"H- hey, what's with that writings on the stone?" asked Nyoko.
All of us was equally stunned by it as well. The etching is constantly changing its contents upon us. For now, what was written on the boulder was,
"Welcome, dear travellers, to the Orchard Passage. The path of mystical mist,"
"Thou who had entered this path have no longer existed in this world. You have been brought to a parallel dimension that moves with you infinitely. Those who want to leave must answer certain riddles and go through some challenges that will befall them. For those who fail to complete the task will be stuck in this domain for eternity,"
"Well- that's one way to answer why we can't find our location in the map," I said,
"Riddles, huh? Ellisa, seems like your guess was right," said Ichijou,
Ellisa intervened and said, "If that's the case, the song that my mom sang to me can be a great help for us. Come on! If only I can remember all the lines from that song, things will be going smooth for us!"
The etching changed again and written, "But beware, beings of Ruina. This set of challenges isn't as easy as you may think. It will not only test your thinking skills but also your mind in making the right decisions,"
"I hate to say this but, what makes you think the song was real or have anything to do with these? We didn't even know if your mom just made up about it in the first place," asked Nyoko,
"My mom will never do such things. She's a very huge believer when it comes to mysterious phenomena or mystical stuff. I know what she sang is not just a made-up story, and there might be a puzzle behind it," Ellisa argued,
Nyoko just shook her head from left to right and responded, "Well, I don't want to be rude, so I'll just respect whatever you think is true,"
After that, a sudden wind gushes towards us and blows to the back, immediately reveals a stretch of roads hidden by the mist not long ago that was different from where we came before. It was an open field instead of a narrow path now. The stone had different etches now which said,
"Your first riddles start now," and below that was written,
"Some knew me as a stone, but I never was such a thing,
I can be found in the crust, but in the mountain is where I live,
My first is red, fit for royalty,
I am a ruby."
"I was stolen by the mist but was found by the wolves,
To proceed with your journey, I will be your key,
You may find me if you slay the beast, but only possess if you don't be greedy,
Only truthful and sincerity can lead you to victory,"
"Wait- What the hell is this? A poem or something?" I asked,
No. It's our first clue to solving the riddles. The last line in that poem was the same thing with what my mom sang before," Ellisa replied as she took a closer look,
She noted down the poems in her book, and eventually, the etching disappeared from the boulder. A haunting howl suddenly immerged from a distance. Was that the wolve that the poem mentions?
We decided to stay put while Ellisa tried to decipher the poems. We had no idea what to do nor where to go. The field seems to stretch out far over the horizon, much further than what the Orchard Passage should be. It's already been few hours since we've been here; we took turns to stay on watch while the other was resting except for Ellisa. She's been up and about ever since the boulder showed us the first riddle. I don't really like her not taking any rest at the moment. It's better to get our stamina up to its fullest rather than be sorry later,
"Hey, don't you think you should get some rest too?" I asked Ellisa,
She focused herself so much on her notebook and ignored me completely,
"Ellisa? Ellisa, can you hear me?" I repeated myself,
She was startled when she realised I was calling out to her, "Huh? Oh! I'm sorry,"
I handed her some food that I took from Nyoko's bag not long ago, "Here, you've been staring at your book for god knows how long now. At least have something to eat while you're at it," I said,
Ellisa politely accepted the food and slowly ate it. "Thanks. I'm sorry if I worried you," she mumbled,
I just stared at her eating for a moment before replying to her, "What have you learn so far?"
She quickly shoved the last piece inside her mouth and showed me her book, "Look, I don't know if I'm correct or not. But from what I understand, this poem is telling us to search for the ruby. I scouted the field while you were sleeping, and I saw a bunch of wolves roaming throughout the area,"
"What's with the wolf, though?" I asked confusedly,
She sighed for a moment until she proceeded with her explanation, "Okay, listen. The first stanza was straightforward enough. Then the second one mentioned the wolves; it tried to tell us that the wolves might possess the ruby. From what I can tell, once we find the ruby, we will find our way to move out from this location."
"But what about the last few lines, though?" I asked again,
Ellisa looked a little disappointed and said, "That's what I'm struggling to find the answer to. Truthful, sincerity. It doesn't make any sense,"
"It's okay. Don't force yourself to understand it by yourself. Let's use whatever we have already. If you say the ruby might be our way out of here, we better find it." I replied while gently patted her shoulder,
"Alright..." She muttered,
I smiled gently and said, "You should get some rest now. Can't have our best supporter low on energy when we make our next move, can we?"
"hehe, fine, fine. I'll just take a nap for ten minutes. So, you'll be on the watch now, right" she chuckled,
"Mhm, now go. Ease your mind for a bit." I answered,
Finally, Ellisa listened to my advice. She slowly walked away from me and took her sleeping bag with her closer to Nyoko. I don't even know if it's day or night in Ruina right now; the sky was dark as usual. The only thing that was visible to me was the smog hovering above and ahead of us.
I decided to stroll around the area when Ellisa was finally asleep. She's right; this place does fill with nothing more than the wolves. What's unusual about these wolves, they didn't seem to move in a pact. They were scattered all over, and some were further apart from the other. Also, the size of those animals didn't seem to be intimidating. It's reasonably small and looks easy enough to kill by myself. But it's better to check for its true potential before making any judgement about them.
Sometimes later, our resting time had finally come to an end. We had some food together before planning out for our next move. In the meantime, Ellisa explained her findings to everyone. She told about the ruby as well as what's the reason that the wolves are here,
"So, If we find it, we might get out of this place?" asked Nyoko,
"More or less," Ellisa blatantly responded,
"I'm still curious. Where do we even find that ruby from those wolves, though? It's not like they have pockets or something to even stash that thing and bring with it around," said Nyoko,
Ichijou then joined the conversation, "If it's not on them, then it's probably in them."
"Eh-?! Then you want us to open that wolves inside out just to make sure that's the ruby is there? That's gross!-" Nyoko murmured,
Ellisa scratched her cheeks and said, "Ehehe... I'm not fond of doing that kind of cruelty too despite them being a monster,"
"But you didn't seem that loving when we get the silk inside Webling's abdomen," I replied jokingly,
"I- Well, that's different! Those are bugs! Like huge bugs! Besides, I just pulled their web silks out from their abdomen! Not cut them open like a savage!-" Ellisa angrily responded,
"Hahahaha! Relax! I was just playing around!" I said,
The first to finish their meal was Ichijou. He looked at both of us and said, "That's enough of playing around for now. Finish up your food quickly so we can start finding the ruby."
We both complied after seeing how serious he was and chomped the food down our throat quickly, "Sorry!"
And so, our hunt begins. First, we began to move out to those wolves as a team. They seemed aggressive enough when we came close, but they only attacked individually rather than in a group. The reason behind this might be because of how further apart they are from each other. So, they never get provoked even if we engage their kinds.
Fighting them feels really odd. I expect things to be much more challenging battles from these beasts. But they all died after a few hits; it was too easy. Their movements are clumsy and slow; their hits weren't even heavy or hard to parry. It's literally felt like I'm fighting with a normal wolf compared to a mythical beast.
Every time we killed one, Ichijou ran his sword straight down onto the wolve's chest and opened it up. He carefully checks every part in that wolf for that ruby, but nothing can be found. We didn't give up on it yet, though, and continued the search from our next target.
We spent minutes slaying them one by one. It took a long time to move from one target to the other. Even if we try to group these wolves together, they soon lose interest in fighting us and walk back to where they originally were. This is weird; why are they behaving like this?- Ichijou's patient grew lower and lower after a certain period. He suddenly burst into anger and said,
"Oh my fucking god! This will take forever! Why are they not grouping up with each other!-"
I tapped his back and replied, "Relax now. I have no idea either. Why don't we use some attacks with a bigger radius? With that, we can easily get all of them at once,"
Ichijou let out a long sigh and responded, "Okay... Good idea. Why don't you try shooting them arrow with your bow,"
"Right. I forgot I can just do that from the beginning, hahaha." I laughed. But Ichijou didn't seem to be amused by my small talk, though.
Without further ado, I pulled my bow out and aimed the sight into the air, "Heroic Stance: Airstrike!"
Using my full strength, I stretched the string to the back and charged the arrow with the energy absorbed from its surroundings before releasing it instantly. The arrow multiplied in number as it cut through the air, and by the time it reached maximum trajectory, the amount of it became dozens if not hundreds raining down to the ground. Upon impact, the damage released a thick cloud into the air, which hindered our sight. It was far worst than I anticipated due to the already existed smog around us.
When it slowly cleared out, we were shocked to witness that the wolves were gone entirely. Not even a single dead body, let alone any parts of the wolf, can be found.
"What the hell?!- That attack wasn't even that strong! How could they obliterate without a single trace of blood on the ground?!-" I said,
Ichijou seemed to be speculating too at the moment. But then, he suddenly ordered Ellisa,
"Use your magic at those wolves over there. Don't overdo it. Just minor explosive spells or magic lances to them,"
Ellisa was a bit unclear but didn't question his order, "Oh- Okay!"
She began to chant her spell and deal a magic frost onto these wolves, and surprisingly, when the attack reached them, they magically disappeared into thin air. We were stunned to find out that it could do that,
"Eh-! Did I use too much power?-" asked Ellisa,
Nyoko quickly interfered and said, "No. It's not about your power. I think this is one of the tests from the riddles too. We can't attack these wolves at the same time."
"What! Then the only option is killing them one at a time?! Don't you see how many of them are around here?! It will take forever!" yelled Ellisa,
"Whether we like it or not. That's the only thing we can do. Besides, it won't be called a challenge if we can just eliminate them all at one go, am I right?" Nyoko responded plainly,
"I-" Ellisa seem to have nothing to argue about, "Okay..."
"Well then, there's no point to argue about this. Why don't we all go separately? That would be easier, right? I mean, we can try if that works or not," I said to them,
"True... Besides, these mobs didn't seem to be that hard to kill. I doubt any of us can't take them down by ourselves," Ichijou agreed. He then continued, "If any of you ever find the ruby, go back to our camping site and wait for the others to come back."
"Alright," all of us complied,
Eventually, we all took a different direction from each other. I was tasked to clear the north while Ellisa was in the south. So Ichijou took the east, and Nyoko took the west location. It's very odd to see how this field didn't have an end to it. No matter how far I walked down the road, I couldn't see any border nor cliff that indicated the edge of this field. I really hope we will find the ruby really soon. If this kept on going, there's no telling how much longer we had to stay here.
[Nyoko's POV]
"Aaahh! This is so gross! Why do I have to stick my hand inside this wolf belly?! It's filled with squishy organs and reeks of blood! I think I might puke really soon..." I shouted furiously to myself,
How long have I been out here? I don't know. I can't even tell what time it is right now. There's not even a hint of sun in the sky! Only thick clouds with the dim essence of light glowing through it. If I knew things would turn out this way, I would rather go back to the sea and fight those sea monsters.
"Eukkk... There's none in this wolf too... I want to go back to the group, for god sake..." I whimper myself,
I can't leave the area just yet. There's still plenty of wolves around me that needs to be killed and searched. I was thinking of just using powerful blow to get them all at once and pretend I finish searching this area. But that just makes me look selfish, and they will definitely hear the noises that came from the attack,
"Sigh... Fuck this... I guess I need to do it patiently then," I said,
Suddenly, as I finished turning this wolf guts inside out, I heard a fierce growling came from behind me. When I turned around and looked at it, it was nothing more than just another angry wolf that I needed to kill.
"What are you looking at... You want a piece of me?! Hissssss!-" I screeched to that wolf,
That beast immediately jumped towards me and tried to claw my face down with its massive paws. It surprised me how fast this one moved compared to the others. Luckily I managed to avoid being hit just mere inches. It didn't stop there, though. As soon as it landed back on its feet, the wolf throttled back at me instantly. This one definitely is different from the ones that I killed before,
"Oh! You want to act big, huh?! Are you mad I killed all of your friends to find one stupid gem?!" I screamed at the wolf,
It started howling menacingly and tried to bite me right at my throat. I swiftly moved away and said to it, "How dare you try to put your dirty jaws onto me! Did you not know who I am?! I am the great Commander of Croterin Empire! I will kill you and use your blood to mark my victory!-"
The fight between this beast and me rages for quite a while. It was able to avoid my attack no matter how fast I moved, and at the same time, this wolf could also counter back while in mid dodging! Eventually, this foul creature managed to land some hit on me when I was not expected. The wound was quite severe too. If I'm not careful, I can be killed by it for sure!
"You stupid dog! Do you know how hard it took me to get this silky smooth skin?!- You're going to pay for this! Argh!-" I screamed while charging to the wolf angrily,
Finally, the battle had ended; I won. I managed to decapitate this wolf cleanly on my last hit. As of now, my body was smeared with blood and scratch marks all over because of this stupid fight.
"Sigh, this feels so embarrassing. How can I have a hard time going against a wolf when I already fought with the Devil's army before... I never was useful to them, to begin with... I'm not even as strong as Ellisa... I wish I could be stronger," I said to myself, "They gonna laugh at me for sure when I get back... Ah- anyways, I should search this wolf now."
I started tearing apart the wolf's belly as usual. But, again, I found nothing else other than blood and guts. Then, when I was about to give up hope and left this area, something caught my eyes. There was something sparkling coming from the head of that wolf. Upon closer inspection, I couldn't believe that luck was at my side.
I reached my hand into the mouth of that wolf, and it was, "T- The ruby! I found the ruby! Woah! This is amazing! We can finally leave this place now! Yeay!-"
I cherished the ruby in my hand and stared into it while saying, "It's so pretty! Look at those sparkles it made! I should let them know about this,"
But before I was about to leave the area, the ruby began to pulsate some light from inside. What is that even mean? Before I was able to examine it, I could feel some sensation flowing through my veins all over my body. I don't really know what it was, but it felt so good. While I was bothered by that feeling, a wolf snuck up on me and tried to attack. Then, something interesting happened. I just waved my hand and tried to block its attack, but a malicious looking shockwave suddenly shot out from the movement I made. It obliterates the wolf in just one hit, and the ground under it was dug up from the impact.
"W- Woah..." I was surprised,