With the recent change in jobs, and the new trade route company they had, the village revered them but also had some fear. Rumors had begun to spread fast that someone, or something touched them. Divine intervention, wandering mercs, it was unknown what was happening too them. However, most of the village respected them.
The trade route was going well for them, it left them with a passive income and time to explore the fog of war. The majority of the south and north had been explored, and it was mostly empty down south. North was where they went for trades so they were more familiar with it.
To spread out their reach, they split up each day to explore different parts of the map. Thankfully, they shared the same map so when they both cleared a section it registered for them both. The system really couldn't differentiate them apart, and it worked in their favor.
Lee was moving through the forest, his eyes glued on the surrounding trees that had torn bark. Some sections had dungeon entrances, something he wasn't too familiar with yet, but they agreed to wait till they were together before exploring those.
The worse sections were spots that had region boss warnings, usually the creature wasn't visible yet when the warning hit. The concept terrified them both, even the warden didn't have a warning.
On the interface, a message appeared in the top right corner. 'I found some signs of Wisp nestlings.'
'WTF, EW, WHAT WISP NESTLING!' Lee typed back while trying to walk. He wasn't the best when it came to multi tasking
'Ill explain when we meet up.'
'Kk'
Wisp nestlings were tiny child sized glowing beings that swarmed together like a hive. They were similar to the choir, except bee humanoids. A nature variant vs a dungeon variant essentially.
Lee on the other hand, had a much different style of creature to fight as he traversed the snowy forest. Cragroot Howler, a bear like beast made of moss covered stone with a howl that forces hallucinations and creates stone clones of itself to target the fighter.
This creature, while weak, had the advantage on Lee. The even bigger advantage it had, was the fact that it saw Lee before Lee noticed it was behind him. The deafening howl caused a blur to Lee's vision.
Sara's fist swung straight towards Lee's face, Lee screamed and ducked and swung around. "Sara?" He asked, they kicked and punched at Lee as he dodged and ducked under the attacks.
Suddenly the Cragroot bit Lee's arm, allowing for Sara's fist to slam into his nose. It was a hallucination, but the brain triggered it as psychic damage causing his health to drop and his brain to pulsate.
Quickly noticing what held his arm in the jaw of its mouth, it became apparent what was happening. Sara rushed him, He jumped and kicked with both feet phasing through the hallucination causing it to vanish.
While falling he put his body weight towards the Cragroot and slammed its head into the ground causing its jaw to release Lee's arm. Grabbing his sword from his sheath he sliced, the head of the creature rolling through the snow.
"Bitch." Lee said holding his arm, teeth marks causing some blood to trickle down.
Sara enjoyed the peace and quiet without Lee, nothing against their brother, but Lee was obnoxious at times. Having these days to explore without him really let them remove the mask that they wore all the time.
The fresh air, the beautiful surroundings, hell even the Wisp Nestlings weren't that annoying. Crouched down low to the ground, Sara made their way through the snowy forest. Keeping an eye on the small hive that was scattered, the glowing bee humanoids hunched over walking slowly through the snow.
It was an unsettling sight, but these creatures could be dangerous to others. Quickly pulling back the bow and aiming it Sara released one arrow and ducked behind a tree. The arrow planted into the Nestling causing it to drop to the ground.
One by one Sara kept up with attacking and stealthing over and over. Finally, after 10 or 15 minutes, they were all dead. The nestlings hive would swivel up in a day or two and eventually collapse in on itself as well.
Turning Sara began trudging through the snow again, letting their thoughts flutter through their heads.
Lee came across something of interest first, it was a village. Lee stood on the forest edge, he slowly trailed around the village until coming up on a pathway. Checking the map it looked like it would have connected to their village if it was followed long enough.
The fog of war was a downside though, cause it could have twisted into a different direction he hadn't seen yet. Watching the village entrance for a few minutes he could see a low population of people moving around inside the village.
Slowly he began sheathing weapons, and depositing items into his inventory to come off less threatening. The shield, his sword he replaced with the butter knife blade, the armor he left on though.
Lee began walking towards the village, the roof of some of the buildings were badly damaged. Some windows looked slightly cracked, food stalls looked low. He could feel the eyes of everyone on him as well. They were watching his every foot step.
"Some welcoming." He said softly under his breath, hand going into his pockets.
'If they connected a trade route with us, we could probably fix a lot of these damages.' Lee thought looking around, his eyes looking at one of the windows when a women on the other side quickly closed the blinds. It left a funny feeling in Lee's stomach.
"Uh, hey." Lee called out too one of the men working a food stand, the man was scrawny, frightful, but Lee's voice made him leap up in the air shaking. "W-What!" The man asked aggressively. "I gave you the food we had!" He began.
Lee blinked a few times rubbing the back of his head, "uh, what? Ive never been here before dude." The man narrowed his eyes, "your gang has!"
'Gang? Who does this man think I am.' Lee opened up the status window browsing it.
*Rascal Flanders
*Age 22
*Under siege.
'Ha, Rascal Flanders?' Lee grabbed his mouth trying not to laugh out loud. However, Under Siege caught his eyes.
"What gang is holding you hostage?" Lee suddenly, and abruptly asked. Rascal was hesitant, stuttering at the question. "I-Its no one." It was an obvious lie, the system even had them under siege. The system didn't lie, or so it hadn't yet.
"Look buddy, tell me where they are and I will help you guys go back to peace."
Rascal went silent, Slowly he pointed down the path Lee had come from. "Back in those woods? Ight, give me a few hours and Ill fix this." Lee said. Turning he cracked his knuckles and began messaging Sara.
'VILLAGE DAMAGED. BANDITS. GOING TO FIGHT.'
Sara, who was stumbling across a village of their own, saw the message blair up on the notifications. Sighing loudly, they began typing in return. 'Please learn to type, you're as bad as our parents were when they got cellphones.'
Sara proceeded towards their village. This one was in worse shape, the building roofs were caved in, weeds and grass began taking over and growing up and over the buildings. The graveyard was packed with tombstones.
Sara couldn't help to feel a sense that this village had been put through the ringer.
Slowly making their way down the center of the village, they came across a small group of people trying to work still. They were weak looking, skinny Sara hadn't been noticed yet. Giving them time to open the interface.
Every person they scanned said the same thing
**Malnutrition.**
Sara slowly pulled out some of the potatoes from their inventory and shoved them in their bag. This way they could just pull them out and hand them over.
Approaching them, "Excuse me?" The group of people jumped, they were mostly old or super young no inbetween. "Im, wandering through and you guys look like you aren't doing too well." Sara's voice was kind hearted, the families looked at each other before the oldest man stepped forward.
"We came across hard times. A sickness spread quickly and killed most of the village…we have been struggling since." The older man said softly, wheezing. Sara slowly opened up the bag and sat it down for them. "Here, I have a lot of food, it's all potatoes though."
The families glanced at each other, before they slowly started digging in. Some tears rolling down the elderly's faces as they ate. "Thank you so much sir," one of the elderly women said shaking Sara's hand.
"Um, right, is it just you guys?"
"No, we sent our eldest sons out too find help from other villages. That was three days ago, and we haven't seen them since. Please, can you please help them!" The elderly women began begging tears rolling down her cheeks.
Sara frowned and softly nodded trying to calm the women down, "Y-Yeah, just, calm down. Stay here, i'll go take a look okay?"
The families, grateful, were too busy shoving their faces with potatoes to properly thank Sara. However, they preferred it that way.
Moving through the small forest edge, they took note of the direction the sons had said to have left. Maybe, about 50 years out, Sara finally finds something. It was a destroyed wagon wheel, burnt clothing, tattered gear, and destroyed bark on nearby trees.
Growing closer to the wreckage, they noticed what looked like drag marks in the snow. Massive foot brings following in front of them, and 5 sets of smaller footprints around it as if being led.
Growing silent for a few minutes Sara slowly typed up a message.
'We've got a problem. Possible massacre or stolen caravan. Survivors may still be out there imma see if i cant find them.'
'NO WORRIES, THE VILLAGE HERE SEEMS TO NEED HELP AS WELL.'
'Clocks ticking.'
'TICK TOCK GOES THE CLOCK!'
**Quest: Save the village's**
**Good Luck.**