Alban awoke as the bright white light of the sun faded into the distance. Standing at a window, he watched as the moon made itself known to the world, the previously black sky turning into crimson colors. As he waited patiently for the day to begin, he noticed the sound of a desk creaking.
"You are up early. Why?" Although the bandages obscured her looks, they could not hide her body language. As she tilted her head to the side with her hands lightly holding each other, Alban turned to look at her.
"We have a job to do, right? Why shouldn't I be up?" The expression he held was equally confused, as if she should've known the answer in the first place. The two gazed at each other in silence, both waiting for more explanation.
But their stares did not last long, as Lat stood up roughly. The gheckla started stretching his body, making a loud noise that would've woke them all up anyways. That was proved by the fact that Teta flew up soon after, his impish face contorted in a grimace.
"You lizard bastard, did your mom make breakfast for you? Why all the fucking noise, piss head?"
"What? I'll have ya know that I'm just used to waking up this early, ya-"
"We will be leaving now." Snowman simply turned and walked out of the room as Alban followed. Teta and Lat exchanged looks of contempt before hurrying after them.
The group briskly walked through the woodland path the man from the other day guided them through. They were halfway through it before Snowman veered straight through the trees.
As the group quickly followed, the trees disappeared after they stepped through them. In their place was a completely new path, unmistakable from the route they had taken to already get there.
Luckily, no questions were raised at this point. The reason was most likely the fact that Teta and Lat were having a mini confrontation as they walked, the former merely laughing at the latter. The group briskly walked down the long earthen road, their caretaker guiding them to the city.
Alban took in the sights as they progressed, his eyes met with open plains. Air briskly whipped the green grass, pushing them back and revealing monsters within.
A huge variety of monsters was there for the hunting, leading Alban to be overjoyed. It was one of the things he was sure brought him happiness, as he became increasingly unsure of his emotions the longer he spent in Nightmare. Any fleeting joy was to be cherished and respected, and he wondered how long it would be until he could freely hunt out here.
There were random houses dotted about the plains, each looking rather poor in condition. It was more apt to call them shacks than anything, as they looked run down and damaged.
"They are monsters who are sentient but cannot afford to live even in the Lower District."
Snowman watched each and every one of them very carefully, although it seemed like she wouldn't be able to. Her face was firmly placed forwards, though Alban noted that she could still see him.
"Even? The Lower District, what kind of people live there?"
"The Lower District is mostly populated by low income monsters and cults. The cults do not usually do much, though we are still to patrol the area." Her tone was firm and precise, answering as if she was a robot, although she still had quite a lovely voice to listen to.
Alban put that down on the list of races she could be, contemplating on whether or not to use Inspect on her. He had noticed that when he used it on monsters in the arena, they would usually notice if they were strong enough. From then on, he decided not to use it wantonly, for it could cause unnecessary complications.
Brushing aside the notion of following through with his thoughts, he inspected his abilities. Macabre Artist...he hadn't used those skills very much. It wasn't that he couldn't figure out how to use them, he was just confused about when they should apply. All of them require a lot more mana than what he usually used, so he still had to adjust himself.
'Though that would be resolved if I could just level up. Oddly, I can't. The experience is full, and yet it hasn't done anything yet...maybe those enemies weren't enough for me?' He thought deeply about this, though he did fight quite strong opponents...
Before he could go any deeper into his thoughts, he saw that they were quite close to Mrathos. Pushing them back to the depths of his mind to maximize his focus, he entered high alert.
When they reached their destination, they were met with a light brown wall. There was no gate or guard in sight, though Alban was convinced there was an opening. It wouldn't make sense for Snowman to bring them here otherwise.
His suspicions were soon confirmed when Snowman pressed on a brick. As the brick sunk deeper into the wall, a portion of it sank into the ground. The group walked inside, emerging behind a large house.
"We do not go through gates, as we do not want people spying on us. Our job is to keep the peace or make reports, not leak information. The wall opens behind a random house every time, so please note which one you are nearby. Luckily, this house belongs to our first cult for the day."
Sidling up to front rather quickly, Snowman knocked three times on the door. Two minutes passed before a monster resembling a kindly middle aged woman entered the doorway. Her face was covered in a black veil, while she wore a business suit.
"Blessings unto ye, Snowman. And the men with you as well!" Her arms opened in a hugging gesture as she turned her head to each and every one of them, before settling her limbs to her sides. She appeared quite energetic.
"Status report." Her reply was curt and abrupt, though the woman seemed not to care. Tapping the horns atop her shoulders, she stood quietly for a minute.
"There's not much going on, dear. Ye should know that we are one of the smaller cults, as Amritjal is not popular. Is that all you came for?"
"Yes. We'll be on our way." She took off as the woman closed the door, Alban and the others in tow. They passed a myriad of houses with different furnishings, banners, and decorations, as they made their way to the center of the town.
In the town square was a fountain, as a dog-headed man held a sign with a red x on it. The place was slightly crowded, with various monsters shuffling about as they talked. This peace did not last long, for the dog-headed monster started speaking quite loudly.
"Those cults know not of gods, they know only their pockets! Do not be swayed, people!"
"What an ass. Doesn't he know that we only make money because of these cults?"
"An old dog doesn't even know old tricks. This has been going on for quite a while, you codger!"
His words caused quite the ruckus as the square emptied rather quickly. Still, Alban could hear all the complaints the people lodged towards the old man as they left, while the man in question simply kept shouting. When the region was completely emptied, Snowman stepped up to him.
"Ruudar. What cults should we investigate, if any?"
"Kids these days...you're the least rude but you're rather uncouth you know? At least introduce me to these young men behind you, hum!"
Snowman turned around before gesturing towards Ruudar, before speaking up. "This is Ruudar, he is our informant. Now, would you please tell us if there has been any suspicious behavior recently?" Ruudar grumbled before answering.
"There has, kid. 3 cults have been seen smuggling something in here, but I was unable to see what it was. My suggestion? Find out right now before the trail runs cold. It was the Groundskeepers, the Clor, and Manheras."
Snowman visibly jumped a bit, slightly unsettled at the turn of events. Still, there was no change in intonation as she made her orders known.
"I wanted to show you around most of them, but it seems we will have to speed up. We will check by the three and check for clues first."
"No way...she was really going to cram all this information into our heads??" Lat suddenly spoke, expressing his bewilderment. Teta begrudgingly nodded to show his agreement, stretching his wings as he did so.
"We will reserve it for some other time. Let us go."
And so they went.