Another Life In The New World

Elder

We headed straight to the shabby house of horror. It looked like a single touch will change its whole architecture completely and irreversibly. I surveyed the door before knocking gently on it. A rattling noise resulted from it, which made me wince.

“Hey Arum, are you in there? We need to talk to you,” I shouted through the opening.

“Do you think the person will answer? Everyone is a non-player character here, remember?” Kun reminded me.

“I know. I am just testing it. Do you think the door will open if I force it?”

“Just grab the door and swing it open, dude. I want this to be over as quickly as possible,” Kun urged me.

I swallowed my pent up saliva, then slowly thrusted the door open. Inside was a man sitting on a tall chair reading a book. Towers of dense volumes filled the room. I tried pulling one of them out, but they were just paintings on the walls.

Arum had a question mark flashing above his head. Vampire touched him and he responded.

“Greetings heroes, I had a vision of your coming”, he sounded archaic. “I apologize that you went through the trouble of finding me. There was an important matter that I had to attend to.

“Your arrival only meant that our world sees not much time before the inevitable end. That is all I can tell you for now.

“You must meet the person-in-charge in the next town, Epeitha. You must inform him of your coming and of what I have told you. As I prepare a recommendation for you, can you please see how Arundi is doing? You can find him next door.”

“Gained 30 Experience Points and Tiny Red Potions X3,” words floated above our heads. “Congratulations, you have reached level 4. Your health and mana are fully replenished. Accumulated Stat Points, 12.”

“If you are so concerned about him, why do you have to send us? Geez,” I ignored the floating words.

“Let us go with it for now. We might find something as we move along,” Girly suggested.

“Find what?” I stared at her.

“I don’t know, anything? Anything that might help us get out of here,” she replied.

“Might as well have a backup plan if Orcana ever crosses us,” Vampire added.

We moved to Arundi’s house. It had fared better than Arum’s. We stepped in and saw him standing by the table. He was a well-rounded man with a rounded face and had the same marker above his head as Arum. The tiny room only had a chair and a table, nothing more.

“Huh? Who are you?” He sounded surprised as I touched him.

“Ah, so you were here to check up on me. You can tell my brother I am doing great,” he declared. “Before you continue, can you run some errands for me? I was planning on participating in a cooking contest. Please bring me 5 Boarger Meat and 5 Grass Leaves.”

“We don’t have time for this. Can’t we just skip this quest?” I complained.

“Dude, that is a main quest. Besides, we need to gain more experience points. We look weak at the moment,” Kun elaborated.

“Hey, I think I see some people standing outside who can give us some side quests. Maybe we can get good stuff from them,” Girly pointed out.

“What is the reward for completing the main quest?” Vampire asked.

“Some garnets, some potions and some experience points,” Kun replied.

“Ooh, that’s nice.”

“Let us grab some side quests while we are at it,” I suggested.

Suddenly, there was an enormous fountain in the middle of town. It had baby angels and eagles carved around it. We approached people with exclamation points above their heads to gather additional quests.

I checked the accumulated quests, and they are mostly about gathering materials and defeating some monsters. Then we ran inside an inn to save our progress. Before we headed out of town, I thought I saw something dash behind us, but when I looked around, it was gone.

I shrugged as we headed out of town. At the northern outskirts of town, there were various creatures swarming around the towering grasses.

“I will work on the main quest, you guys cover the subs,” I decided.

“Are you sure that you can handle them alone?” Girly looked worried.

“I’m fine darling, don’t fret,” I winked at her and she blushed.

“I think it’s time to gather some Nesting Oils for the old lady’s ointments,” she turned away.

I aimed for the Boargers. They had hard tusks and large bodies. As soon as they spotted me, a handful of them came charging at me. I blocked the attack with my sword and they shoved me a few steps back. It grunted as it failed to bite my head off. I locked his tusks with my sword and flipped it away from me.

It collided with another Boarger. The two of them charged at me on both sides. As I intercepted one of them, the other stabbed me in the back with its horns. I groaned in pain as I felt my health drop to a quarter. I grabbed a potion and emptied it, but I only regained a quarter of my health.

“Darn it. At this rate, I will die for sure,” I said to myself.

“Get out of the way!” Kun shouted.

I jumped to the side as a bomb dropped in front of my enemies. It stunned them. I figured that this is my chance. I nodded at Kun in gratitude. I ran my sword through their thick skins until they stopped moving. As their bodies disappeared, some pieces of meat took their place.

“I simply got to beat three more, but I feel exhausted already,” I sighed.

“Need some help?” Vampire rushed to my side.

“You have already beaten the Cat Stingers?”

“Not quite, I still needed eight more. I figured that you needed some help.”

I nodded at him. We rounded up three more of them until they have surrounded us. Suddenly, the Boargers unleashed a trinity skill, Crying Horns. They clashed horns with each other until a horrible echo of waves filled our ears. I felt most of my strength drop after falling to the ground.

“My attacks barely give damage to them. So this is how being a fly feels like,” I said between slashes.

“We cannot give up yet. We have barely done anything,” Vampire was panting.

“I have an idea. Cover for me, will you?”

“What are you doing?”

“Just stall them for a while. This will merely take a second.”

I placed most of my stat points on strength while I divided the rest equally. Then, I noticed that I also have four skill points, so I used them to unlock a unity skill, War Sword. I asked Vampire to accomplish the same while I covered for him.

Suddenly, we fused into one, and our weapons became one as well. War Sword came down from the sky and struck our enemies. They squealed as they were being sucked in by the sword. Moments later, we were back in our separate bodies with our quest items waiting for us.

“Nice team work. Let’s do this again sometime,” Vampire smiled.

“It feels weird joining bodies with you. Sorry, but I must decline your offer,” I shuddered at the thought.

“If you change your mind, I will be ready,” he dashed off to finish his side quest.

I was still wincing from the fusion as I plucked the Grass Leaves. I realized I discovered death from deep inside of him. I never knew that a vampire’s anatomy could be so horrific. When I got up, I saw Vampire wink at me as he finished his side quest.

“I have found it!” Kun announced.

“Hand over the Lost Boy’s Coin to me,” I shouted at him.

He came rushing back with the big coin in his hands. He slammed it to my face and my health dropped slightly. I pulled myself up and gave him a searing gaze.

“What gives?” I grabbed the coin, but I decided that getting back at him was strength wasted.

“I was just flexing my arms. Sorry, I did not notice you there,” he answered nonchalantly.

“Why you--!” I felt my face burn, but I evened out my breathing.

“We have everything we need. We should head back now,” Girly was suddenly at my side.

“Yeah,” I smiled at her.

We avoided having more encounters with the creatures as we headed back to town. We talked to the people and collected our rewards. Soon, we were at level six. We returned to Arundi and gave him what he requested of us.

“These are perfect! These are exactly what I needed. I know this isn’t much, but please accept them as payment for your service,” Arundi handed over some stuff to us.

“You have gained three Small Red Potions, 500 Garnets and 350 Experience points,” words appeared above our heads.

I touched Arundi again, and he responded, “I almost forgot, Arum wants me to inform you he has already finished writing the letter. Go meet him in his house as soon as you can.”

As I opened the door, I felt something touch my back. My spine shivered and the room’s temperature plummeted to a negative. I forced myself out and stormed ahead of them. The warmth of the outdoor sun brought me some comfort.

“Are you alright? It looks like you have seen a ghost or something,” Girly tugged my arm.

“Me? That is nonsense! It was getting stuffy in there, that’s all,” I shrugged. Girly flashed a look at me.

When we made it back to Arum’s place, his blood scattered around the room. He was lying flat on the floor with a letter in his hand. He gestured for us to come closer to him. My gut told me not to approach, so I stayed behind.

“What happened here?” Vampire was shocked.

“Come… hither… I don’t have much time left. Deliver this letter and tell him it has already started. You… are our… only hope…” Arum said with his dying breath.

“No!” Girly cried.

“We must move on. His sacrifice should not be in vain,” Kun urged us.

“Let us check with Arundi to see if he is still okay,” I went out of the room and pulled Girly with me.

We came back to Arundi’s place. He was still standing by the table, staring blankly into space. Relief washed over us. We sprinted to the inn and saved our progress. With heavy hearts, we left the town to reach the next.

“It’s going to be fine, I think that he was programmed to die,” Vampire comforted Girly.

“How could you say that? What if we are next?” Girly slapped him in the face.

“Ouch!” His health dropped significantly.

“Guys, we have to stop killing each other. We have to survive to win our lives back,” Kun gently reminded them.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what got into me. Here, have a potion,” Girly handed one to Vampire.

“Thanks. I understand that it scares you. It scares all of us,” Vampire smiled at her.

“Don’t smile at me like that,” she slapped his face again, and I thought I heard a bone c***k.

“Gasp,” Vampire collapsed in a single blow.

“Oh no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” Girly cried.

“Let us return to town. Maybe the healer can revive him,” I suggested.

We approached the healer again. This time, a fee of 100 Garnets met us for reviving a team member. She raised her staff and Vampire was back in a flash of light. He kept a safe distance from Girly after that. I could feel the tremor in the air.

“I really felt that, and it still hurts,” Vampire touched his neck.

“I said that I’m sorry,” Girly puffed.

“I would feel so much better now if you stay away from me.”

“Fine, I will keep my hands in my pocket if that makes you feel better.”

“That sounds assuring.”

“I think we should go now. The risk gets higher the more we linger here,” I interrupted their argument.