Rastel and the gloomy woman slowly walked through the silent forest without a single word passing between them.
When the woman declared that she knew the place, Rastel noticed the alarmed and then concerned expression on the old inn keepers face. The old man was a bit reluctant at first to allow her show the way insisting that she should describe It instead but due to Rastel's unfamiliarity with the area and the woman's stubbornness, she had ended up been his guide on the rather dangerous mission.
"Yer make sure yer bring her back safely with that bastard in chains, do yer hear me young lad!?" he had made sure to beat the message repeatedly into Rastel's skull till the point he had to leave the settlement as fast as he could to escape his constant nagging.
The old man promised to take care of the two girls before they came back and they left without much fanfare without the knowledge of the people around who had already gone back to beds.
They had already crossed the stream and were going to a deeper part of the forest where the surrounding foliage blocked the white moon's light from reaching the forest floor. Although it was very dark, he wasn't too restricted with his dark sight skill active. The woman seemed to have something similar as she wasn't impeded by the lack of light either.
As they moved, they soon approached an area with a small hill in sight from a distance. The woman immediately crouched low at first sight and pointed it out to Rastel who had made sure to crouch beside her and activate his stealth skill.
"At the left side of that hill is a big shrub growing right from underneath a huge boulder leaning at the hill's side. The entrance is positioned at the point where the boulder meets the hill and is covered by the shrubbery, even a casual search won't expose it and only a very thorough search would allow you find the entrance. Unless you knew it was there in the first place." She fully explained to him.
Her explanation though left Rastel wondering how she found this hideout that was seemingly impossible to find easily by her own words. Does she have a personal vendetta against this necromancer?
She continued forward without another word and he followed behind her. Her dress seemed to make no sound against the floor as they slowly approached the hillside. They had just touched the wall of the hill facing them when they heard the voices of three people talking among themselves.
"But Hyung-nim we should let it go for now. I heard there is a settlement not far from here, we can rest there."
"Hah!…. You get scared too easily Sing-nim! It is just a small dungeon. We would be in and out before you know it!"
"Iron-nim you have no considerations for a lady! Do you really want me to enter this dark cave in the middle of the night!?"
"Erh…I trust you Snow, I know you can handle it!"
"You are so hopeless oppa!"
Rastel was stunned. 'This manner of speech, Koreans?'
The woman's reaction on the other hand was more direct as she reached with her left hand bringing out an exquisite looking small dagger from under her dress. Rastel had to whisper quickly under his breath to her.
"Wait! They might be friendly!" he put his hand on her shoulder to ease her movement.
She turned back and looked at him with a near murderous glare but he just nodded calmly at her as he walked pass to approach the group of people he was now sure were players.
'She really wants to kill me doesn't she? Felt the goosebumps forming up my spine back there.' He shivered inwardly as he remembered her glare.
"Hyung-nim this really isn't a good idea!"
"Listen to Sing, oppa. He has more sense than you!"
"Hey! Is that how to speak to your oppa?!"
Rastel walked openly towards the group as he chuckled inwardly at their conversation. He could hear rustling behind him and realized the woman was following him closely though he didn't dare to look back for fear of meeting her murderous glare.
Soon, he was able to see the group of three. There was a big man in the middle of the group standing nearly 6ft tall with a wide face and black hair with stubble growing under his chin. He was a human that belonged to a sub-race Rastel couldn't identify and wore a large iron chest plate with leather armor, a huge iron shield mounted on his back and a small heavy sword by his waistline. He seemed to be the one they called oppa as his loud boisterous voice was easily identifiable.
The next person was a beastman of the wolf race and he stood at average height with the head of a wolf but facial features of a man. His fur was pitch black and he had light grey eyes that shone in the night. He wore leather armor with his bushy tail sprouting from a hole in the back, there was a long bow on his shoulders and a quiver of arrows on his back. Rastel could identify him from his voice as the one they called Sing.
And as for the lady who was obviously Snow, she was a high elf with snow white skin and hair just as her name implied. Her face seemed to glitter of its own accord in the dark forest night and her eyes which were a deep blue were mesmerizing to behold. She wore gray robes that recognized her as a cleric and she had a blue flower tucked in her left ear.
'What a weird combo of people. But it is still the holy trinity alright.' Rastel applauded the team in his mind.
It wasn't long before the group noticed them and their reaction was nothing short of shocking. As soon as they noticed them, Iron shouted out a warning and they all immediately fell into a kind of formation.
Iron took down his shield and placed it squarely in front of him as he unsheathed his heavy sword. Snow had already quickly moved to the back of the team and Sing who had already nocked an arrow to his bow fired a warning shot that landed just in front of Rastel which forced him to stop!
The series of actions ended up catching Rastel unprepared as he stared in shock! The woman on the other hand gripped her hand around her dagger tightly.
"Who are you?" Iron's grim voice echoed out from behind the shield.
About 30 minutes ago, in a dark cave that seemed to ooze out an endless chill that reached the depths of a person's very soul was host to a very odd scene.
This cave was nothing natural as it had elaborate pillars and arches carved into its earthen walls which were clearly made by sentient hands. The cave with all the delicate workmanship would have looked beautiful if it wasn't for the piles of rotting corpses that sat at one corner, or the large pool of bubbling red viscous liquid that occupied the center, or the pit of roaring fire that seemed to burn eternally, or the occasional undead skeleton that went about the cave doing one thing or the other like a housemaid dealing with chores.
Or what everyone would agree to be a very disturbing scene of a large bed that occupied a corner of the cave setting. This seemingly out of place furniture was occupied by a great number of moving corpses that came from different species ranging from elves to humans to beastmen, one could even see the whipping tail of a devil slithering among-st the mass of decaying bodies.
And in the center of this gruesome and horrifying scene was the fat obese figure of a wood elf who laid surrounded by these moving corpses with eyes closed in what seemed to be ecstasy. From his bulging stomach, flabby cheeks and puffy black lips, this elf known simply as Deqi by his associates was nothing near the image of a beautiful being that most people would associate to wood elves not to talk of a powerful and feared necromancer.
In the pit of fire that burned endlessly, a tall black skeleton suddenly walked out from the flames and without any extra motions, proceeded in joining a group of other blackened skeletons in moving the pile of corpses into the pool of liquid bubbling in the center.
This strange terrifying scene continued on with much pause and Deqi moaned in pure ecstasy as he was surrounded in his terrifying and repulsive paradise. Nothing could spoil this for him, nothing at all!
But suddenly! His eyes snapped open as he lifted his huge body from the mass of rancid flesh. His lips were trembling and he stuttered as if he couldn't find the right words to say.
"Wh….wha….bu….ho…..ha….ha....." his eyes widened as his blubbery face scrunched up in pain and disbelief.
"NO!!!!!"