"The test will be as follow, I want you to save as much villagers as you can, if you're in life or death danger you'll be pulled back here."
"What do you mean save villa—"
Before Elliot was done asking more details about the quest the world around him melted and he appeared in front of a big wooden gate, the gate was attached to high wooden walls made of logs and behind the walls he could see the tips of houses. Not too far from him there were two towers also made of wood.
'This is a village ? So I guess my clear condition is inside here, but I wonder who or what do I have to save them from...'
"Hello ? Is there someone ?"
Elliot used both his hands as a megaphone and yelled, the village was very quiet but there didn't seem to be any trace of battle so he didn't know in what state it was.
After a minute of trying again and again without answer he decided to push the gate and go in, he walked on the main road surrounded by log houses and was surprised by how quiet this village was.
'Judging by its size this village and the number of houses must have around 10 000 habitants, how come it's so calm ?'
As he walked deeper inside the village Elliot felt like he was being watched, this time however there was no pressure.
'This person looking at me is weak, an habitant ?'
He tried looking around himself but couldn't pinpoint the exact location of the eyes, he knew that they were very close but there was no way for him to feel the direction of the person watching him.
This kind of "perception" ability is usually closely linked to the intelligence or wisdom stat, Elliot was curious on which one it was and also how strong it would become as he gained more points in that particular stat.
/
After awhile Elliot decided on moving further in the village and left the spy behind, if that spy had bad intentions Elliot would take care of him later, if not then he would probably be able to get informations about the disappeared villagers from him.
After walking for a few minutes a bigger wooden house than the rest he had seen until now was in front of him, it was located at the end of the main road that cut the whole village on two sides so Elliot was convinced this house would have hints on how to advance in his quest.
Without losing anymore time he pushed the door open and at the same time he felt something moving towards his head at low speed, he took his time to look and it was a small rock.
Although such a small rock thrown with such weakness wouldn't do anything to him Elliot still caught it by reflex and looked for where it came from.
Hidden behind the windows of a small house Elliot could see half heads peeking at him, with angry eyes. For some reason he found the scene very cute and it reminded him of Timmy when he got angry at him.
"Come out kids, I'm not a bad guy."
...
...
...
Even after saying that the kids didn't do anything and kept staring at him, he pushed the door of the big house to test them and as expected they reacted once again and a few rocks came flying at him.
'They must be protecting someone or something inside here, they only attacked when I pushed the door...'
/
Inside the house there were 5 little boys all were around the same age, they all had blue eyes and blonde hair, one of them : the closest to the window was holding a handmade slingshot and waiting for Elliot to make a move.
"Alex... he just said he's not a bad guy, maybe he came to help us."
"Humph ! Never trust adults, I told you that already right ?"
"Yes..."
The four other boys didn't seem like they didn't trust Elliot but the one who acted like a leader, Alex really seemed to hate adults.
"But even then can we really stop an adult if he wants to go inside the mayor's mansion ?"
"We have to stop him ! If we don't then the village will be completely wiped out ! Even if we have to die together with him we will do it, understood ?!"
"Yes..."
/
On the other side Elliot was at a loss, he wanted the kids to come out on their own because if he had to force them they might hate him, he had a younger brother their age so he knew very well how kids thought, they hated to be forced to do stuff.
On the other hand he knew that the kids didn't want him to go inside that house but he felt like the quest would advance if he did so, on the other hand that might make the kids even more angry and what if that made the quest harder ?
"Fucking old man, giving me a quest with no details."
Elliot had always been the respectful type but he really couldn't help but hate that old man for making things so hard for him, first he pressured him, then he called him weak and now he sent him to do a quest with no help.
"Hey kids I promise I won't do you any harm, come and talk to me."
Elliot had played games before, he knew very well that in some of them the choices you made could influence the way the story goes, that was called the "Butterfly effect".
The butterfly effect is an idea that says that a small change can make much bigger changes happen; that one small incident can have a big impact in the future, the name "Butterfly effect" comes from an analogy where a butterfly flaps its wings in Chicago and a tornado occurs in Tokyo.
Elliot didn't want a small mistake to cost the lives of these kids or his own life and so decided to proceed with caution but at the same time a question was rising in his mind.
'Which world am I in ? Is this behind the breach or earth ? If it's behind he breach then wouldn't this mean that that world also has native inhabitants?'
Until this day inside the breach Elliot had only met people from earth and monsters, or so he believed but today he sort of confirmed that there were people who were born in this world.