CHAPTER 37: “NO LIVING BEINGS HERE"

Ai was almost too scared to ask about what would’ve happened if he had continued going the direction he was intending to go. As he followed Morion’s lead, he noticed the forest environment getting slightly lighter and brighter, though the mist was still ever present.

Still, Ai was still wary of their surroundings. The air was easier to breathe in but there was still something lingering in the air that made him antsy and uncomfortable. He couldn’t quite describe it. It was like a cold feeling that slithered around his chest and his stomach.

“Are you alright?” Morion’s gentle voice caused the cold feeling to momentarily disappear. “Shall we take a break?”

Ai quickly shook his head. Their walking pace had slowed down enough thanks to him. Midway, Morion had noticed that Ai was stuttering behind him so he’d slowed down his steps so they could walk alongside each other. Ai, who was already starting to get tired, accepted the other player’s gesture gratefully. Now, he somewhat regretted it. 

If Morion had been here alone, would he have reached the destination by now?

He needed to at least carry his weight later on…

Wait. Later? What was he even thinking, they were only going to the place together, not doing an entire quest chain. As soon as they reached this village, most likely they were going to go their separate ways once again. Ai felt a little disappointed with that. This was the first time he had ever interacted positively with another player for this long. 

He found it...nice, really.

In the real world, he’d been alone for so long that he forgot that interactions could be nice like this, without words or memories that could cut him.

“Ai, are you sure?”

“I’m okay.” Ai quietly replied. It also kind of felt nice to have someone worry for him, even though it was probably just common courtesy. They only met for a brief moment before, walking away with only knowing each other’s names. Even so, it felt relieving.

“Hmm…” Morion stared at him, his eyes scanning Ai from the top of his head to his feet to make sure that nothing was truly wrong.

Ai secretly pinched himself but didn’t drop his smile. He needed to get a grip, he was getting too lost in his thoughts. It wasn’t a good idea to trouble Morion when he had been so nice and courteous. They needed to keep going, preferably before the sun went down, and all he was doing was slowing both of them down.

They continued their journey after that. For some reason, Morion had moved to walk behind Ai instead of leading in front of him. Ai wasn’t quite so sure why he did that, but having Morion guarding his back felt both reassuring and nerve wrecking.

“Do you know what this village is like?” Ai said finally, to break through his train of thoughts. “You seem to know the way easily.”

Unexpectedly, Morion shook his head and tapped on a red amulet that hung on his neck. Ai didn’t remember that being part of his equipment, was it new? The amulet certainly fit his red and black color scheme. It also looked quite fancy with the red coming from a shining blood red ruby encased in a gold and black ornament. 

“This is an amulet I received as part of a quest.” Morion explained, lifting the chain so Ai could see the amulet better under the dimming forest light. “Want to see its item menu?”

Ai nodded without hesitating. This was the first time he’d seen such a fancy looking accessory. It was also a quest item, making it even more worthy of checking.

[Amulet of Pengusiran - Quest item. Extremely Valuable.]

As expected, it didn’t say much because it wasn’t his quest item so naturally he wouldn’t be able to see the detailed item description, but this was the first time Ai had seen an item being labeled as “extremely valuable”. He hadn’t gotten his hands on an item quite like the amulet yet. The Vial of Peace had been somewhat important, but it wasn’t labeled as anything valuable or important.

He wondered if this was because Morion was most likely taking on a high leveled quest with a high difficulty ranking.

As with the amulet, Ai hadn’t encountered any [Ranked Quests] either since he was still a beginner who only went through a handful of quests.

[World Symphony] had two types of quests that the players could take on. The quests Ai had been taking, main and side, were called [Unranked Quests]. These quests were abundant in [World Symphony]. Most quests in the game were [Unranked] and gave fair rewards most of the time.

However, [Ranked Quests] were the ones that most players wanted to find and do. As the name suggests, the quests were divided into ranks from SS to C, with SS being the one players dreamt of finding. They were much more difficult than [Unranked Quests] but yielded much more valuable rewards and had the potential to drop [Unique Weapons] which were one of a kind. In fact, Ai had a feeling that Morion’s miasma blade was a [Unique Weapon] he got from an SS Ranked Quest. Though tempting and filled with good rewards [Ranked Quests] were incredibly hard to find. 

In fact, the quest to finish the dungeon [Heaven’s Gardens] was a [Ranked Quest], not to mention the hardest one to locate and complete. So much so that no one had ever completed it. There was even a rumor flying about that it was just a trolling attempt from the game devs who didn’t intend for the quest to be finished. 

It made Ai wonder though. From the information he had gathered, the players who had managed to try out the quest had never gone in with a Mediator. So maybe...just maybe…

Ah, it was a useless train of thought. He couldn’t get cocky just because he managed to find a couple of hidden paths as a Mediator. He needed to stop thinking about this and focus on the task at hand.

“What does the amulet do?” Ai asked.

Morion tucked the amulet back and shrugged at his question. “I’m not too sure. The NPC who gave it to me said that it was important that I don’t take it off during my visit to the village.”

Ai shivered. That really didn’t help his already unnerving feeling about the place and they weren’t even there yet. Furthermore, the sight of the blood red gem was starting to make him feel unnerved as well. Something to do with how red it was, how blood-like it was.

“We’re almost there.”

Almost there turned out to be just beyond a couple more trees. The tree clusters of the forest gradually thinned more and more until they were gone and they found themselves in a small clearing with a village built on it.

Compared to Pymule, which was grand and elegant, this village looked so old and decrepit. The houses were mostly broken down or even just plain rubble. The trees around were dead with dried up branches and leaves. The smell of decaying wood and something else was strong in the air, telling him that the village had been in this run down state for a considerable amount of time.

Ai subconsciously took steps back, bumping into Morion. The swordsman didn’t get angry, instead he put his hands on Ai’s shoulder to steady him then stood beside him. His dark eyes scanned the ruined village with one hand on the hilt of his sword.

“What do you think happened?” Ai wondered out loud. 

Morion shook his head.  “Let’s look further, maybe there’s someone in there.”

Ai could only agree, he didn’t really like the idea of staying here alone while Morion went exploring the village. Going back wasn’t really an option either, not when the unnerving feeling was still so strong in his chest.

The two ventured deeper into the village. The decaying smell only grew stronger the deeper they went. The village was also quite small, but Ai saw pathways leading into the forest from the village gateways. He wondered if those lead to more areas of the village.

The village was truly lifeless. Ai didn’t even see a single weed or ant. It was devoid of everything except for the broken, run down buildings. The only living breathing thing around were the two players.

Then suddenly...laughter. A child’s laughter. It sounded so joyful and mischievous yet Ai could sense something off about it. He looked at a house rubble to his right and saw a child’s face peeking through the gaps of the fallen wooden planks. His grin was wide, stretching his cheeks unnaturally. Nervously, Ai tugged on Morion’s loose sleeve to let him know that he saw someone, but that child was no longer there when he pointed in the direction of where he saw them.

They didn’t speak much to each other, not that they were ever chatty with each other in the first place, but something about the air in the village just made it hard to speak or talk. There was a kind of pressure that Ai felt that seemed to weigh down his words.

“Welcome, travelers.”

Ai almost jumped in fear when a voice suddenly spoke out to them. The voice came from behind him, but he was slightly frozen in fear and didn’t dare to turn around.

“Hello.” Morion seemed unphased as he greeted the person with a respectful slight bow and gentlemanly disposition.

Not wanting to seem rude, Ai slowly turned around to greet the person as well. The person calling out to them was an elderly male with grey hair, cloudy eyes and a walking stick. He was dressed in a white t-shirt with several dirty stains tucked into a long cloth with beautiful patterns that was wrapped around his waist.

The old man glanced between the two of them with a curious look.

“Are you travelers looking for someone in this village?”

Ai stayed silent and let Morion answer with a yes. He was still unsure of the old man and his role. He was definitely an NPC, a human most likely, but the fact that he was the only person they ran into in this village after walking around was suspicious enough.

Hearing the answer, the old man sighed and shook his head. He raised his walking cane and pointed at the entrance way of the gate.

“Then you won’t find that person here.”

“And why is that?” Morion asked. Ai sensed that he was also suspicious of this old man.

In response, the NPC answered with the most unexpected answer. A cold wind even blew through Ai as he listened to the man speak.

“Because everyone in this village is dead. I’m afraid that living beings are not what you’re going to find here.”