliate, they chose to leave the guild out of it. I couldn't bear the thought of someone like Aria or Pierre getting hurt because of my actions, especially not by those monsters.

Spoiler: Notes

Recovered dead body, wasn't undead. Ran into Connor (Escaped cultist) and gave Manor victim spirits retribution. Trapped Connor in Dead-world where he was consumed(?) by Manakhos. All but one of Manor spirits moved on; Small boy became Will O' Wisp and joined Yane Crezia

@AliceShiki

 

@AliceShiki

Spoiler: Cults...

Kathicia heads off in the direction of the statue to find out whether it actually is haunted whilst humming a tune from her home planet played on a hollow square box.

Arriving at the statue Kathicia begins scouting out the area looking for nice places to sit and listen in about what the men are talking about. Kathicia finds a small hole in the ground which leads into the a small tunnel under the ground. Footsteps come from behind Kathicia, so Kathicia proceeds to crawl into the crack to hide from the men. After a few minutes a large congregation is standing above her surrounding the statue.

A very quiet chanting starts from the people who are concentrated around the statue, one of them proceeds to bring forward a goat and two people whom aren’t chanting follow behind him. The man pulls out a ceremonial dagger and proceeds to push the two people underneath the goat. The woman lying on top of the man. The man then plunges the dagger into the throat of the goat and somehow flicks it so that it bisects the goat, the blood covering the two people.

The crowd yells loudly, “AVE IMPERATOR”. From her hiding spot Kathicia sees all this going on through the cracks in the ground and notices a purple smoke exiting from the statue and slowly surrounding the two blood soaked individuals. THe two individuals start chanting after the fog covers them completely and then about 5 minutes after that everyone disappears from the statue. Unseen by Kathicia a purple halo shines above, those involved except for the man carrying the ceremonial dagger. He has a quick chuckle to himself about his plans first stage already being complete.

Kathicia sneaks out from her hiding spot and raps her knuckles on the statue. The thing proceeds to crumble to the ground then on the ground it turns into a purple dust. Kathicia mumbles to herself, “well then it’s time to interrogate some cultists to get to the bottom of this! But first I should probably report to the guild about my findings so far let us see if I can get paid more for this!” Kathicia proceeds to laugh maniacally and flies off back towards the guild.

Spoiler: Notes

Kathicia found out that yes, there was a spirit haunting the statue and yes they were cultists.
Possessed cultists who sacrifice goats at that
Oh and the statues gone so I think that is a positive.

"Hey Aria um yeah the statue was possessed definitely, oh and so were the people who congregating around the statue, but yeah the statue is gone now which is excellent. But the first stage of the cult is done supposedly I thought I'd let someone with more authority do the interrogation of any involved parties." Kathicia begins laughing slightly at how she decided to not go and kidnap the leader of the cult and bring him here for questioning.
@AliceShiki

 

Welcome back Yane-san~

I see... I suppose the Caves of the Dead are the perfect place for this kind of groups... I'm glad you took care of them.

And... Thanks for the worry, I appreciate it.

The reward is of 9 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points~

Take care now~

 

Well, that's not a curse, but you did find out a fair amount of information on the statue itself, even if not much on the cultists... Good job I suppose, it's enough to count as a clear I believe~

The reward is of 8 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Take care Kathicia-san~ *bows*

 

"I'm back. *sigh* I really must be cursed in some way."

Spoiler: Quest Log

Maga walked by the sidewalk. He had been walking that road for three weeks now after he had become an adventurer. The road leads to a cathedral where the usual priest resides. However, this time, his destination is somewhat different.

“Welcome to Belethor’s General Goods. What are you looking for, dear customer?”

A young man, in a grey whitewash tunic, smiled towards Maga. Maga laughed impressed.

Maga thought that it would be best that he prepare his own cage in case the requestor, presumably a kid, did not have any on him. The young shopkeep was accommodating that Maga don’t have to look for it himself.

“Hmm… do you sell some bird cages? One for catching birds.”

He looked towards the young man and asked. The young man smiled and showed Maga some of his sturdy cages.

Of course, Maga, a man with his fishing hobby, was a sucker for quality goods. His fishing rod is made of strong and tensed rock fibers which he proudly call “Basshunter”. Maga listened to the young man’s passionate explanation and in the end bought a huge cage meant for catching an enraged mammal-predating eagles. Maga also thought it wasn’t a good idea to damage the birds beautiful feathers so he brought some bird lime and some feeds for luring it. He went out of the shop satisfied after spending 17 large coppers.

---

Maga arrived at a house near the coast. He glanced inside from a window and saw a perfectly normal family eating lunch. There was no kid in sight so Maga might have some mistakes on his assessment on the requestor. An old aunt notice Maga outside and gesture a man to go to the door.

“You’ve arrived before schedule. Please wait by the docks.”

The man said. The man wasn’t exactly that old, he was about the same age as the shopkeeper at the shop he went before coming, also Rirota’s son. Maga agreed and walked towards a small pier to wait.

Maga sat by a shade and watched the sea in melancholy as always. Maga himself is able to forgot his problems in his daily life. However, the sound of the waves, the light reflecting on the surface, reminded Maga of everything even his bitter failures.

Maga counted them one by one with his fingers. The first one was his father’s death, the second… risking his crew for a woman, and the woman who he risked for left him. The fourth, his condition almost ended up ruining others life. For any sane human, being looked upon in fear was heartbreaking… especially worse that because of it, you'd lose someone special. He felt sad thinking about Sik, but he can't do much about it. Their lives will never cross again, and even if it does, he surely won’t be able to stomach a fearful look from his daughter.

Maga stood up as he heard a footsteps coming closer. He decided to leave his problems to the sea and promised the sea, to kept what he cherish for and to never lose them again. Maga turned to face the man. Maga’s unknowingly felt a hot stream wetting his cheeks, still it wasn't enough to ruin Maga’s solemnity. The man felt astonished, the man felt no need to ask. Maga’s strength and dignity alone was enough to tell him he was more than fine.

The man guided Maga. They arrived on a white sailboat. Maga did not hesitate to ride it. He put the clatter on the ship to the side container and signaled the man with a thumb up. The man nodded and talked

“I don’t think this mission will be hard for you, but be careful. The island is full of unspeakable evil.”

“Ohoho! I ain’t an adventurer for nothing. What kind?”

“...unspeakable.”

“That’s it!? Well, whatever’s out there, this old man won’t lose. Trust me!”

Maga stood from that grand declaration. Maga’s mood turned incredibly better from sorting his thoughts out. With Maga flailing around in the boat, the man let out a small chuckle.

“I’ll take your word. Be safe, old man.”

Maga rode the sailboat towards the island in question. The island was more or less twice the size of the town. The trees are averagely large, however, it was enough to cover the interior of the island by sight.

The location was windy almost at perfect condition for sailing. The wind is coming from East South-East if facing towards the island from the sailboats location. Maga adjusted his boat about 60 degrees from the direction of the wind. It was Maga’s first time manning the helm’s wheel and the direction of the sail at the same time, nonetheless Maga was able to do the task with a slight bit of hardship.

Maga then turn the ship’s starboard facing the wind to slow his boat about 12 meters before the islands shore and pulled the rope for the sail to wrap itself. Maga let the boat move forward by momentum and disembarked at about 1 meters before the island. Just like every sailor out there, Maga had fun experiencing a different types of sailing.

The forest looks untouched. This lead Maga to an idea that the islands was somehow a religion site for the locals living back at the village, or it doesn’t make any sense for it’s forest to be untouched. Maga kept it in mind to not to keep anything but straightly went to look for the bird.

“What... is this!?”

Maga, the moment he stepped on the forest, saw many birds having a variety of colorful feathers flying and frolicking on the treetops. They were chirping happily without a care for the world.

Maga felt a sweat on his cheeks, he have found the reason why the forest was kept out of outsiders.

“This, is probably a bad idea.”

Maga, with a gulp, decided to continue his quest. He set up a classic trap of a basket topped up by a twig tied to a string. Maga laid down the feeds and set the basket. Not even a second has passed, the birds have already rushed towards the food without minding Maga who was still beside the trap.

Maga shoo-ed them away but they were heavy on their toes. In the end, he had to grab one of those rainbow bird and shoved it on his basket. He ran out of the forest with the bird in tow and jumped towards the sailboat.

Maga never felt as guilty in his entire life. As a response, he was regretting quite a bit even after he was halfway to pier.

On the pier near the village, he saw a lot of villagers waiting. His thought went awry in an extreme rate. He felt his heart palpitate strongly. But, he can’t risk being a fugitive so he sailed forward without resisting. He tied the sailboat to its place and faced the villager. He placed the basket down. He did not look at their faces but the villagers. Maga looked down, he is afraid to see faces after deciding to change before.

“Raise your head, old man. You did nothing bad.”

The man who requested it approached Maga. Maga forced a smile to keep the man away from defending him.

“Kenny is speaking the truth. Us, locals, cannot approach the island for we will be branded evil if we do so. We have been asking adventurers to capture one of the birds for the coming ritual. We are sorry to have you misunderstood our intentions.”

The village chief bowed. Maga played calm and answered, “It’s okay.” Truth be told, his mood plummeted from what he imagined the locals were gonna do. Maga forced a smile for the sake of everything going smooth and really, he wanted to go away the earliest possible. Probably, having sense that, the chief gifted Maga a whetstone and did not delayed Maga any further. Maga accepts it and returned to his home guild.

@Lenaia

 

The construct stared blankly at Maga, which was quite a feat considering that it had its face covered.

"Mr Maga? While it's not my place to comment, I do believe spending more money on the preparation of the quest than the quest reward itself is a rather counterproductive move, yes?" It shrugged. "Well, I hope you can get a refund on that, yes? Your reward, eight large coppers and guild points. Do be careful with your money now!"

 

Task: Ehhh? What a weird curse! [Available]
Requester: Lyra, the Alchemist
Quest Rank: D-rank
Rewards: 20 Large Copper Coins
Description: So... there is a curse in a certain village! However, that's rather the strange curse, it... accuentuates negative emotions.
Yup! Negative emotions? How? Why? I completely don't know! And as I don't have time to deal with that matter, I need someone to investigate for me!
Though... considering the curses, beware of the villagers and don't hurt them, it's not their fault...
__

"Well... I am... Or we are back? And I apologize for many troubles. I have badly done my job... My personal life was too involved. And I was way too careless.", he did not know how to say it as Hornety was accompanying him. Looking around, Hornety felt a bit embarrassed, since well. She knew now about the quest, the one about driving her off the tavern and that it was Cinis' job.

"Uhm... do I have to explain why I was there or not..?", Hornety asked as she scratched her head. It was because of many circumstances, she actually wondered about how to make it look like it was only minimally the half elf's fault.
No idea. It is impossible, isn't it?

Spoiler: Finally... back.

Knocking on the door, Cinis, loudly, called out.

"Lyra! Are you there?", half a minute later, Cinis, wondered whether she was really here or not. A sigh escaped his mouth, why couldn't she say where was the village on the quest sheet? Or even its name, it was only a certain village. A bit of a waste of time but it did not really matter to him.
"Yes yes! Enter!", despite everything, the half-elf thought that she took her time to reply, but shrugged it as he pushed the door.
A scent immediately assaulted his nostrils, intruding his lungs and almost forcing him to cough.

It was rather peculiar, taking a few seconds to get used to the scent, formed by alchemical products he supposed.
"Excuse me to bother you, that's related to the quest... about the cursed village, well, where and what is that village?", handing to her the quest sheet, the adventurer immediately went to the point.

"Oops.", he heard when she realized that she didn't mention any of these, a sigh escaped Cinis' mouth, really? Waiting that she replies to him, he began to think about how he shall investigate the curse, except speaking to people, tying them up and interrogating them, he had no ideas about what exactly to do.
"Well, the village is between... The Haunted Forest and Randgriz, look!", unfolding a map, her finger was pointing at the location of the village. While it was rather approximative, it was more or less fine according to him, he could go at night and take a stroll, looking around, seeing if there was the village he was searching, or perhaps ask about it in Randgriz, that would be perfect if he got any additional informations through rumors or the such, on top of that... well, he never visited Randgriz, it might be a nice place.

"Thank you Lyra."
"Ah, and related to your previous quest, you know with the Cascade Forest, if you didn't hurry to leave... well, we could have healed you.", hearing this, Cinis' mouth opened and shook his head, when thinking about his attitude, it is true that he did not wait at all and simply left, nothing else.

"That's... my bad.", he could have saved up money and avoided giving Mary some work. Oh well. Now that it was done, it is too late.
"Hahaha~ well then, good luck with the curse~", nodding, Cinis then simply left and immediately proceed to go toward the Caves of The Dead, as always, the half-elf did not wait, he just --
"Thank you and sorry, I will bring good news hopefully."
--left after leaving some words.

What was there to say about the Caves of the Dead? He already crossed it more than twice, obviously, another time won't be too hard or so he thought. Deciding that it was still unwise to take Odio even though he knew the road by heart, he began to walk, rather peacefully.
A few hours later, he arrived at his destination and looking at the entrance, he hesitated a bit and decided to simply take another entrance, if he could have a bigger picture in mind... or perhaps he could take the same entrance and take another road? He hesitated. Feeling that his way of speaking was flawed with assumptions, as in, he is treating the Caves as if he was taking a stroll.

"Mhmmmmmmm... I wonder how I should deal with this...", after a sigh, he thought about it, rubbing his chin, relaxed wtih a calm yet pretentious heartbeat, he shook his head.
"Well, let's just assume I was pretty much lucky...", that was already better than treating these infamous caves like how he did, unawareness is one of the most significant enemies in this world, how many perish due to it? Way too many people. People take advantages of these.
And as far as his memory could allow him to, there were many peopel who wished to take advantage of him, isn't it? A bitter laugh exited his mouth as he entered into the Caves, snapping his fingers twice out of reflexes.

***

Walking right in the middle of the corridor, his spine as straight as a needle, his footsteps were quiet, his eyes were seemingly apprehensives, regularly throwing a glance behind him. Afterwards, he found himself in this crossing, he remembered when he passed there with Raz, how worried were they?
Another reason to laugh at himself, however, he remembered that this time, it might be harder, after all, he has no Khopesh left, neither does he have his shield. Both destroyed against these cursed cultists, fortunately dead at the moment.

Thinking that he really should get a new sword, a sigh escaped his mouth, it seemed like he did not take seriously his own warning. Groans immediately echoed.
"Oh well, I have an idea.", taking out his book out of his backpack, Cinis planned to read it while walking, he will not even know where he is going of course. He will just avoid every noises he hear and continue to read, why? Simply to live a bit of adrenaline and--
--avoid some possible pro-empire bastards that could be following him, if he goes nowhere without much goal nor defined destination, it should be enough to lose them.

Spoiler: Some thinking about the Soul - Sonberg L. One

Does the soul make itselfs or is derived from the body?

"I would call the soul everything unnecessary to the functions of our bodies." is how I defined the fundements of a soul.
Of course, it only replies to what is the soul and does not tell from where does it come from.

When do we have a soul? When are we called human? It depends on one's point of view. For example, people who give great significance to the material aspect of the world would consider that the soul is derived from the body, with no body, there shall be no soul to begin with. It is legitimate, would I even be here to speak about souls if I didn't have a body? Or is that beside the point and does not serve the argument? It is a question. But beforehand...
We need to oppose the spiritual aspect of ourselves to the physical one, else we won't be able to reply from where does the soul derive.
We can not speak about the origin of something without speaking about everything that is related to it.

First, is the soul separated from the body? I would expose different opinions.

Can you imagine yourself in another body? Quite easily, there is no issue with it, you can imagine yourself to be anything physically different, an animal as well as long as you have enough knowledge, you can imagine to be in any body. What if I was ten meters talls? What if I had only one eye? How would be my vision? All aspects we can imagine.
However, can you imagine yourself with another soul? At this moment, it is difficult. How would you imagine yourself with another soul? A different personality? It could be a jester's act, a mental disorder or such... there is nothing you can imagine, you can not get away from your soul, with imagination that is.
Then, perhaps, we can say that the soul is imagination? And what is imagination? The ability to cut reality and mix different portion of reality to create something new from something that already exists. So what then? Is the soul still linked to the body?
Is imagination impossible without our own body? No, don't we have ghosts down here? Do they need a body?
Does the soul need the body? It doesn't seem to be the case, with this, the soul does seem to separated from the body, having no real necessary ties. Thus, we could say that the body is like a prison that we can't get out, and imagination is just the window that allows us to look outside.

How would we differentiate the body from the soul? I would like to quote someone, unfortunately, I do not remember the name and my library was burnt down, thus I cannot verify.
"My soul is like the captain on his boat in a downpour, a tempest that can not be stopped.", I am not finished.
"However, as close as I am to the boat, I feel what the boat receives, a tear in the shell, the wind ripping the sails... my soul feels everything the body feels."
Our souls are so close to our bodies that we finished by confusing them, what our bodies feel, our souls feel these... our souls might be necessary to the body, however, these unecessary ties became so close that they are confused with out five senses which is why torture functions on us.
We could take as for example, emotions, can we live without emotions? Can you imagine living without emotions? Maybe, but how much of a bother would that be?

Then... the soul? The body? They are the same thing in the end, like a coin, on one side, you see the materialistic aspect of the world, the ones related to your five senses.
On the other side, what do you see? The rest, everything that isn't related to your five senses. They are one, we just separate our own being in two because it's easier to figure out something once they are categorized.

Then, what about my opinion then?

Spoiler: Caves of the Dead

Deciding to stop reading, Cinis looked up and realized that he really did not know where he was, what he knew? Is that he was in an unknown corridor he never crossed before. And that he avoided every noises he heard.
With his memory, given time, he would be able to trace the road he has taken to arrive there. Does he have the time though? Of course not.
It seemed that he could not feel eyes lurking on his person as well, this feeling of being unobserved was reliving.

'Alright, just gotta find a new exit now...', he could say that he still went forward, he had two choices, either to go East or to go West, in any case, he needed to go South.
Going forward, Cinis was still thinking about what he has read, slowly, it seemed that it will become an obsession for him, his mind was filled with questions, he wished to read more, however, he did not have the time nor does he have the wish to spend all of his time on reading.
Restraining himself to sit and begin reading slowly became more difficult, as loong as it was not impossible to deal with.

Exhaling a deep breath, the adventurer wiped his fronthead, everything felt heavier, his throat seemed to convulse as well, he needed to restrain his coughs.
Was it the effect of the curse? Mentally speaking, it seemed that he was feeling pretty fine, as for his body... it seemed that it was something else. His skin seemed to be paler now that he thought about it, not as pale as a corpse but almost.

Alright, he thought that he may need to leave as quickly as possible, the curse seemed to have been triggered and its effect was decupled once he entered the Caves? He supposed.
Accelerating his pace, he began to run forward, that was the only way he knew. Groans, screams, shouts, rumbles intensified and echoed, becoming louder and louder, closer and closer, it seemed that Cinis made too much noises. A real issue, or so he thought.
Running as quickly as he could, still forward, drawn weapons, in front of him was a swarm of dozens of Undead... were they all concentrated here? Why are they all in one place and not spread? Something's wrong. But did he care? Of course not.

Instead of changing roads, going right or left, he continued to go forward, he even pushed the limits of his legs, going quicker. Was there too many undead to pass through? Don't know. Was there a chance for him to survive? Don't know. Was it suicidal? Maybe.
As always, he put himself into danger. Pressuring his body, the curse forced him to cough, a smile appeared on his lips.
This feeling, this danger, it has been a while, he has been avoiding this since too long. Indulging himself in danger, on his own, according to his will, it was something he loved--

--just too much. Peace? While he wished for it, it disgusted him, contrary to his family, fighting became a part of his life, struggling was just a daily activity he could not get rid of.
Or so he thought, perhaps, he was still too young and impulsive, or was he catching up to his non-existent childhood? Unless childhood is torture, that is.

Stomping on the ground, his muscles screamed as his body leaped, leaving the earth, crossing the swarm of undead through jumping, an awful idea. After all--
A light flickered, a magic spell was chanted.
--Skeleton mages do exist.

Clicking on his tongue or not as he did not have the time, mid-air, at barely one feet above the swarm, almost hitting his head against the ceiling, he had only one solution.
Get down to earth.

Using the ceiling as a backing, with his palm, he pushed himself and dove, crushing against the undead, rolling on them.
Trying to get back on his feet, his legs kicked into some undead and forced them to trip. Stabilizing himself, he then sidestepped, charging into a zombie as another fireball passed beside him, burning its comrades. The scent of burnt fleshes began to disperse into the dungeon.
Realizing that the people that could be following him could track him, he decided to make his legs scream even more.

Sprinting once again, he go out of the swarm while still going forward, throwing a dagger forward, against one of the two skeleton mages, it destabilized one, it sidestepped and stopped its chant. Offering him a way to avoid future burns, another rush wouldn't be too bad, right?
Creek.
Something has ripped as he rushed past the two skeleton mages, blood began to flow along his leg. Did his leg got caught by someone? He did not know, considering that he did not have the time to check it out, he kept treading his way forward until his lungs exhaust, until no oxygen is left in this damned body.

Feeling a air flow from his left, he immediately followed it, while the thought that it could not be the exit crossed his mind, he thought that it should be fine as he does not know where he is anyway, neither does he have the time to review all the passages he has taken to arrive nowhere.
Some dozens of meters away, he found himself in a crossing again, two roads, and both are windy, as in, he could feel air coming from both. Without thinking it through, he simply went to the right road and--
--almost fell into a trap. A hole, seemingly bottomless, probably leading to an undergroud or death, one of the two.
Nevertheless, he crossed it, the exit was forward, he knew, a trap to dissuade the person to go the other way when the light is just forward, quite basic.

Five minutes later...
Feeling the air brushing his skin, Cinis felt refreshed as he bathed into the light, how relieving.

"Aaaaah, lucky once again.", or so he thought. It could have been more complicated, nevertheless, rushing toward the South and then searching toward the East seemed to be a good solution, as long as he went forward, be it diagonally or not, it wouldn't be too hard to exit as there were many different entrances and exit.
Checking on his leg, he noticed what was wrong.

"Ah... the skin ripped.", that was odd, it did not happen in a while. A sigh escaped his mouth, it will heal by itself, just need to rest a few days then he would be fine, isn't it?
Seeing that there were guards in front of him, who were staring at him, the corners of his lips lifted.

"Hey--"

***

A hour later, the adventurer found himself with an old friend, the guard captain, Rustis was here. Poor guy, he had to tag along with Cinis a second time, to injure his ego a bit further, he introduced himself.
"My name is Cinis, D-Rank Adventurer, coming from the Northern Holy Empire of Men, after reading some archives, I decided to flee.", the work 'archives' particularly irked Rustis, however, what could he do against him? Except nothing that.
Exactly, he can't do anything, if his identity is revealed, he might become homeless, forced to commit a crime to have gain at least a shelter in prison.

Quite ironic when you think about it, after all, what is Rustis at the moment? A guard captain, isn't it a pretty good role? While that is still a rather low role, that's better than being a common soldier, his life is cozy and quiet, safe from any possible attacks toward him. Life is easy for him.

"Well, then, mind if you tell me everything you know about three people and some Empire spies?", and that is when the information extortion
Empire spies... nothing about it, they are just so well-hidden, and Rustis' rank never was really high, so he doesn't know anything about it, nor can he even know anything.
Then, about three people? Rustis thought it was way too vague, once Cinis described their physical appearances, he felt surprised.

"Some people already asked me about this, related to a report made by one of my colleague, not gonna end well for you..", that's not good. However, it meant that they were here, the half-elf did not ask for much more as he knew that Rustis had nothing to do with them, he said everything he knew to the Adventurer.
"Well, then, thank you, while you did not have the choice, you did not hide anything and were honest.", saying this, the former young lord patted on the guard shoulder and let out a sigh.

"Where you can me drop me? Somewhere relatively near to the Haunted Forest."
"Randgriz, perhaps... Aspholdeus.", for some reasons, Rustis seemed to be reluctant.
"Mhmm, let’s go with Randgriz"

Between Randgriz and the Caves of The Dead, there was around two hundreds of kilometers, a carriage will go at six kilometer per hour, so, if the carriage keeps rolling all day with reasonable rests, they will reach in around four days. He thought that it was a fine time and that it should not be too hard.
"Alright, Rustis. In carriage, right?"
The guard captain simply nodded, he did not say much, quickly, they got on the carriage and departed toward Randgriz. After a sigh, he explained why he could go there.

"I have many things to report to my superior... usually, I go to Randgriz for that. I can go to Aspholdeus as well, but I usually avoid this city and its superior, I just send a letter instead. So Randgriz is more convenient for me."
So, that was why he said Randgriz at first and seemed to hesitate on Aspholdeus.

Later on, both of them were on the carriage, from his mouth, an order escaped his throat.
"Rustis, you drive the whole day and switch with some of your guards from time to time, I will sleep, and for the whole night, I will keep an eye.", hearing on which tone Cinis is speaking, Rustis gritted his teeth and rudely insulted him,
"You damned cunt, can't you just shut up?", the half-elf ignored him and decided to sleep for the whole day.

***

The first day and night were rather peaceful, sleeping all day and guarding the camp all night, nothing wrong happened, it was strangely noiseless. It somehow stressed Cinis. This silence made him more apprehensive
However, nothing happened, everything was rather peaceful.

On the second day and night, everything was the same, since it happened already once, Cinis could relax but stayed attentive to the surroundings, often wandering around the camp, the bolt readied in the crossbow, inhaling and exhaling deeply.
Exactly the same, nothing happened.

Then, on the third day and night, some noises could be heard, he became even more attentive, gladly, after quickly investigating, he noticed that there were just some animals that seemed to be attracted by the light. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth.
Just in case, he reported this to Rustis who simply shrugged to it, to him, it was completely normal. Assisting to this reaction, Cinis went back on sleeping on the fourth day.

Nevertheless, this night was different as well, he felt eyes, yes, eyes observing him, something was there, no, someone was spying on them, or so he thought, he wished to call out. However, he already knew what’s going on.
Closing his eyes, his heart calming down, as quiet as a lake, the scene was prepared.

"Ah, finally arrived, Rustis, thank for nourishing me these few days and also for the quick travel, it really helped me out.", respectfully nodding to the former young lord, the guard captain, sweating, could only bow down to the might this bastard has been presenting.
Leaving, Cinis searched a tavern. It was rather easy, once he entered into it, he took an empty table in the corner and waited that some people come up.

'As expected.', two people entered into the tavern, both in a traveler's outfit, when their eyes met each other, they nodded and sat beside Cinis, afterwards, they ordered one cup of beer each of them. They spoke about mundanities first, to divert the attention, just in case they were suspicious.
"Haha.", laughing, Cinis played along with them, speaking about the good ol' time, when he was a child and such.

"Well then-- what about Father? How has he been doing?", he asked on a sarcastic tone after drinking the rest of his cup in one gulp.
"Eh, that goddamn cunt wants you back, though, a bit different than before... like, a little bit of freedom y'see, he even prepared a--"
"--a house in a shantytown on the border. Damned bastard."

Border? Shantytown? What a prestigious post! Or so he thought.

"Ain't that a bit stupid? Or more like... err... impossible? I mean, who would accept?", his voice seemed to be louder and stunk with even more sarcasm.
"Ye, which is why he thought of a trading currency... y'know, he decided to accept your fiancée's siblings.", and now it made a little more sense, basically, he would leave alone the three of them, but is there no proof?
"Actually, one of her sibling is with us, right now, she is at the hostel."

"Hahaha, well then, let's go see her, been a while."

Terrible. Worry began to assault his heart, so they were having a hostage? How did... A sigh escaped his mouth. How should he proceed with that? An hostel? Where?
In Randgriz?

"Oi. That's not this wa-"
"Hahaha! Well then, that was some nice joke there."

Of course, he would act as if he isn't believing them, he would just shrug it off. Then, they would have to show a proof. Or he could make them spill the truth.

"Come on, y'know that we aren't lying. I mean, I am not eloquent enough to lie, so."
"Even so, I don't believe you, sending proofs don't work as well. You are good enough to replicate stuff to its almost perfect state."

At this point, they did not know how to convince him. To think he would deny anything they might present unless it's the real deal.

"Alright, gotta work, so I am going.", planning to leave the city, they felt irritated by his attitude, they need to continue follow him because they have to keep an eye on him, in case something happens. Afterwards, did they really have her? Or it was just bluff? How to discover this? It was hard to deal with that ambiguous matter.
The most simple way, however, is the most violent one he thought. Isolate them, stab them, make them spill the beans and get the information. Is that reliable? Not completely.

Some dozens of minutes later--
Outside of Randgriz, one of the two spies died, there was only one left, the alive one had a smile on his face and was quite far away from the corpse and Cinis' blade and crossbow.

"So so so, I suppose that you already expected this, right?", still with that same sarcastic tone, he spoke to the survivor who seemed to be pretty calm, as if he--
"Indeed." --knew that it would happen.
"Then..."
"You think I appreciate working for that tyran?"

Good argument but unreliable. It was as simple as this. It's uncertain, thus, he will kill him. There's nothing else to say.
"She is in the village. The cursed one.", as he was reloading his crossbow, his eyebrows raised as he heard this, he stared at the spy and smiled. It did not seem to be a lie. Why is she there? And since they know about it, they must have some agents there, shouldn't they? And considering the curse...

"At least, you aren't lying.", after knocking him out and sparing his life, the half-elf stretched his legs and began running toward the village. Look like he will have to delay his sleep, eh. How annoying. This kind of inconvenience was quite bothersome.
Oh well, Hornety was way more important than this. His acts are all focused on that point.

Spoiler: Quest

Around twelves hours later, after the day passed, Cinis could see the village from afar, there was quite a lot of light it seemed. They had a huge fire camp for the whole village, and there were people shouting.
How many? Three dozens of people.
Strength? Unimpressive.
Something odd? While all of their houses are in wood and seemed ancient, there is one that seem to be made out of wood, but also rock. Either that's the mayor's house, either, it is recent.

Taking out his crossbow, loading the bolt, he rested a few minutes, taking a dozen of deep breath before grasping this opportunity. The scent of blood peacefully entered into his nostrils and lungs, whispers began to harass his eardrums, his saliva felt viscuous.

Nothing could wait.
Rushing, the half-elf, still with the crossbow in his hands, he did not hesitate to use any unethical means. If there was one of these villagers facing him or in front of him by accident?
"What?!", pushed away, the first villager rolled on the ground, bumped by the stranger who ran toward the fortified house. Stunning him, he did not realize what was going on and needed a few minutes to assess the situation before reacting. It largely gave him the opportunity to break in. It had one floor and one floor underground. Glancing through the earth floor, the half-elf did not care about the rest and immediately descended.

It was a storage room. Looking around, people who were inside quickly noticed him. Saluting them, Cinis then asked.
"Is there any stranger who came here recently excluding me?", pointing his crossbow at them, he immediately threatened these villagers. It was the quickest method according to him, if they wished to stay alive, they would immediately spill the beans unless...
Taking a wooden bat, one of the villager attacked Cinis, backstepping, he understood what was going on. The curse happened to mess up with his head. Fortunately, he could not warn alert people, no matter how much he hurt his throat, there were too much noises outside, they were all--
Right, he did not pay attention, but what were they doing around that firecamp? His memory, for the first time of his life, seemed to be blurred.

Something was completely wrong. Him? Having a blurry memory? Either that was his own curse, unlikely since it only happened now, he supposed that it was due to the village's curse. Quickly ascending, he got on the first floor and noticed that there was only a corridor with three doors on each side, three at the right, three at the left.

"He arrived!"
And-- there were five guards. Five people who seemed unaffected by the curse considering their calm demeanour. Perhaps they were affected but they could keep their mind like him. Noticing this and feeling his spirit slowly crumbling down, his breath became even more agitated and he shot, yes, he shot, the bolt lodged into the first one throat.
He needed to kill them all, that was all he knew.

Taking them by surprise with this first bolt, he had the time to load another one and murder another one of them with ease. Then, there were three left to kill. Time to draw out the Sica and a dagger. How should he deal with them? While they were in gambeson, they all had a shield and a sword, albeit cheap, it was still bothersome to him, they had much more ways to defend themselves, long weapon and a shield, while, what did he have? A crossbow and daggers.
Wait, he also had... the bow, way more practical in such a closed space. Backstepping while shooting, that's the plan.

Seeing that they were advancing toward him, he threw his crossbow, drawing his bow, preparing his quiver, he backstepped, avoided a vertical slash and shot two arrows, killing one of them, one miss out of two shouts.
Now that there were only two left, it was doable to kill them with his dagger in this closed space.

Three dead out of five.

Feeling the need to go forward, to finish this slaughter the most quickly possible.
He advanced, he lowered himself and kicked into his ankle, forcing one of them to fall down to the ground while the other rushed at him. With no hesitation, he used his Sica to block the strike, of course, it did not work, he only decelerated the slash. It plunged into his right shoulder.
Seeing the blood flowing out of his body, he used this momentum to rise up and slit this cunt's throat. Turning back, he kicked the last guard's face and threw a dagger that stabbed his throat.

Five down.

Taking his equipment, he quickly began to check each room, the three on the right were empty, then at the fourth one, he found someone sleeping on the ground. A drunkard.
A sigh escaped his mouth, nevertheless, he continued to hurry and in the fifth room... he found her.
Hornety, she was tied but it seemed that she was peacefully sleeping.

"Alright, alright, alright... now, time to deal with that quest.", his hands were trembling, he clicked on his tongue, took out a roll of linen bandage and decided to patch up his right shoulder as a temporary measure. He tried to remember his quest, yes, remember.
Now, every memory he had became blurry. This quest was worse than expected. It was easier to get angry and panicked, he could at least notice that.

"...investigate, right, investigate.", stating out loud what he had to do, Cinis immediately proceeded to deal with it. How should he investigate with these savages down there? Rubbing his chin, he--
--forgot to take the time to think about it. He needed to find out one thing. When is the curse the heaviest? Is there something that trigger it? A climax in short.

Clattering teeth, Cinis hurried himself and decided to put himself in danger, even more than usual, he did not think the curse was that significant and that his mentality would be that endangered once he entered this place.
As he could realize he did not have the time, when did he figure out that something was wrong?
Outside? No, the underground was the reply, right, the underground. How did it look?... A storage room and..?
That's all? He could only remember it was a storage room? What was the color of the ground? The wall? The ceiling? He did not know, now, that was worrying.

Having no time to spare to his own emotions, he rushed to the underground and remembered the villagers were violent down there.
Avoiding the strikes, his eyes wandered in the storage room, in which there was a dozen of wooden pillar, a rocky ground, a lot of jars and barels... and a painting. It was the image of a raft, a crowded raft caught in a tempest, people were falling over the raft. He approached it. And his head began to ache.

"The source...", the climax, he supposed. His emotions spiked to a point it never reached. Feeling this urge, he immediately left before falling to this temptation, to crush everything around him, to vent, to let his body rage the place.

"Haaa... Haaaa... Haaa...", a painting was the cause of this curse? He needed to double-check if it was only that or more than that.
Going outside, he noticed that a few villagers were-- ah no, they weren't going there, that's it.
Everyone was fighting each other, kicking, punching, slapping, stabbing... they were... no, there was nobody stabbing each other, why did he see that? It was too much.

Checking another house, a simple one this time, fully in wood, he looked around and once he approached the used pan, his headache intensified. There is another source of the curse? Lifting the pan, he noticed... silverware, and when he attempted to touch it. His whole body froze, panicking, he almost screamed and fell on his back. Breathing deeply, he tried to keep his cool and left the house as he held his scream by biting his head.

A third time, as they say : "Once, that's alright, twice, that's a coincidence, thrice, that's a conspiracy!", if in three houses, there were three time the same climax, he could assume that in each house, there was one item that trigger the curse, that is a source of this corruption.
Breaking into another house, avoiding every villager that was fighting, he looked around and noticed an unique object that should not be here. A book. Indeed. This time it was a book.

A laugh exited his mouth, he carefully poked the book and--
It happened again, his murderous pulsions rose to a point he could not control anymore.
The blood on his hand kept flowing more and more as his teeth sunk deeper into the flesh as time continued to flow toward the abyss.
It was almost as if he was... chewing his own hand.
Feeling the taste of his own flesh, his mind regained clarity and-- he puked everything he had eaten until now.

Looking at his hand, he was glad, it was not as bad he thought, he did not chew it, no, it was just an impression.

"Damn it...", optical illusions, it was his own curse this time, it was unrelated to the village's curse. But what if he did not realize what was going on? What would be left of... dismissing that thought, but also forgetting it, he knew he had nothing else to do here, the mystery was solved, he needed to flee.
Flee from this place and rest as much as he could, sleep, right, it missed him, he needed to sleep.
"No! That... what, what is I...", this exclamation came from the depth of his mind, nevertheless, he could not understand it, no? Why? Shouldn't he leave?

"Hor..." Horn? No, he never had any horns, what was the problem- Horne-
"Hornety, Hornety...", that's it, he had to pick up Hornety. Realizing that he almost forgot her, he cursed at himself before rushing toward her, going to the most luxurious house, no, the less shabby house, none of them are luxurious... no, that's not it, right? Whatever. The point was that she was inside.

Climbing the upstairs, he entered into the sixth room and noticed that there was nobod-
"Wrong room..."
-before realizing that he opened the wrong door, few seconds later, he opened the third and second door before opening the right one. Carrying her like a bag on his shoulder, relief spread into his mind, he could finally leave.

After a hundred of meter away from the village. The burden imposed on his mind seemed to be pulled off. It was way more dangerous than he expected... did the curse was initially badly evaluated or..? Did it intensified during the time five days he needed to go there? He did not know, but he knew what were the sources of this curse.
In each house, there is a cursed item, an item that shouldn't be in such a shithole, painting, silverware, book... well, only three confirmed. And all of them form the village curse.

"Haha...", he could see a light, a carriage was going toward him. On it, guess who there was? Rustis, indeed, it was Rustis.
"Tch. It was a good idea to follow you, wasn't it? You were so suspicious that I felt obligated to stalk you. You meet two guys, kill one, knock out the other, then, you go to a cursed village, come back all bloody with a little girl on your shoulder. I guess my guts were right to say that I needed to follow you. Come in, you bastard.", spilling a sentence before telling him to go inside, Rustis felt nothing but disdain, but now, he knew. Yes, he knew who is Cinis. Thank to the spy he left alive.
Look like this cunt had a harsh life, he thought that it should not be too bad if he helped them.
Afterall, they did need his help, on top of that... if he could take his revenge on him, it would be great. What happened to the spy he left alive however? Of course, Rustis killed him.

"You... I owe you too much.", he said as he went inside the carriage, holding tightly on Hornety.
"Do you mind if--"
"Yes, I mind, so don't sleep and stay awake for the five days to go to Kuro's Mountain Crossing Service. You have the money, anyway.", he did not care about the money at the moment, he only cared about his and her safety. The only person he had left at the moment, who was at his side during these weeks? Nobody.
But from now, from today... ha. He has Hornety.

"...thank you again. If you have any favor to ask me, I will help you. Anything I can for you.", claiming this, he looked straight at Rustis who felt a bit embarrassed by these eyes, it was the first time he saw them. While they seemed a bit empty, they were as clear as the lake's water.
"Heh... so even fiends need rest.", or so he said when the carriage began to move.

""..."", afterwards, none of them spoke. Cinis was too concentrated on caressing Hornety's cheek with a silly smile while Rustis felt weirded out by this atmosphere, his face was way too... errr... innocent? No, he could not say that word for that cunt... can he?
"...thank you, thank you."

It was even worse for him once he heard Cinis, slowly slumbering while leaving some last words before going to the other world. Helping him was originally a trap to hurt him more but now he did not have the will to do so.

Thirty two hours later, the adventurer awoke from his sleep, still holding on Hornety, asleep as well. Something felt off again.

"...finally awake you damn cunt, ride the carriage, I am gonna sleep.", with eyes injected with blood, Rustis ordered him. Understanding the situation, he issued no complaints, only thanks, the carriage was stopped, there were some soup and meat jerky. It seemed that he nourished Hornety with the soup while she was asleep.

What could he do? Only trust him.

Spoiler: Unreported

Twenty hours later.
Hornety woke up, however, she did not say a word, and reacted like a zombie.

"Hornety, Hornety... it's me, It's Cinis.", the half-elf tried to call out to her, checking her forehead, he noticed that she was burning, she was probably sick. A sigh escaped his mouth. She was sick, Mary. That was the only situation.
"Eeeeeee... mmmmmm...", these were the only noises she could do in the frail state she was.
Horrific, he will have to help her regain her capacities as quickly as possible.


Forty hours later, they arrived at Kuro's Mountain Crossing Service. Hornety regained some abilities, she could talk as for now, only one thing was a problem. Her memory was blurry, she could not remember anything properly.
"Ci.nis. Are. you. al.right?", he was not feeling any better as well. He could feel it, his curse strengthened way more than he expected, this feeling was exactly what he searched, however, the circumstances were not good at all.
"I am fine, just feeling sick.", he patted her head, she did not react, she just stared at him, as if she was decoding his words, knowing that he was lying but didn't mention it.

"Oi, Cinis, the boat's ready. You gotta pay 1 Silver because of... circumstances, yeah.", that was way more than he expected, he shrugged it. Rustis did not explain, despite this, he had all of his trust. He simply handed 100 Large Copper Coins to Rustis who then paid for both of them.
"Well then-- have a safe trip and come back any time.", for some reasons, Rustis seemed to have been softened toward Cinis. While he would not explain, the adventurer could feel it, knowing this reassured him.

"See you soon."
"Bye bye Mister Rust~", hearing her childish voice, Cinis chuckled and proceeded to go back to the Guild.

And then, they climbed.
Of course, Hornety, while riding the boat, was sleeping, but once she woke up, everything came back to her. As it was unrelated to the quest, he thought that he should remove every part related to Hornety.
"Ah, Cinis...", the first thing she did was hugging him. Look like they will have a lot of speak about but for now.
"...thank you for returning.", since she wasn't with Liya and Aelia and that he was not threatened by mentioning them, it meant that... she wished to return but not them, right?

@AliceShiki

OOC: I think that now I will always, like always start my quest when I take it instead of on the last days....
And well, sorry for the quest, it is a completely huge mess I did hurriedly.
Planned too many things but started too late. (Today at morning basically)
That's time for SS.

 

"Um.. I don't know if I should report this privately...?"

Spoiler: A bird?

"S..so... you are saying, it's... a bird about 4 storey tall.. and 3 doors wide?"
"Yeesh! It'sss what I'vvvve been teeelling youu!"
"A..and... it's ate 3.. of your cows?"
"Haaaaven't I told aaaall about that tooo the Guild!"
"U..um.. not all the detai-"
"Hah! Deeeetails! Useless stuuuff! You should juuuust do yooour work!"
"But... I need to know how it looks like..."

"It looks like a biiiird! Because it is A BIRD!" The man yelled, flapping his with his arms around... to prove a point? He seems very confident in what he says, but after many times back and forth, I concluded the creature shouldn't be a bird.
Though I still need to find out, if this thing real, so I went out to ask some in the neighborhood.

As it's turns out, there were even more livestock and... some people, that have disappeared. And it happens mainly in the day time, without any witness... unless you count my client as one.

From what I have gathered by the neighborhoods, I figured the disappearance usually happens by a grass plain, where the cows like to eat.
Well, my client was apparently nearby that spot, when he saw the bird...

While I don't want to fully believe on my client's story, I still need to find the creature and went to somewhere I think he saw it.

For the next few days, I dicided to keep an eye on the plain. As I don't hope for others to be harmed, I did my best to advise anyone from entering the plain.
Well, it was not everyone who likes to hear my warning, and this ended up with me, seeing something unbelievable...

A hole...? I think I saw a hole that opened up in the ground and it has the same color of the sky...

And... sluddenly, a giant shadow flew out to eat the livestock, while no one who has noticed what was happening...

When everything was gone, the owner didn't notice his missing cow, until I told him that.

In the end, I judged it was better to keep this a secret for now, and informed the guild of the situation...

(Hope you don't mind my lateness... and my mobile written story
@Quaesitor)

 

Spoiler: Quest Report

After Aconter took the Quest he asked about the the Directions towards "Oldspice Village" and left the Building

He took his time to prepare and thought about how to solve the problem at hand, how to deal with a flock of Cursed Birds ?
He was sure that he could shoot them down but that was one or two at a time and not a whole flock of birds no way....

He needed help!

He thought about going around to ask other Guild members but that would be to sudden at this time most were assured to be on Quest already.

He thought back on the days he spend with an old friend a Dragonewt by the name of "Rara Durai" an Excellent fighter which used KI to fight.
He met him back in the day on another assignment in his days as Assassin he was an mercenary who accompanied him on an assignment, Rara left his tribe since there was a some conflict in his tribe about how to handle the advancement of Dragonewts´s.

Since his views were not well received by his elders he left to search for his own way.
Aconter like his way of thinking and since both of them had similar preferences they chose to stick around each other for a time.

He chose to send a message to him trough an old College and ask him for help.

After he had done that he headed out towards "Oldspice Village"

Even from afar he noticed that some fields of "Oldspice Village" were ruined or at least damaged.
He spotted some feathers on the field which were a bit more then twice as big as a regular bird.

He also spotted a scarecrow which was absolutely ripped apart, piece by piece.... if this were to be regular man not much would have been left of him.

He took some time to observe the surroundings and spotted a lone bird like beast on a tree, in its claw was a piece of meat of some poor creature.

The creature had to be one of the Cursed Birds.
It had black feathers with a puff of green mixed in which pulsed trough them in a strange manner.

He made haste towards "Oldspice Village" he had to talk to the village chief.
He arrived in the Village but there was no one around it seemed like none of them dared to travel outside unless.

He wont towards one of the Buildings and asked for the address of the Village chief.
He was told his name was Isaiah and lived at the other end of town in a green striped building.

He made haste towards Village chief Isaiah´s house to ask about the situation.

The Village chief opened the door looked like he did not get any real sleep in days.
He asked annoyed: "Who are you ? And what are you doing here ?"
Aconter smiled and said: "I am the Adventurer who took the Quest you issued to kill the Cursed Birds which are destroying your fields."
Isaiah looked at Aconter and rubbed his eyes: "What someone took our Quest ? I already lost all hope, come in!"

Aconter went into the Chief´s house asked what had happened so far.
Isaiah said: "They always come out in the morning and stay nearby until the evening, in the night they seem to hunt outside the village. So far no one got really hurt except for one of our guards which protected someone else and will bear some nasty scars on his arm for life"

Aconter asked: "Did these Cursed Birds attack any buildings so far ?"
Isaiah shook his head: "Not so far, and i am happy that they did not. if they did i am unsure on what we would do"

Aconter nodded: "Well let´s hope this does not change,it is getting late and ill still have to observe their movements some more. Ah by the way do the people in your Village have Problems with other races ? Dragonewts in particular, i called another friend in to assist in this Quest and he is one"
Isaiah shook his head and said: "There are no problems that i know of but ill inform the villagers just to avoid any problems"
Aconter thanked him and went outside to observe the situation.

He went into the nearby fields and looked for anything he could use to lure some of these "Birds" to get to know his prey.

The only thing he found was a rabbit but nothing more.
He drew his bow and killed it with a single Arrow.
After he killed it he went towards a tree and hung it up on it while spraying its blood around.

He went further away and waited what would happen.

It did not take long until some of them came and picked the rabbit to pieces it was a gruesome display of these birds.

After the birds ate the rabbit all but one left to search for more prey or to rest somewhere else.

He took aim but waited until he was sure that it did not see the Arrow coming, but something felt wrong.
He did put down his bow and an looked at the bird and what he saw surprised him, it looked straight at him!

Something was wrong, why was this Bird waiting to be shot and then looked at him as he did not shoot ? He could not make sense out of it.
It just felt wrong, he decided to rather leave for the time being.

He went into a local tavern and stayed there for the night, in the morning he was woken by the screeches of these Birds which flew around the village, so far he spotted 7-10 of these Birds but he was unsure if that was all of them.

He stayed in town for three more days and observed the habits of these birds on the fields so that he could make the right decision.

While he waited he heard a commotion inside the village, he was curious what could have caused this ? Did the birds fly into the village ?
He ran back to make sure nothing bad happened.

As he saw what caused the Commotion he became happy and smiled.
He saw his old friend Rara that was surrounded by villagers which looked at him as if they had never seen a Dragonewt in their life, well most likely they had never seen one.

He called out to him:" Rara you stand out as always, did i not tell you in the past to be less eye catching ?"

Rara turned around and walked up to Aconter and bear hugged him: "Friend been to long, you need help to hunt ? No longer hunt Humans ?"

Aconter smiled: "Excuse me Rara, many things changed over the last couple years and i am also no longer an Assassin like in the past, i am an Adventurer now and here to help the Village to get rid of these Birds" he whispered "Well i am still an Assassin but not as main Occupation but psst"

Rara frowned: "So you still the same but different than before ? You humans are as always strange, always so complicated"

Aconter laughed and gestured Rara to follow him.
"Do you see those "Birds" Rara ? They are apparently cursed in some way as far as the Quest said that i took, i do not know why they gathered here but so far as i observed there are seven to ten of these Birds and possibly more"

Rara looked at the birds and said: "They do look bad, the feeling from them is bad, bad things were done to them and now they are also bad!"

Aconter could only nod to his response, he was not known for his many words he spoke but that he said what he thought no matter what it was, that was one reason why he like Rara as travel companion: "That was also my thought, so far they did nothing but ravage the Scarecrow on the field for some reason and one guard took some hits while defending a child" he turned towards the field and pointed at a tree: "I hung a rabbit on it and observed them eat it to see how they would react afterwards, and for some reason they seemed to know that i was watching them"

Rara frowned: "Bird has to be smarter then it looks, must aim for something then, have to hit them in a group!"
Aconter nodded: "I first planned to shoot them down one by one but does not sound possible, i planned to hunt them in small packs and then killing them entirely in the end"

Rara looked at Aconter: " You want to shoot them, and i squash them ?"
Aconter laughed:"Yeah something like that, as i shoot them they will charge at me and try to get me and i hope that you will help me to kill them as soon as they attack us"

The only thing Rara did was nod and followed Aconter as he headed into the Village

The two went to the Village Chiefs Isaiah and spoke to him about their plan to attack the birds.

Isaiah asked: "So you want to split them up and then kill them in smaller groups ?"
Aconter responded: "Yeah but that may irritate the birds so i wanted to ask is there a more secure building that you and the Villager could take cover in ? I don´t want that these birds attack the village or at least the villagers"

Isaiah said: "The guards house could work but how long do you think will you take ?"
Aconter: "If it goes like i planned then we only will take one morning or a couple hours at most"
Isaiah: "Well they won´t like it but it will do"

The next morning Aconter and Rara went out in the morning to hunt the "Cursed Birds"

Rara was positioned behind Aconter and ready to strike as soon as something came close.

There were two Cursed Birds on a tree pecking at the corpse of an hare.
Aconter took aim and steadied his grip, he had to make sure that the first Arrow killed its target and to shoot a second Arrow as fast as possible.

He let loose the first Arrow and almost immediately the second.
He waited for the first to hit until he would ready a third Arrow if need be.

The first Arrow soared towards the the bird, it took only a moment until it reached it hit the torso and was nailed onto the tree.
The second Arrow also drew close but this time it would not be such a smooth hit, the Bird tried to get away and the Arrow hit its wing but did not take it´s life.

Aconter shot the third arrow in haste to take its life, before the arrow reached it it screeched so loud that it must have alarmed all other birds in the vicinity!

Aconter said: "Get ready Rara this will be dangerous, ill ready my sword just in case they get closer that we planned before"

Rara and Aconter looked around but nothing much happened, that was odd.
They killed two of them but there was no retaliation from the other Cursed birds ?

Just a couple moments later they heard screeching from all around them, there had to be at least ten more Cursed birds.

What was odd was that they did not immediately charged at them but circled around them and drew closer, this did not look good.

Aconter tried his best to shoot them down, some of them evaded his shots and drew closed with each time he shot at them, others were not so lucky.

Aconter managed to shoot four of them down before they were to closed to be shot at.

Aconter threw his bow to the side and readied his sword and dagger to fend them off in melee.

Rara mad a loud snarling sound and his scales which normally would be green with a little green mixed in turned to a jade like color.

The Cursed birds dived down one after another and aimed at Aconter, they must have seen him as the easier target.

While Aconter was busy defending himself from their attacks Rara just grabbed them out of the air and ripped them to pieces, the birds tried to attack Rara as they notices his actions but did not even leave a scratch on his scales.

Minutes passed with one bird dying after the other until only three were remaining, they suddenly stopped and flew to the south.

Aconter had more scratches on his armor and flesh then he was willing to count but made haste to grab his bow and shoot arrows at the fleeing birds.
Arrow after arrow was shot but he only managed to get two out of three fleeing birds.

With Rara´s help Aconter returned to the village and informed the villagers that all but one of these cursed birds were dead.

Aconter was put to rest in the tavern and Rara went to collect the corpses of the dead birds, or at least what was left of them.

Aconter stayed in the Tavern with Rara for three days but no more "Cursed Birds" were seen by the villagers or Rara who went out to look for them.

Aconter spoke with the Village Chief Isaiah about this and they decided that the flock of Cursed Birds was gotten rid of and that a single such birds would not be a danger they could not handle.

With this Aconter traveled back to the Guild with the support of Rara and handed in his report and the collected Cursed Birds

Spoiler: Notes

Brought back an old Comrade named "Rara Durai" and the collected "Cursed Birds"
OoC: Sry still had to cut some things out i planned and other things ended up shorter then they were supposed to be, i also have to write up Rara Durai´s Info´s into my Signature at a later time so that it can be checked later.

Aconter walked side by side with Rara into the Guild and handed his Quest report to @AliceShiki
Aconter said:"We are back excuse me for the Delay these "Birds" were Quite odd, are you sure they were just "Cursed" ? They moved more like they were posse by something or someone, here are all the still intact corpses of thee Birds should the Guild be interested in them"

 

Spoiler: Tomb Exploration

Making his way to Nagrand, Koyan moves to the crypt in question after receiving the details from the mayor. “Alright, this is the place.” He said.

"Ssso it sssseemsss."

Plumeria inspected the tomb carefully, cross-checking the report given in by the previous adventurer —a copy of which she'd borrowed from the guild. Knowing traps were abound, and particularly weary (considering the previous adventurer didn't even try to enter the tomb), the Lamia warned. "Tread carefully..."

Hearing Plumeria's warning, the panther beastman nodded. "Of course, I know these kind of things." He said. Being a thief, even though not for a long period of time, Koyan of course has had to deal with a multitude of traps giving him a bit of experience in the subject.

Taking a few steps into the crypt, Koyan looked around. "Now the question is, how long will it take to find a trap here." He said t out loud, before stepping a pressure plate hidden on the ground. An arrow shot out of the dispenser on the wall narrowly missing Koyan who had quickly pulled his head back. "Found one." He casually said.

'Sigh.' Not even a hot-minute since she'd warned him, Koyan had managed to trigger a trap. He'd managed to avoid the trap this time, but there was no guarantee on another. Still, rather than worrying about him, it was best she worried about herself.

She glared intently at the depression in the floor. If the traps were triggered by pressure then— "It's gonna be a long day..." Looking back on her lengthy tail, the Lamia felt a headache approaching.

Crouching down next to the pressure plate, Koyan pulled out a knife and carefully dug down the side of it before popping the plate off. "With these kind of traps, you only need to sever the link between the switch and the trap to disarm the thing." He said before cutting the wire under the plate. "We should disarm the dispenser too." He said before moving to the dispenser on the wall to empty it of its arrows.

'Well...at leasssst one of usss isss sssstill ssssprite and sssspiffy...'

"How about...I trigger, you disssarm?", Plumeria suggested after some thought.

It would likely be easier for her to use her tail as a feeler and trigger traps from a distance. This would leave them both in minimal danger.

Walking back to the lamia girl with a handful of arrows, Koyan heard Plumeria’s suggestion. “Yeah, that’s sounds good.” He responded as he put the arrows into one of his two bags. “With that long body of yours, you’ll have no trouble finding the traps at a safe distance away.” He added with a smile.

Plumeria nodded as Koyan echoed her thoughts. Carefully, and ever so cautiously, she stretched her tail out, slapping the scaled appendage against the dusty tomb floors. For several slaps, she received nothing —save for the eruption of dust and the scattering of buggy little critters.

Work was slow, and combined with her high-strung nerves, became torturously so. After what seemed to be a solid hour, but was actually about 10 minutes, the slap, slap, slap of her tail was interrupted by a low Clunk!

Almost faster than she could react, a phalanx of spears erupted from the walls on both sides of the tomb. They had all but missed, likely never having been created to hit something as small as the end of her tail, however, the glisten of poison on their tips was disconcerting.

"You're up Koyan-ssss"

Koyan casually followed his partner around the tomb for awhile waiting for another trap to get revealed. Quickly moving in after nodding to Plumeria when she found one, Koyan started his routine to disarm the trigger of the trap. He then proceeded to cut the spearhead coming out of the walls to make extra sure the trap would be disabled, moving carefully to avoid touching the poisoned tips of the spears.

Finishing up, Koyan turned to Plumeria. “So how many more of these do you think are still in this crypt.” He asked while pointing deeper into the cave.

"Thisss crypt can't be that large! Two or three more at worssst!"

As Koyan got to work, removing the spear tips, Plumeria began to reread the report handed in by the previous adventurer...

"The poissssson issss sssstrong...", ridiculously so, she might add, "Looksss like it can kill in a matter of ssssecondsss...maybe a minute or two..."

From the previous adventurer's report, an old man had been felled in what seemed to be but a few moments or minutes. Though...given it had been an old man, Plumeria had no idea how the poison would affect someone fitter, or maybe with resistance to toxins.

Also from the previous report had been the mention of possible loot, with how fortified this tomb was, the Lamia was looking forward to anything they might find at the end.

"Let'sss keep moving."

Once more the rhythmic slap slap slap of scales on tile began to echo within the tomb.

“Right.” Koyan responded when the Lamia suggested they keep moving. Following his partner, Koyan continued to disable the traps found one by one as they moved deeper into the crypt. The light dimmed the further they moved, luckily there were a few torches around to light the way, thought the panther could see in the dark so it wouldn’t have bothered him either way.

Koyan looked at the dusty crypt as he passed by, there were rumours of treasure inside which of course peaked the thief’s interest.

Further down the tomb, an interesting sight caught the panther beastman’s attention. “Is that a coffin down there?” He asked.

Plumeria squinted through the firelight, laying slit pupils on what she also presumed was the tomb. It was a stone structure, but not simple in the least. Smooth-edged contours ran the perimeters of the tomb, the faint glow of the torches allowing Plumeria to —just vaguely— make it a few shimmering markings on its surface. Upon closer inspection, the structure appeared to be a coffin or sarcophagus, left slightly ajar.

Peering through the cracks she could just make out the grey of petrified wood, upon which lay a single skeleton, still pristine in its appearance.

Cautiously, she slithered forward, intending to get a closer look. The second the Lamia moved forward, entering into the concave of the tomb, the floor below her lit up!

Rumble~ Crackle~​

The walls of the crypt begun to tremble, and within the coffin, bones began to rattle.

"A...magic circle!?" Struck with shock, the glowing lights rearranged themselves into a circle of characters right before her very eyes. The dull blue glow began to pulse, and —as if in response— so too did the squiggles with lined the coffin.

A deep groan of unbridled rage howled from within the coffin, and soon the coffin's cover had been tossed aside as a skeleton dressed in dilapidated robes emerged.

"A Lich..? No, not quite." Unfamiliar with the undead, the Lamia failed to recognize exactly what this creature was. She did, however, remember reading about the possibility of a Lich or Necromancer in the guild's report.

Regardless of what the undead was, it needed to go down. Drawing her dagger, she held it at the ready while the skeletal mage began to chant with its rancid breath. A series of small bone arrows were formed in the air and sent raining towards the duo of beastkin.

Koyan stood still as he carefully looked at the well-detailed coffin, not moving in or making any rash movements. “These types of things are always cursed or something.” He thought before noticing the slight glow coming from the tomb. He noticed his partner closing in slightly. “Hey wait...” before he could finish, the floor lit up and a rumbling sound appeared.

“Oh crap, it was cursed!” Koyan thought to himself as a magic circle formed in front of him and his lamia companion and a skeleton creature came to life.

Koyan dashed off to the side and hid behind an opening in the wall to escape the bone arrows.

Small, but numerous, such was the nature of the volley of bone arrows. Plumeria wheeled back as fast as her scaled stomach could take her. Simultaneously, her tail whipped through the air breaching the waves of arrows.

She was not as small as Koyan, and hiding from sight would be improbable —if not impossible. Her scaled hide provided adequate defense for an attack of this level. The small arrows were thrashed by the wall of muscle-propelled scale, most bouncing off harmlessly, but the occasional shot piercing into flesh.

With Koyan out of the way, the skeletal mage focused its attention on her, hollow eyes ablaze with an arcane flicker. Chanting with renewed vigor, the skeletal mage raised his hand and Plumeria's eyes widened as— "More skeletons!?"

A duo of skeletons rose from the tomb's ground, scratching onto their feet. Unfortunately, these two skeletons meant that their little duo was outnumbered. Fortunately, the cracks and brittle structure of their bones betrayed their pathetic state. These were the lowest level of undead.

Peeking out from behind his hiding spot, Koyan saw Plumeria defend against the bone arrows and only receive minimal damage. He let out a sigh of relief before tuning back to the main skeleton who just summoned a few companions. "Even if those skeletons seem to be low leveled, if too many of them appear it will be a big problem." He thought to himself as he pulled out a trio of throwing knives from the pouch on his waist.

Sending the projectiles at the main skeleton, Koyan then proceeded to grab his food bag an pull out a cookie. The throwing knives were actually a distraction. The panther crushed the cookie into crumbs then tossed them at the foot of the skeletons, aiming to lure out the Crypt's critters and rodents.

One of the skeletons leaped in the way of the flying daggers, losing its head in the process. The other had managed to get entangled by Plumeria, the Lamia's larger mass allowed her to easily overpower and dismantle the skeleton.

Koyan's crumbs went unnoticed and as the skeletal necromancer began chanting another spell, rats and roaches began daring darts for the sugary treats.

Koyan saw his crumbs go unnoticed by the skeletal mage and start to attract the critter and rodents of the crypt. “Great.” He thought as he saw the bone being start chanting another spell.

Koyan took out another cookie, crushed it, and flung the pieces directly onto the skeleton. The creatures behind it would then leap onto the mage, giving Koyan and opening to rush in and crack its skull with the hilt of his dagger.

So distracted had the necromancer been with his spell, and then the sudden attack of the rats, that it had been completely unprepared for Koyan's sneak attack. The hilt of the dagger crashed into the boney skull with a soft ding and the mage's head flew right off its shoulders.

The arcane glow of the room seemed to dim, beginning to focus on the recently downed skeleton. "Oh no you don't!"

Leaping across the room, the Lamia coiled herself around the skeletal mage, pulling it apart bone by bone. She had a hunch that the magic circle below them would attempt to revive the skeleton, and she was having none of that!

Looking at how the remains of the skeleton was being dealt with by Plumeria, Koyan instead moved to the coffin the skeleton came out of to check if there was anything inside. “Hey look at this. There’s 2 silver coins, a silver dagger and a silver tiara I believe in this coffin.” He exclaimed as he showed his finds. “But I don't know, these are probably cursed or something.” He added.

“There also seem to be a door inside there, might lead to some hidden part of this crypt.” He added.

Plumeria untangled herself from the pile of bones, sliding over to Koyan's side. As she slithered she commented, "How...odd. Isssss thissss the grand prize?"

2 Silver coins were A LOT even she hadn't managed to amass a silver coin in her few adventures, and the addition of the dagger and tiara would only be a bonus. Upon hearing about the additional door within the coffin, the Lamia furrowed her brow. "Thissss crypt is a bit...trickier than I ssssusspected."

"We sssshould head back to the guild...our misssion is complete." They had disarmed all the traps in this tomb, what lay below this coffin...well, their duo wasn't exactly equipped for such an expedition.

Peering into the coffin at the dagger, coins, and tiara, she immediately noticed... "Thesssse...are ancient..."

These weren't silver coins, well...they were, but these coins certainly weren't any she'd seen used in Nagrand or the Holy Empire of Men. 'Well...maybe ssssomeone at the guild can identify them...'

Careful not to touch the items directly —due to Koyan's earlier suspicion of them being cursed— she began to collect them and prepared to return to the guild.

Slithering up to the receptionist desk, Plumeria turned in the quest report along with the three strange items they'd found. She slid the silver dagger, silver coins, and tiara across the desk. "Aria~ hassss Nagrand had any sssskilled necromancerssss in the passst?"

She tilted her head to the side, before adding a bit more. "We think thesssse itemsss might be curssssed, or laced with poisssson— the tomb owner sssseemed quite fond of it. Could we have a quesssst put in to cleansssse or detox thessse?"

Spoiler: Report Notes

1. Found:
   1. Silver Dagger
   2. 2 Silver Coins (unknowns origin —suspected to be extremely old)
   3. Tiara
2. Hidden door found in the Necromancer's coffin; If anyone's interested in exploring it, low-level undead are to expected, as well as a potent poison.

@AliceShiki

Taken with @Sir Koopa6000

 

Dear Gods, you surely went through a lot Cinis-san...

I'm afraid I need to give you some bad news though... You didn't clear the quest properly, rather, you barely cleared it Cinis-san.

Lyra-san specifically asked you to not harm the villagers, yet you killed some of them... Not only that you let them harm themselves a lot without doing anything... And didn't even get much about the curse except that it had plenty of vessels that channeled them, and they seemed like pretty mundane items...

Fuu... It's enough information to let Lyra-san work with though, but please be more careful with the quest instructions, I'll have to cut part of your reward for all that... However, the quest didn't ask to clear the curse and the curse was what made the villagers attack one another, so it still counts as cleared at the very least.

The final reward will be of 10 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Please be more careful next time, alright?

((*pat pat pat* It happens it happens~))

 

Spoiler: Report

"There it is!"

The good thing about tracking down an apex predator, was the fact that it tend to not hide its presence. He only need to go where manticore sighting were slightly common and just survey the area for a while. True enough, the gourd spotted one not long after he began his stakeout.

"The Third Lamb? No, way smaller. Slightly different too."

Gaining its attention was simple enough. The gourd plummetted from his platform, tapping into Vertigo to ease his fall. That done he immediately pelted the manticore with a bunch of pebbles he picked off the ground. The creature roared in annoyance and shot spikes his way, just as planned.

"Arcane Armament!"

The gourd dodged the spikes he could and deflected the few he couldn't. It hit decently hard, having higher weight than arrows, but they're not particularly hard to ward off.

Soon enough the manticore stopped with the spikes and charged forth for a bite. The creature was basically a large lion with several un-lion-y stuff tacked on, so it had quite a decent sprinting speed. Nevertheless, that didn't help when it crashed headfirst into a materialized Hardlight followed by the gourd stepping aside and opened a long gash along its side.

The creature glared down on him as he hopped back from it. It also slowly moved back before finally fleeing once a sufficient distance opened. Saved everyone some trouble.

"That's a job well done. I'll just harvest these spikes..."

Spoiler: Notes

-Turned in five spikes
-Kept four for personal research
-A particular manticore developed an irrational dislike to pumpkins

@AliceShiki

 

Mmmmmmmmmm, I honestly thought that "cursed" was just the requester's way of showing how angry they were at the birds? Though maybe they were actually cursed...

Good job in clearing them out though, the reward is of 12 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Take care now~

 

To think there was this kind of tomb within Nagrand... And it even had a hidden passageway leading further down? I mean... We shouldn't even have enough space for a crypt this big... Someone did a lot of work behind the scenes... This is worrisome.

Thanks for solving all this, I believe the mayor will try closing this tunnel down for good soon enough.

As for the things you found... We'll get someone to analyze them for you, alright? Shouldn't take too long to give them back.

In any case, the rewards are of 11 Large Copper Coins for you to split as you see fit and 2 Guild Points for each~

Take care now, rest a bit too, you both definitely earned it~

((Look, the story was a pretty fun read and I really got engrossed on it, I was even thinking of giving some extra rewards because you did more than what was asked of you, but...

You had to ruin it by finding silver? That's like... Way way too much... As a rule of thumb, try limiting any loot you found to be worth at most thrice as much as the quest's rewards next time, alright?
... And well, @Lenaia already said how Nagrand shouldn't have a big crypt in the appraisal of Zero's report, which doesn't make things much better for the new underground passage you both found... >.>

@Sir Koopa6000 ))

 

Well, that was pretty quick... Good job I suppose?

14 Large Copper coins and 8 Guild Points for you Jack-san, take care~

 

"Sankyuuu~"

The Lamia graciously accepted their reward. She would need to discuss how to split it with Koyan.


((Ah, yes I did note that the Coins were way too much which is why I went on to specifically mention that they weren't any currency seen in Nagrand or the Holy empire of men. What I was trying to say was, they're completely worthless as money.

I meant to present the coins as accessory items rather than money, and as for the effects of the items, I figured I'd leave it to the adventurer who identified it. Seemed more reasonable in my opinion.

As for the door...that's also being left entirely up to the next adventurer. It could be the suggested treasury the old man was trying to find rather than an extension to the dungeon. I tried to leave it vaguely, more as speculation than fact, so the next people in this chain quest would have more flexibility.

That being said I actually didn't notice that part about there not being any large tombs in Nagrand x.x

My bad on that one.))

 

Back from the quest, Rei reaches out into her leather pouch and takes out a package that when opened revealed a handful of , manticore spikes.
She placed the package on the counter in front of the unmoving construct and says "quest complete".

Spoiler: Report

Leaving the guild hall, Rei entered the guild archives to check up on where can she find a manticore.
Apparently, there is one who was confirmed not too far from Nagrand.
According to quest history, Jack has already paid a visit to it once.
"An irrational dislike of pumpkins huh? I can use that"

***********************​

Once she arrived at the manticores favorite hunting spot, Rei laid down on the ground and waited, making sure the wind is not to her back.
After several hours of a boring stakeout, finally, the predator became hungry and showed itself.
using the moment it was focused on its prey, Rei threw at its head......a pumpkin doll, one very resembling Jack.
"Sorry!"

being hit by the doll that had stones in it for weight, the beast turned around and glared at the doll then and Rei who showed herself.
first sending a couple of spikes into the doll out of rage, it then turned its tail towards Rei and tried to kill her from afar.
At that moment Rei used [thought accelration] to slow down her perception and activated [defense armament] around her hands.
matching the incoming spikes, she easily caught them one by one, skillfully negating their momentum.
The manticore was quite surprised, so much its eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.
Not many survived his spikes attacks, but this was the first time someone actually CAUGHT them.
Slightly disturbed, the manticore kept its distance from Rei and when it noticed she wasn't moving to attack it further, it decided to back off and pursue another prey.
Lately, a lot of weirdos just kept bothering it just to back off when it shot spikes at them, almost as if they were happy with the spikes.

After it was gone, Rei picked up the doll and pulled out the spikes stuck in it, adding them to the spikes she caught earlier and bound them together in a package-like manner.
"mission accomplished, let's go home"

Spoiler: Notes

- Performed a stakeout on the same manticore as Mr.Gourd.
- Used a Gourd-like doll to make it shoot some spikes into it and catch it attention.
- Used Seikuken to catch the flying spikes.
- Earned around 10 spikes.

@Lenaia