"Fireball."
I released my fire magic to those fragile golems. Fireball was an AOE attack which could attacked many enemies in one time. Then they were burned by fiery ball and turned to ash immediately.
Why I called them fragile golems? Because they were made from paper. A freaky paper. I didn't know there was exist creature like paper golems. I thought all golems are created from soil or stone. They were also a bit short, their height didn't ever reached my knee.
This was the third batch of paper golems I had destroyed. Each corner of this pathway was guarded by them. My left hand held the torch to enlighten the dark pathway which I found before entering the hidden door.
I could still heard clearly and loudly the disturbance sounds from far. I guessed by the end of this pathway maybe I would found the source of mysterious sounds. I walked carefully toward it and be alerted to any ambush attack or trap.
Then, I had reached to end of the pathway. There was another door that was blocking my way. Those sounds was clearly coming from behind this door. I saw no lock on this metal door. So I slowly opened the door and surprised of what I had found.
______________
Twelve hours before that.
I walked into adventurer guild after I had spent my half day at library. I should took a quest after I had not visit this guild for three days. I busied with magic class and 'date practice' with Cara.
After entering, I straight went to third board where the quest for E and F ranked quest had been put. My purpose here was to take my first E ranked quest.
I scanned and read all the quests. I want to choose a quest that had good reward and challenging. I didn't want to collect the herbs or hunted weak goblins.
After five minutes, I interested on one quest. It required for adventurer to do investigation on certain mansion not far from this city. That mansion was exclusive and private residential for certain noble but got abandoned when first owner died and his family left to another city. So the mansion had been empty since 10 years ago.
But since past week, the guild got complaint about loud sound disturbance from inside that mansion. The villagers said the weird sound was varied from eery shrieking to loud laughter, then wolf howl and scream of woman. The sounds changed from time to time and could only be heard during night time.
So the guild put up this quest for adventurer to investigate the source of sound inside the mansion and reported back to guild. After that, any further action will be determined by guild based on adventurer's report.
Basically, this quest only required for adventurer to investigate, collected enough information and reported back to guild. Time limit for this quest was two days.
I decided to take investigation mission and submitted the quest to receptionist. After that, I exited the guild and went to waiting area near at east gate.
This waiting area was a place for people to ride a caravan or wagon for a certain fee. They can move faster from one place to another place by using transportation that got pulled by horses rather than just walking by foot.
Before start moving, the driver of caravan would shouted their next destination to attract any nearby passengers. For them more passenger ride in their caravan, more money they could earned. Although their caravan could only supported at most less than ten passengers.
In simple word, this place was equal to bus station.
"Linbrook Village. Who want to go to Linbrook? We will leave in about 15 minutes."
I turned my head to the voice owner. He was a middle-age man. He waved his hand to get people's attention. There was already three or four people inside the caravan behind his back.
Linbrook Village, that was my next destination. The mansion was located near to outskirt of that village. To go there, I could walked for about five hours or rode in caravan and reached in two hours. Of course the obvious way was to hitch a ride.
I approached the middle-age man whose I believed was the driver of this caravan. He saw me and said the fare to go Linbrook Village was 45 Gal. I took the coins from my sack and gave it to him. He calculated the coins to make sure I paid him properly and then he allowed me to board the caravan.
After waiting for a while, there was no other people who boarded this caravan. So the driver took his seat at front side to start the journey. He shocked the rope connected to two horses as sign to move. Then those horses started slowly walking toward east gate and exited the city.
The ride was smooth without any problem occur. I often heard from people who gossiped at inn and guild that robbery case was 'natural accident' during travel. That was why the wealthy or rich carriage which frequently transported pricey stuffs had often hired the competence adventurers to travel with them. Only D ranked or above could took quest to escort those carriage to guarantee the safety of clients.
This was my first time travel outside Selarin City by using the transportation. The journey was fine but it was not comfortable as I already used travel in car or bus. My butt was stiff from the hard seat. The other four passengers was quiet and didn't talk much so I feel reluctant to initiate a chat with them. During travel I took short nap to rest after spending time reading at library.
After two hours, the caravan reached and entered into Linbrook Village. This village didn't have fence or gate to stop outsider from entering this place. But I can see one young man who acted like guard at front side of village when the caravan first entered into village.
He approached to the caravan and started asking some questions to driver. I didn't pay attention to hear his conversation. I saw the driver gave him some coins and then he permitted us to enter the village. I thought the coins was payment of tax for entering any village or city.
The driver stopped the caravan not far from when we entered the village. Slowly, one by one got down from the caravan. I was also following them after that. They walked away from caravan to their own destination. I also had my own place to go.
Before I need to investigate the mansion, I should went to report first to chief village. The receptionist at guild said it was sensible to meet the client first before start any job, especially when quest related to investigation. Getting the first hand information was valuable to determine our first step.
For some small village, I could directly met the chief whether at his house or his office. It was still daytime so I guessed the chief was still available at his office. To find his office was not hard, especially in this small village. I could just visited the building one by one and read the front signboard.
After five minutes, I easily found the chief's village. It was convenient for each building had signboard at front door.
I knocked the door at chief's office.
"Come in."
A deep voice from inside the office invited me to come in. I opened the door and greeted the man which I believed as chief village here. He was around mid 40s and more taller than me. His body was bulky from his huge muscle. Wow, did this world also had gym?
"Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Dylan. I'm an adventurer from Selarin City and coming here for the quest related to mansion."
First I introduced myself so he could knew my intention here. I hoped for his assistance to give me more information.
"Yeah, nice to meet you. I'm Sigwald, this chief village of Linbrook. I see, you're the one the guild send. I really need your help to ease the villagers here."
Then he continued speaking about his request to guild.
The problem occurred from last week when some hunters late arrived at village during night. Suddenly they heard weird noise from inside the mansion. There was no light or any sign that indicated any human stayed at that mansion. The noise stopped after 10 minutes.
The next night, the villagers who lived near to it started to hear the same weird noise after midnight. Then the noise changed to woman's screaming before replaced by loud screeching.
The next day, the villagers went inside the mansion to investigate the mysterious sound but found nothing. At night, the noice could be heard again and it repeated every night after midnight. So the chief village requested the help from adventurer guild to help them.
The chief said the mansion located at end west side of village, near to small hill. It was big building and easily recognized from far away.
I was thankful to chief and said that I would started my investigation after night. He advised me to be careful and would helped me if I required it.
After that, I went out from the office and walk to direction of mansion. I feel that I could finished the quest without any problem. Fear and horror were not my weak points. I had watch enough movies to know that I didn't fear to ghost. So what if the voice could only be heard during midnight? Feeling scary to some unknown was not manly.
After 30 minutes, I reached to the mansion. I impressed to see that big and luxury house was hidden at such small village. This mansion should be perfect dream residence if people could ignored the wild plants that grew from inside white walls.
Before midnight coming, I would temporarily camped here to get rest first. Fortunately this village free from wild animals or mosquito so I could easily relaxed while waiting the weird voice rang again.
Suddenly, I heard the loud sound. I didn't get scare but instead my face got red blushed.
"~~Growl~~"
Oh man, that was not the sound came from mansion but the sound from my belly. I realized I had skipped lunch and dinner for today. Why the hunger came at such critical time?
Now I hoped there was a restaurant exist at this village.