Rise of the Devourer

Noah glanced around the room, noticing the people’s attention on him as he continued. “The problem of this village is quite simple. There is something happening in the mines, and you need someone to go in and take a look, but it’s obviously dangerous so you need someone who’d be willing to do a task like that and be able to come back out alive,” Noah said, before pointing a thumb at himself. “You might be starting to see where I’m going with this.”

Whispers rose all around, as the people glanced at him in confusion. Noah’s smile widened.

“We don’t need someone who’ll just become another casualty in the mines, boy. You don’t even dress like an adventurer, and you yourself said you’d just awakened. Why’d we send in a greenhorn to die?” Gerome asked, folding his arms.

“Because I won’t be going alone,” Noah said, before pointing at Aurelia. “She’ll be there with me.”

Eyes swept towards Aurelia, the woman glaring at Noah for his display before she stepped forward. “I’m an E rank adventurer, and I was hired by someone in this village for a quest a few days ago. I believe this problem of yours may be tied to my quest as well.”

“I remember you,” the Mayor said, turning towards Aurelia. “Didn’t you come here with a team?”

Aurelia’s expression distorted briefly, but she kept her calm. “I was, and part of the reason I’m here is to look for them. But I’m willing to make a stop to get this done as well.”

“For fair compensation of course,” Noah added.

“We’d be more than grateful to receive your help. Please, name a price,” the mayor said, glancing at Noah.

“Would you guys have an Ability tome?” Noah asked.

“We... have some, but they may not necessarily work for you. I would suggest heading to Windrest city to find them,” the Mayor said.

“Windrest city?” Noah asked.

“It’s the nearest city with the guild hall. And so they tend to have an inflow of adventuring gear,” the Mayor replied.

“It’s where we’ll be heading next anyway. And as for the quest, a D grade mana stone will do. And two horses,” Aurelia said.

“I’ll be heading with the two of them there. I’ve been working there for nearly four decades now. I know the place better than the back of my hand at this point, and you’ll need someone to guide you around so you don’t get lost,” Gerome added.

The mayor nodded. “Then it is settled.”

New quest obtained!

Quest: Trouble in the mines

Something is hiding in the mines of Layfar, unsettling the town. Perhaps the remnants of a sinister legacy?

Objective: Investigate the mines.

Difficulty: Medium.

Reward: Experience points.

“And that makes it official,” Noah said, before grasping the mayor’s hand in a shake. “A pleasure doing business with you.”

The man looked back at him, raising an eyebrow, but did not comment any further. Aurelia pushed Noah to the side, talking to the mayor, as the gathered people began to leave.

Noah was going to listen to Aurelia’s talk, when Gerome walked closer, patting his arm. “Where are you from, boy? You said you just awakened, and you look awfully old for that.”

“Ah, yeah. I come from a pretty far area from here. We didn’t really have magic there, so I only recently got the chance to awaken a path.”

“No magic? You come from a dead zone?” Gerome asked, blanching.

“A dead zone?” Noah looked at the man in surprise.

“There’s places with no mana out there. Dead zones, death zones, whatever you wanna call them. They drain the life out of anything that lives there. Barren, wasted places, scarred from whatever transpired to make them that way,” Gerome said, as if reminiscing an old story.

“Well… my home was more stones than trees, and not exactly teeming with wildlife. But I wouldn’t call it a dead zone or anything,” Noah replied.

“Well, regardless. If you manage to solve this problem, you’ll have done this village a favour,” Gerome said, extending his hand out. Noah grasped it, shaking the man’s coarse and giant hands.

“Of course,” Noah replied.

Gerome nodded, seemingly content about something. “I’ll see you two tomorrow morning then.”

Noah watched the miner walk out, before turning back to Aurelia. There was a thoughtful expression on her face, as she walked towards Noah.

“Find something?” Noah asked.

“Yes. The team should be in Windrest city. It’s the closest city on this side of the continent, so we can also get you registered with the guild,” Aurelia said, a golden glimmer dancing across her eyes. “Let’s get this done quickly.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Noah said, as the two of them stepped out together.

Aurelia glanced at the sky, and the twin suns about to make their way down the horizon. The necklace appeared in her palm as she opened her hand. “I should return this.”

“I want to come with you,” Noah said. Aurelia did not object, as the two of them made their way.

Their path took them towards a home near the edge of the village, near the direction they’d initially come from. He followed the directions, soon standing in front of a home.

“This is it,” Aurelia said.

Noah noted the quest marker on his map overlapping with the house as well.

Standing outside the door, he tried to come up with something to say, anything. Moving closer, he tried knocking, but his hand simply hovered over the door.

The choice was soon robbed of him, as Aurelia knocked instead. A moment later, the door swung open as a frazzled looking woman stood behind it, looking at him in confusion, before they drifted towards Aurelia.

Silently, she reached into her storage and grabbed the necklace, presenting it to the woman. “I believe this belongs to you.”

The woman’s eyes widened, lips contorting as she stared at the necklace hanging from Aurelia’s hands. She stumbled forward, grasping the necklace in her hands. “This is… Pierce’s…” she said, before looking up at Aurelia. “Did you… did you find him?”

Noah looked at the woman’s eyes, disbelief, fear, and hope all present together. He glanced sideways at Aurelia, and found her expression steeled at the cruel act she had to do.

Aurelia shook her head.

Noah watched the hope shatter on the woman’s face, her expression distorting. She took another look at the necklace in her hands, before clutching it close to her chest. A pained sob broke her voice as her resolve broke, the grief overwhelming her.

Noah rushed forward, gently grabbed the woman’s shoulders to support her when he thought she was about to fall. The woman didn’t pay him any attention, fixated on the necklace that she clutched as close as she could to her chest, deep painful sobs writhing her body with shivers and shakes.

Aurelia moved in closer, helping to hold the woman as she continued to cry. Idly, he noted a couple people staring nearby.

Movement came from within the small home, and Noah saw a young girl of about sixteen rush out, before staring at her mother in surprise. She stared at Noah, before at her sobbing mother he was holding the shoulders of, and continued to stare wide eyes.

“Can you help her in?” Noah asked the girl. She looked at him, before nodding, as she walked closer and helped support her mother, walking in.

Noah handed the woman on to the girl, letting her take her mother. Aurelia helped her support the woman as they walked inside. He noticed the girl’s eyes catch the necklace in her mother’s hand, and she glanced back at Noah realising what had happened. Her eyes watered, turning shimmery as well. She opened her mouth to say something, but held the words back, turning towards her mother instead.

“Mom, calm down. We… we’d been prepared. No one had returned,” the girl’s voice broke with a choked sob briefly and she had to take a moment. “Please…”

Noah watched the scene, feeling like he was intruding on something he should not be a part of, yet at the same time, just walking away after he’d delivered the bad news seemed wrong as well.

The girl moved back, seating her crying mother on a chair inside. Turning around, the girl quickly wiped tears from her eyes, as she turned to Aurelia. “Thank you for returning Pierce’s necklace. We… It hurts, but we can at least move on. If you’re waiting to get paid, then I’m afraid we have nothing to give you. But the mayor will be willing to compensate you for your services.”

“It’s fine. I’ll be paid by the mayor. We’re doing a continuation of the quest by searching the mines,” Aurelia said, and then paused. There was a slight breath in take, a shiver in her breath, like anger and sorrow seeping out from under a tight lid. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”

The girl nodded. Noah watched the crying mother, and the girl who held on firmly, even as her hands shivered and shook, and felt anger swirl in his chest. Silently, he glanced at Aurelia, finding a similar expression in her eyes.

With an unspoken understanding, the two of them turned, wanting to give the family the space and time to grieve properly.

“Wait,” the woman’s hoarse voice came from behind the half closed door. Noah turned to see the woman standing, eyes red and puffy, as she walked up to the gate. “I want to know what happened. Please. Anything you know. I just… I want to know how my son died.”

Noah looked at the woman’s resolute eyes, before he glanced at the smaller girl standing at the gate, looking back at her mother with a sad expression.

Noah glanced at Aurelia, meeting her eyes. A moment later, they walked closer, taking a seat near the woman.

“Your son, and a lot of other people from this village, perhaps some from other villages nearby as well, were taken by Abyssal cultists. They’d been performing blood sacrifices,” Aurelia said, taking a breath. “Me and my companion both had been captured by them as well, and had nearly died, before we managed to escape. If it wasn’t for him, I would’ve died. Afterwards, we spent some time searching for any survivors, but unfortunately, we did not find anything. All I found was this necklace.”

Noah glanced at Aurelia, the woman looking back at him momentarily at his gaze. She hadn’t told them of the blood grafted horror.

The woman listened in silence, not replying in any way. Seconds stretched on as they sat in silence, before the woman asked, in almost a quiet whisper under her breath.

“Did you kill them?” she asked.

Noah looked up at the woman. Her voice had been a whisper, yet he saw the anger burning deep within. “Every last one.”

The woman looked down, clenching her fists. For a moment, she almost felt hollow to him, like he’d just robbed her of the only purpose she’d been latching on to from this entire ordeal.

“Pierce… he had always been reckless,” the younger girl said, looking at Noah as tears flowed from eyes. “He was always heading out near the mines and the forest to hunt, and capture some smaller monsters that he could find. I told him not to, I told him so often, but he never listened,” the girl said, her throat turning clammy.

“How old was he?” Aurelia asked.

“He’d turned fourteen just last month,” the girl replied.

For a moment, Noah’s mind tried to find a child’s face within the body of the horror, but he stopped soon after. The thought made his heart drop. He clenched his fists in anger, at all the agony a single man’s twisted desires had inflicted.

“I’d been ready for this day,” Pierce’s mother said, looking at Noah. “Pierce’s father had been an Adventurer, and even when he married me and left the adventuring life, the adventuring life never really left him, and I’d lost him eventually. Pierce had had the same desires as his father. Afraid of losing him, I’d tried to make the boy reconsider. Even threatened him, but ultimately, I knew I wouldn’t be able to change his heart, even if I made him agree to it. It would eat at the boy from the inside,” the woman looked up at Noah. “You do not seem like an adventurer. Do you share that with him? Is that why you do this?”

“I… honestly… I don’t know. Everything so far has been a desperate move to stay alive in a difficult situation in a place I do not know anything about. So, I don’t know yet. Earlier, I would’ve said I was just running away from my past. But the idea appeals to me solely on its own as well. The magical powers feel addictive, and… I do want to explore this world.”

“This world?” the girl asked, looking at Noah, who held back a wince.

He could feel Aurelia’s glare on him.

“Feels like an entirely new world here, so I slipped my tongue. I’m not from around these parts. Honestly, I have no idea how far away my home is,” Noah replied.

"I see… Then… I have a request," the woman said, looking up at Noah. Slowly, she leaned over, before handing him the locket. "Please take this with you on your adventures. I think Pierce would have wanted that."

Noah looked down at the necklace in his hand, clenching his fists before he nodded.

"I'll treasure it," he replied.

“Thank you,” the woman said, wiping the tears in her eyes.

Noah nodded, glancing at Aurelia. With nothing else left to say, they quietly made their leave, leaving the family to grieve their loss.

Objective: Deliver the Necklace to its owner’s family, complete.

Reward: Experience points obtained.

Noah looked at his system message, before dismissing it.

"Let’s head to sleep. The suns are almost out, and we need to be up early to go into the mines,” Aurelia said.

“I do look forward to some food. Hard to slay monsters on an empty stomach,” Noah said, following behind Aurelia.

“If I didn’t know already, I’d think you had some experience with this adventuring thing,” Aurelia said, raising an eyebrow.

Noah chuckled but didn’t reply. There was a good reason he’d been given the Gamer Path option after all.

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