(Seymour's POV):
I have completed my preparations toward my short solo expedition towards the biome filled with purple apparitions... A corrupted forest...
I simply took three weapons that are enough for me. All three are handmade by Denzel himself, a halberd, a spear, and a staff.
These weapons have lightness and power combined nicely, giving out a decent balance in handling.
I left my room and went around the castle for a single lap first.
"Oh Seymour! Going out somewhere?" - Chesca
The person that called out to me was a girl that was wearing light clothing and is seemingly on a break today. She had short purple hair and a style that can make a person mistake her as a guy. That person is Chesca, she mainly acts like a guy at times but she's a powerful sniper with pinpoint accuracy and positioning. We have her and Mitch take the role of scout and sniping in combat.
"Yeah, I'm going alone so Allen will take charge of the castle."
"Ah, alright... Do you..." - Chesca
Have more bullets? Go ask Denzel...
Every time Chesca comes to ask me for something it would either be farming spots, or when she runs out of bullets.
"Do you have some snacks cause I'm a bit hungry right now and it's way off before the scheduled dinner..." - Chesca
"Uh, huh... You know that you can use the kitchen however you want right?"
I allow people to freely utilize the kitchen in case they get a little hungry. There are some snacks prepared for anyone to just snatch around.
"Really? Is it alright?" - Chesca
"Yeah, you can go ahead and take as much as you want. Be careful of choosing which ones though you might end up taking Denzel's tests. He's trying to make cola as far as I know."
"Alright!" - Chesca
Chesca starts walking towards the kitchen while humming. Ah, I should remind her.
"Chesca, contact Denzel if you run out of bullets. His handiwork will work much better than the ammo you're using."
Classes have a starter gift which isn't really the greatest thing in the world for some of us. For classes that require a weapon, you're just given a decent starting weapon and you can wing it for a long time. Within the four of us, me, Michael, Robin, and Denzel, we're given an arsenal of magic instead. We can fight in the backline but preference is everything here.
After going through the kitchen, Chelsea seems to be drinking Denzel's experiment bottle and is feeling blissful with the drink.
"Guess she got the right one huh?"
Denzel tends to be disorganized with his placement of experimental objects. It reached to the point where it's completely annoying if we end up trying the wrong bottle out of confusion.
There were times where the people who drank the experiments became nauseous for half an hour. Drunk or tipsy, and even became a bit sleepy for a long time. We had punished Denzel for playing around with the other members but, it seems like Chesca's bliss will confirm that it's safe to steal drinks from Denzel now.
I passed through the map room and noticed Allen and Julius playing chess. I didn't disturb them and went off outside the castle where I met Mitch.
"Yo! Practicing today?"
"Nope, I'm heading out to farm a huge amount of experience today." - Mitch
"I see, where are the others?"
"I don't really know since I'm moving around alone." - Mitch
"Alright, if you come back here before me just know that Allen is currently in charge."
"You're going out somewhere?" - Mitch
"Yeah, I plan to collect another item from a large item series."
"Zodiacs huh? That seems very difficult." - Mitch
I have already explained to them my intention of collecting the Zodiac series. They have yet to know what the effects of each one but each one will boost a single status significantly. For example, the Ophiuchus will boost my resilience to damage tenfold. Just having such an item greatly improves my stats. I have read a book that contains all thirteen zodiacs and their effects.
Having all thirteen zodiacs will increase all stats which are: Strength, vitality, resilience, agility, dexterity, tenacity, endurance, sustain, physical and magic negation.
The other three gives various effects like immunity to all debuffs, extreme increase in mana capacity, and balances all stats equally. It generally means that every single stat within me, will have an equal maximum. Any further scaling will distribute the stats all around.
Collecting the thirteenth zodiac will grant me a bonus effect. By a short movement of my body, I will gain the ability to stop time. It's not proven yet due to the number of theories about the active ability that requires all thirteen zodiacs. There was a list that contained all the possible abilities in collecting the artifacts.
The list goes on and on and contained very deadly abilities like a long time stop, future sight, invincibility, dimensional rift killing, and even mind control. The thing about using the abilities is that every person who has managed to collect the thirteen zodiacs often die by overuse of the abilities.
After a long way of travel towards the east, I had arrived to the corrupted biome. I momentarily explored the areas within the corruption because I was told that the huge chasm at the center would probably be the place where the zodiac is hidden.
The number of flying monsters were pretty extreme, I simply just used one ability to keep everything in check.
I made tall spikes emerge from the ground and aim it towards the monsters that are seemingly corrupted by something. What is this wasteland... Is there any chance of collecting any lore or information about this place.
The color of the biome is completely purple, the soil is goopy and the trees look pretty bad with purple leaves. The corruption is slowly spreading out at a pace of a meter per week. If my theory is correct, then the crimson should also be spreading towards somewhere... It'll be dangerous of it spreads to common ground.
"Purifying corrupted soil might be troublesome. I think we'll need to have an expert at nature magic but we don't have anyone excluding Karl. But there's also a chance that we would really require a Nature Nymph to purify the area. Not to mention we have to purify two areas."
The amount of possible chaos that would happen if this grass was to spread towards us is troublesome. It'll probably take a few years though.
I stopped worrying about the spread and walked around further. I keep launching various attacks by utilizing earth magic to raise up stalagmites and pierce through the flying monsters from the ground.
I didn't particularly have any issue on traversing the area if I can just insta-kill these monsters pretty easily. I manage to press forwards till I can see a town. Huh, why is there a town there?
I dashed towards the town and arrived there within a few minutes.
The town gate was closed and there was nobody that was responding.
"Anybody here?!"
A creepy silence flowed through the gate. The fact that the place simply echoed back to me was enough to tell that this is a ghost town now. It was proven true so I just took out one item that allows high mobility standards.
I threw a dark greenish pearl over the wall and waited for it to land. After landing, I instantly got teleported with an uncomfortable feeling of instant movement.
Jeez, I should close my eyes when using this for mobility but eh.
I started walking around the ghost town that had pretty much the standard stores that are essential to have economy. Stores are pretty empty and some have broken down quite well. I wonder if somebody built this a long time ago.
After looking around, I went to the central fountain to take a break.
"Wow, there's literally nothing here. I wonder if I could take a huge amount of free loot in this town..."
After thinking for a while, I decided to end my break as I saw a large library behind me. I tend to go to the libraries first because I need as much collectible information about this biome. The more information, the better we can handle living in this world.
After arriving to the library, I checked every single book to ensure I don't bring home a duplicate of what I have read already.
I found interesting books that contained information about living their life in this biome and experimenting on the new grass. Some books involve exploring the dark chasms that was generated by shadow orbs that are said to be celestial objects.
After finding about a dozen books I suddenly noticed a scream filled with pain.
"Wide-Area Detection!"
I immediately scanned the whole town to search for the scream which occurred somewhere within the east wing of the town.
"Haaah, I should just get to it..."
I went towards the location I felt the presence and the first thing I saw was a bunch of particles flying up to the sky.
"Help us!" - ???
"Uwaaaah! I don't wanna die!" - ???
They're surrounded and screwed...
The couple screamed out in terror as I try to push through the hordes of people that have purple stuff all over them.
"Right, let's clean this up..."
I raised my hand up high and activated a skill that isn't really meant to be used in dueling.
"Insidious Insanity!"
A large black orb formed and generated millions of spikes aimed towards the corrupted villagers.
The number of spikes reached about 150, each struck a corrupted villager until it died.
The couple was completely shocked to what I can do and starts fearing for their life even more.
"Are you gonna kill us?" - ???
The guy stood in front of the girl and tried to protect her with all his life.
"You can take whatever you want and do whatever you please with me! Just don't harm her!" - ???
I retracted all 150 spikes and let all the corrupted villagers disperse into particles.
"You look interesting... I shall invite you two to the Asylum..."
I simply reached out for a handshake in which the guy returned it nervously.
"The name's Seymour, leader of Asylum."
"Ah, my name is William... This girl is Mea..." - William
Two youngsters huh... Well they look promising.