The 11th God

Something Volatile I

We are genuinely bored inside Hergrinct right now. The last thing that amused us was the battle of the factions event but after that, it has been hell of a boring week. We’ve been trying to do quests and missions but all of the requests posted at the request board are all minor quest.

I can say that everyone inside the guild hall can feel the same too. The guild hall is full of gloomy auras just how gloomy a rainy day can give. It’s like everyone’s lying their heads onto the table inside the guild hall.

“If all of you have time to sulk like that, you might as well pay your bills and your debts!” Dio shouted.

Come to think of it, most of the factions here have their own funding. Sometimes, when a faction runs out of money, they most of the time ask money from the guild itself where of course interest is seen. The interest is not high but decent enough for a loan. Everyone is sulking for two different things – which I just assume.

1.       There are no exciting quest in the quest board.

or

2.       They have no money to pay for their debts.

Okay, let’s ignore number two. We can’t just judge the factions real quick just because of what we see; we will be sticking with number one then.

“I should decide the quest that we should take today.” Diether says.

I look at him and see him in a serious mood again. I must say the party from days ago was genuinely tiring. We never thought that Dio will be handing such absurd event although it’s ridiculously fun; it is such a memorable experience if you were to ask me.

“Are we doing turns now in taking quests?” Elio asked.

“We should be.” Diether replied.

“That’s stupid.” Elio said.

“The only stupid thing here is you.” Diether said.

I look at Elio and find him amused by the situation.

“Ok fine, but if the quest you choose leads to something dangerous, you will be to blame.” Elio replied.

“Stop the jokes, we all know we’re with Al.” Diether says as he look at me.

“Okay do not use me as a reason that we can actually do anything. I might be a god but that doesn’t prove anything much.” I explain.

“It’s not much but it’s enough.” Diether replies.

“Just choose a quest kid.” Elio told to Diether.

“I already chose one.” he said.

He lifts up his hand with a flyer – a request – stuck in the middle of his palms, firmly gripping it to avoid the crumpling of the paper. The request papers are as thin as the air, almost impossible to see in side view which makes it bluntly soft.

As the paper slowly drops mid-air towards the table, Elio didn’t hesitate taking it aggressively, crumpling the paper in the less bad way possible – less bad is definitely the words best to describe it – without looking at any of us because he knows – he definitely knows that we’ll be reacting towards his action but we all completely ignored it.

“What is this?” Elio says as he laughs.

“It’s a quest, stupid.” Diether replied.

“This looks like the type of quest that even a new adventurer will take.” He says with a continuous laugh.

Percisca looks along with Elio, she glances towards the paper that Elio is currently holding between his two hands that is partially crumpled.

“I say we take it.” Percisca who is quiet this whole time suddenly speaks.

“Do you even believe in this?” Elio replies.

“It’s worth a shot finding out.” Percisca talks back.

“We ought to know what that is.” Diether said.

“What is it exactly?” I speak in a vaguely respectful manner.

Ok let’s say I have no idea what they are talking about – I mean I actually have not the slightest clue on what we are actually talking about. I got lost in the part after they saw what the quest it.

“The quest is called Something Volatile.” Elio said.

“Odd name.” I replied.

“It is, it really is. The photos in this request are dragons which are believed to be extinct thousands of years ago already just as how people believed deities are also gone.” Elio continues.

Percisca explains along with Elio, “I thought dragons are not a thing in this world but I guessed wrong. Immediately after I was brought into this world, I received news about beasts wandering at night, large ones that are seen flying with this beastly sound.”

“Dragons?” I thought to myself.

“Should we take it then?” I ask them.

Their faces seem to be wrapped with partly hesitation and partly assurance. It is like they’re worried about something while at the same time excitement is within them.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” I replied to myself.

“We really should take this.” Diether says with joy in his face.

So Diether is really into this; I mean he is the one who chose this quest.

“That’s it then. We should prepare and start the quest later on afternoon.” I told them.

“Are we really sure about this?” Elio asks.

“Is there something we should hesitate for?” I reply.

“Dragons are very dangerous creatures, they may be extinct but the fact that this quest is made means there is a possibility that they are still alive. Dragons being alive is  a very huge threat to wherever they are seen. You see, dragons are a part of the highest threat monsters here in Ylgaea and encountering one of them won’t assure that you’ll still be alive after it sees you.” Elio explained in a serious tone.

I get it, I totally do: the fact that dragons are a major threat. Let the truth be told just hearing the word ‘dragons’ already sounds like it is dangerous. I have read about dragons before. I read it once on the book that Diether used to bring when I first saw him.

He is carrying this white book in his arms while he is wrapped with some sort of cloak. I have no idea what the book is at first but after we got close to each other, he let me borrow his book days after the battle of the factions.

Dragons are known to be extinct already. There are no actual proofs that dragons still exist in the current era. They are known to be very huge creatures with wings and wanders at night most of the time in the air. Each dragon possesses an affinity too and each affinity dragons are called dragon clans. Each clan has its own unique affinity which may evolve into various affinities related to the main affinity. Let us say for example a dragon has the explosion affinity, his main clan will be in the fire affinity where dragons with the same affinity or others but related to it are grouped.

There are instances where dragons have no clans or are soloists. They are not actually referred to as soloists but they are dragons who possess affinities that can’t be defined which clan should they be placed. If ever an instance happens, most of the time those dragons are slain which later on lead to the extinction of every dragon. It’s not the issue that all dragons are unique in their own ways but it’s the fact that dragons are a huge threat against this world.

There once was a war between the two: beaus and partly dragons. The war occurred for more than a decade, dragons and beaus dying everytime there is a dispute between the two. The beaus did their job to kill all the dragons, possibly thinking that the worse threat of all might possibly be gone if dragons were to die.

But the fact that there is a request about investigating dragons in the current time proves that dragons might still exist.

“We’re going out in the afternoon. I have made my decision and we should give Diether this opportunity to choose the request that he wants. After all, we have been doing quests last time without asking him whether he agrees with the quest or not.” I told them.

They all nodded and we walk towards our faction room.

- Afternoon -

Each one of us prepares our bag and wears them casually, ignoring the fact that what awaits us is a major threat.

It may or may not be a major threat as we have no proof yet that dragons might exist, but what if they actually still exist? What will our decision be?

I suddenly remember that we are not really good at planning out for the future. Some people are very cautious about what might happen in the future but all four of us – members of edgeseekers – do not know the term ‘plan’ at all. It’s hilarious how we always end up making things in our favor even though we are not prepared for what is about to come.

We plan, we definitely do but we are just not good at it. The thing is, everytime we are in an actual battle, we are so busy with facing our opponents that we have not even a single second to plan out our next move. There are instances where we make small plans such as going here and doing this and that but we never planned something big to do.

Maybe it is the fact that we still don’t know the capabilities of each other are yet, but how can we possibly know that if even we alone can’t even determine what our limits are? Everytime we face something we tend to learn something new that increases our capabilities – or maybe knowledge. Nevertheless, everytime we see and learn something we always try our best to succeed with whatever we have learned just like last time when I was facing Johann.

I thought that it will be the end of me but I learned something right after remembering one of the smallest details that Elio once told me. If every beau has their own source of power and Elio becomes stronger at night with the fact that he possesses the moonlight affinity, therefore I should have a source of my power too.

But I am a god.

Possessing the title ‘god’ is not that much of a responsibility. However, being a god doesn’t mean I should possess endless amount of magic energy and knowledge. I can’t recall much already but as far as I remember, I see myself in front of a castle.

I too have a lot of things to learn and if I keep on forgetting every single detail that comes into my way, then I guess this will be tougher than I thought. I don’t know if the problem is probably within me for the fact that I forget things easily or these memories just vanish for a reason – because after all everything that happens here in Ylgaea is because of something – but I can’t just be blindly prone to such things like this.

The sun slowly transitions its color from bright orange to reddish orange while I wait for the others outside the guild house. I’m with Percisca right now, standing patiently while waiting for Diether and Elio.

I look at Percisca. She glance back at me with the why is there anything wrong face but I just ignored it. I see how she’s doing really well with us. I have no idea about her background; she is probably still not yet ready to tell us things about her.

I doubt she still plans something against us, I totally doubt it. She has been with us for a few days already and during those days I never felt anything bad about her. Maybe it’s just some random thoughts that comes into my mind whether I should trust her or not but she already proved she’s worthy of being trusted.

During the moment of me thinking about Percisca – not thinking about her in an attracted way but you know what I mean – I hear footsteps running as the door of the guild hall opens and there we see Elio and Diether both – as usual – arguing over something.

“That’s why I’m telling you it’s not possible!” says Diether.

“That’s just non-sense; I can prove it to you that it is possible, kid.” Elio replies.

“Stop calling me a kid!” Diether says.

“Come on now! We wouldn’t want to waste our energies standing here and probably arguing over something I bet is stupid.” Percisca says to the two of them.

They both look at us and smiled towards us.

“Don’t get me with the smile of yours, let’s go.” I told them.

The quest is located in the southern part of Ylgaea. Just like the northern region, the southern region is also wrapped in cold seasons most of the time. I can’t particularly explain what are the cold seasons here, but let’s just generalized it; let’s say all of the cold seasons here are just called cold season.

It takes about one hour to go from the central region towards the southern region if we were to take the most common ride used by everyone. Usually, people use teleport gates to travel towards far places but teleport gates are not accessible sometimes. Unfortunately, today is one of the days that we can’t use teleport gates.

The most common transportation used by everyone is called a carriage. It’s more like a raft being carried by one or two horses depending on how many people can fit inside the craft that it is carrying behind it.

It’s not actually carrying a raft behind it though; there is this piece of wood that the horse carries through a leather cloth that the horse wears. I guess the cloth is the pathway for the raft and the horse to be connected while the cloth also serves as the protection of the horse especially during extreme heat I assume.

We arrived exactly after one hour of travelling from the central city Hergrinct towards the southern city Zebulon. The city in the southern region is far more than I actually imagined it.

When we travelled towards the Northern region, we thought it would be far more different than Hergrinct but it’s almost the same. The only difference between the two regions is the fact that the northern region is mostly on cold seasons while Hergrinct has various seasons.

I thought the Southern region would actually just be like the Northern region, but it’s the total opposite. If in Hergrinct people are alive and active each and every day, then I guess Zebulon is the total opposite. When we arrived, the place is totally quiet; you can hear the whispers of the wind along with the soft bounces of the tumbleweeds that are carried with it. The place is very dry, it seems like it is currently the season of drought in here. The gloomy ambience of drought flows along with the physical view of the city. The yellow lands, withered crops and dried fields are the basic view of the city, basically the view that awaits you from your travel.

We had no idea where to go; all we know is that we are stuck in here. There is an address though in the request paper. Don’t get me wrong, when I say the place is gloomy, it doesn’t mean there are no people in here nor the place is completely isolated. Zebulon is the city in the southern region, you will expect people greeting you from outside but instead you’ll see people stuck inside their homes – just like what I said earlier, the total opposite of Hergrinct.

We followed the instructions given behind the request paper and we ended up in front of a mansion – at least I think it is. It is the only big house that we saw while we were walking and every house seems to have the same structure, very basic like a normal cabin in the middle of a snowfield.

The mansion is no different from the rest of the houses here in terms of color. The structure may be built different but the color remains the same: roof with this clay-like structure and yellowish in color, the walls are made of bricks with just plain white color and doors are made of wood and brown in color.

“Is this really the address?” Elio ask me.

“I have no idea if this is the actual place where we are supposed to go but if I have followed the instructions correctly, this should be the place.” I say to him.

“We better go inside then, it’s better than trying than nothing.” Diether says.

We knock on the door. Dusts fell off from the top part of the door and the knob is quite rusty. The door opens and an old man figure appeared right in front of us. My wildest guess is that this is the mayor of this town or something which would probably make no sense at all. Hergrinct is the only city – or kingdom – in the central region which means there is a possibility that each region only have one city.

He greeted us with a bow and say, “You must be from Hergrinct, I presume?”

We all nodded and entered the house as he opens the door widely and welcome us inside. The interior is not as what I expected it to be. Maybe I judged the outside too much that I didn’t realize that a house this big can possibly have this grand interior. It’s like a mansion if you would ask me how it looks like. The fact that it has chandeliers around it plus a staircase wider than at most five combined doors make. The staircase is wrapped with a long red carpet that extends up unto the entrance door.

“Whoa.” Elio says.

“Let me guide you towards the king’s room.” the guy told us.

So this old man is not the owner of the house. Despite his stunning clothes and old figure he looks like he’s the owner of this place.

The old man guides us towards one of the room upstairs. From what he said earlier, the king definitely lies inside this room. The old man opens the door for us and we see the king sitting on top of a queen sized bed while looking towards the window. The room is just as grand as the interior downstairs. There are chandeliers hanging on top of the room and there are furniture that is made of top rate materials such as golds and diamonds.

The king looks at us as all of us step in but the old man. The old man closes the door behind us and left all five of us inside the room.

“I see you have arrived.” the king says.

“You’re supposed to be the king right?” Elio answers.

“You’re correct.” the king replies.

“I have requested something from the adventurers in Hergrinct.” he explains.

“Because these past few days, Zebulon has been covered in fear. People have been hearing strange noises every night and not to mention they also see something from the heavens while stargazing. The shape of the shadows they see in the sky represents that of a dragon.” he continued.

“That’s why you put dragons in the cover of the request paper.” Diether replied.

“Indeed. We need help finding out what the thing that roams around Zebulon at night is. As per the reward, it is written in the request paper.” he said.

The reward for the quest is about a hundred thousand golds. It doesn’t make any sense though as to why would no one pick this quest when the reward is really high. I guess the danger that comes along with this quest makes up for the reward that it has.

“Where exactly does this figure appear every night?” I asked.

“Good question.” he said.

“The figure appears at the cave from the western part of Zebulon .The cave is called silver linings and you should be able to see the sign once you’re already near it.” he told us.

“How do we get there exactly?” Elio asked.

“You may use the royal carriage to go there. It should take you no more than ten minutes to go there. If you’re willing to go there then you may take a rest in here and we shall arrange your adventure for tomorrow.” the king told us.

“No.” I told him.

Everyone looks at me while I show a serious face.

“You see, we really came here at this hour so that we can already investigate. You mentioned before that the figure appears at night so this should be the perfect opportunity to investigate.” I explained.

“Are you not tired from your travel?” the king asked.

“An hour of travel is nothing but rest.” I said.

“Yeah, Aljinn’s right. We just did nothing but ride on a carriage for a whole hour, it didn’t even cost us any of our energies.” Elio joined.

“Very well, if that’s your will then I shall arrange a carriage for you right now.”

“Tobien, please arrange a carriage for these adventurers now towards the cave of silver linings!” he shouted.

We hear a soft “yes sir” from outside the room.

“Please be careful adventurers. If in case that you sense a very potential danger, don’t hesitate to come back. The carriage assigned to you shall be ready to bring you back any time.” the king told us.

We all face outside and started walking.

“Don’t worry about us your highness! This should be an easy job.” Elio shouted while waiving his hands towards the king.

Immediately after leaving the room, I felt a very familiar presence.

A god?! I thought to myself.

I wander my eyes around the mansion carefully. When my eyes reached a certain point, – something peculiar – I saw green eyes.

The person stares at me with blank thoughts; I feel it because I can see it in their eyes. In my wildest guess, it’s definitely a guy. He stands there in the darkness in front of a room with embedded jewels on the door, diamonds I assume.

I should get back to him after this quest. I can’t go near him because there is a possibility I might expose him to the people with me. As we all walk down the stairs, I feel him grinning.

I grin back.

The king was right; it only took us ten minutes before we reach the cave itself. The moon arises smoothly as the sun sets on the west.

The cave is big, and the entrance explains it all. You can’t see anything past the entrance though, you can only see through it if you have a source of light and since it’s night, the darkness outside it worsens.

“This will be difficult.” I told them.

“It should be, look at the reward.” Elio says excitingly.

“Is the reward everything that you really care for?” Diether says.

“Shush, do you hear that?” Percisca says.

A small growl echoes along with the darkness from the insides of the cave. It doesn’t represent anger nor annoyance but more like a yawn or I assume a whisper.

“Run.”

We all walk towards the entrance of the cave; Elio and Diether both provided lights. The cave is filled with dripping waters and bones – of course – and definitely skulls – yes, skulls.

“It’s a death cave.” Diether says while shivering.

“This gives you goosebumps?” Elio replies.

Upon reaching a certain point of the cave, we saw three different paths that each leads to nothingness. It shows complete darkness just as how the entrance showed nothing without any light.

“Where should we go?” Elio asked.

We heard another wave of small growl from one of the paths.

We walk towards the middle path from where the soft growling came from. After reaching the end of the path that we took, we saw something that made us all stuck in our places.