Aurus didn't think any more words had to be said and the three others seemed to agree as they all quickly began jogging alongside the river coast towards the east.
Even though it was possible to jog or even run here, it didn't mean there were no obstacles at all. At some points the forest crept up again, reaching all the way to, and sometimes even into the water.
"This… is rather impressive." Graves noted as he climbed over a log that was in their way.
Aurus didn't have to ask what he was talking about, it wasn't a singular thing in particular but the whole experience together.
He couldn't help but nod, it really was amazing, everything seemed lifelike, something that was hard to find on earth nowadays.
For twenty minutes the small group switched between jogging and walking as they followed the twists and turns of the river. Even though it was hard to keep track, Aurus believed they had mainly moved north-east and he wouldn't be surprised if they would reach a beach soon. He was starting to think he may be wrong and the game didn't actually have 'furnished' tutorials. Something that would make sense if there were hundreds of different tutorials in total.
After some time, the river began getting wider and wider, from the ten-meter width it first had, it quickly grew to a seventy-meter wide river, as for depth, they had no way to test that without endangering their lives, the currents seemed quite savage and had a decent chance of pulling anyone that tried to cross down.
And then, the group took a turn, they had the opportunity to take in an entirely unique sight.
A bit further up was a large pond, it seemed the river stopped here and turned into a pond of at least two hundred meters by two hundred meters.
Generally, this wouldn't have fazed the four people much but the thing was that there was something on top of a section of the lake.
Tens of pillars reached deep into the water, supporting a small village, built entirely out of wooden planks.
Looking at it, Aurus could see two sections where a part of the village had fallen into the water, whether this was done by bad maintenance or something else was unclear.
Aurus quickly crouched down, pulling down Grunk with him "Let's be careful, it could be the lizardmen village."
Nobody had to be told twice as they stayed close to the ground while moving closer towards the above-ground village. It quickly seemed their worries were unfounded though, as not a single thing seemed to wood seemed to have started rotting in multiple places, the village seemed entirely deserted.
With the river connecting to the pond from the south, there was only one place you could enter the village from with ease, a small wooden stairway to the east of the platform, it rose about two meters connecting the flat ground to the wooden village.
As Aurus approached the eastern stairway, he remained absolutely quiet, he put his crystal orb into a bush and grabbed the sharp knife out of one of his inner pockets. The others didn't seem to react to him having this, Graves did put his staff aside as well though so he could use his hand with more ease while Gracey reached into her robe and took out a nearly-broken wand.
Even though the village here seemed deserted, everyone here had played games and everyone here had seen movies, they wouldn't take the outer appearance at face value.
When they got closer to the staircase, Aurus crouched down as he saw a dark stain in the ground, "Blood." he noted before noticing another, green stain a few meters to the left of it. "It seems to be dried out properly so whatever happened must have happened a while ago."
Hearing the whispers of Aurus, the other nodded but nobody let their guard down even slightly, they weren't idiots.
Just as Aurus intended to walk up the stairs, he felt a hand on his shoulder stopping him, then the large warrior within their group walked up first. The creaks that came from the stairs were incredibly loud and with every step, Aurus was worried the wood would snap and one of them would fall into the lake, but all four of them managed to successfully get onto the main platform without a problem.
In the section of the village that hadn't been sunk, there seemed to be a total of eleven houses. A Mayoral house in the center and ten other ones. Four of which had wooden signs hanging from their roof with pictures, showing what kind of place it was.
"Over there, that's a book, library probably. That hammer should be the blacksmith. That boar should be either an inn or a leatherworker and that pen I'm not sure of." Aurus quietly said, noticing each of the signboards. This place practically seemed like it was designed to be a tutorial having some of the places they need most and only a couple of normal houses.
Aurus looked around carefully "Let's be careful and check the mayor's hut. If anything is here, it'll probably be there."
The others agreed and they soon stood in front of what they guessed to be the mayor's hut. It really wasn't all that impressive but it was still better than the other buildings here, all of which were made with a single kind of wood.
Soon, the four of them stood in front of the door, Graves with his hands balled up and the others weapons at the ready, after counting to three quietly, Grunk jumped forward and delivered a heavy kick to the shoddy door, causing it to burst open, allowing them in.
With his knife at the ready, Aurus made his way in but it was soon clear nobody was here. The mayor's hut was wrecked. The entire hut had things lying in the ground. There were dull cups and plates, rotten food, a couple of rugs, some cloth clothes, and some other random stuff strewn about, Graves was the first to make the connection. "It seems they took everything shiny and left the rest be."
"They're long gone now," Aurus said with a nod. "This is good, we can probably stay in this village for a month with the group, properly prepare for an attack, I'm guessing the blacksmith might even still have its forge and some raw materials, and the library could be intact as well."
"Good!" Grunk said with a smile before loosening his shoulders, "That stressed the hell out of me. I'll just go take a piss real quick, I'll be back in a second."
Aurus nodded before turning to the two other mages, "First of all, let's check for hidden compartments, if we can find even just a single decent weapon we'll have achieved our mission, the mayor or whoever lived here may have hidde-"
"ARGH! YOU F*CKING B*TCH! GET OFF OF ME!" a loud yell came from just a few meters to the side of the mayor's hut where Grunk had intended to take a leak.
