๐๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ล
I woke up with a very bad hangover. Resisting the urge to vomit, I drank my water and waited for Shin to wake up since I felt nervous going out of this room.
After a while, he wakes up with a groan. "Uugh, mornin."
"Morning." We greeted each other and I started to wear my leather armor then we went out of the room. It seems Lino and my party members were already waiting for us as we meet them in the long hallway.
After greeting each other, we made our way to a very large room deeper underground. I ignored the gazes upon us and entered the very large room which seemed to be some sort of meeting room as there are a large round table in the middle and we were surrounded by countless torches.
There were also various tunnels going somewhere from here.
Shin lead us to an old man who was looking deeply at the round table center which had a giant map at it which had various pins of different colors which seems to have some sort of meaning.
As we approach the old man looks at us. "Is that them?"
"Yeah," Shin responds simply.
The old man nods and introduces himself. "My name is Hux Centur, I guess you can say I'm the running leader of this small underground town."
We briefly introduced ourselves and immediately, he cuts to the chase and briefed us on what we needed to do to earn a place in this underground town.
Everyone here, even children has a job to keep so that they can all survive. The older people mostly deal with farming and distilling alcohol with some exceptions then the young adults like us deal with heavy labor like forging or more dangerous jobs like fighting monsters or foraging but their most important jobs were things like trying to figure out how to break the barrier and locating the demon who created it.
I, Astoria, and Freya were assigned to jobs that include fighting and scouting while Alice was assigned to research the barrier. She was reluctant but seeing that she has no choice, she accepted.
It seems they already knew about our stats probably either from Lino or Shin since they easily gave us jobs to do.
I tried looking at his stats while he was talking but it was far too vague. His stats range between 5 to 76 meaning his perception was far better than mine as well.
There was also a possible skills section at the bottom which was empty.
'He may look old but he was clearly strong, though I can't exactly say that when there was still no way to tell if his stats were great or not.'
Next, he explains to us the topography and geography of the continent. In summary, there was a large mountain to the north that always rain and unlike the forest we were in previously, this had a more leaner and taller green tree that surrounded the entire mountain, making it hard to traverse not to mention that these places were roaming with monsters from that unknown demon.
The steppes in the east had very tall grass that was taller than me, how it grows is still unknown but it was made definitely made by Megu since the large grass acted as some sort of wall for a hedge maze.
Looking at the map, I see a very simplified but incomplete version of the maze. The steppes have very few trees as well to prevent people from cheating and looking over the whole maze; the trees outside of the maze were very far from it while the ones inside the maze were concentrated in the center of the maze which seems to be the core of the maze.
The west had a lake that connects all of the rivers on this land. It was also said to have an infinite amount of water making it the ultimate water source however, it is the most dangerous terrain since it was swarmed by countless monsters.
And in the south, where we entered was a grey forest that apparently can make you go mad due to multiple factors like the repetitive patterns of the trees which make you think that you are not making progress, the grey color of the wood and leaves of the trees and the grey grass makes everything so monotone that its starts to make you go mad, not to mention that the magic there amplifies it by tenfold.
The women in my party agree with his statement while I stay expressionless. After all, I liked the seemingly black and white filter in that forest, it made life simpler. And as for the reason that I didn't lose my sanity.
'...well I would be surprised if I'm still sane.' I said to myself as if it was a matter of fact.
'Also, is that why the update process hurt so much?' I ask myself that question while he talks.
The rest of his talk was about how my job is going to work. Each of us will pick an area to scout to find where the demon was hiding; We are also advised to return every two-three days or even before that to send their reports to him.
That was the entire purpose of this job, other than guarding the people collecting water from a nearby river or guarding the town, it was just to find the damn demon that trapped them here for years.
*****
It was finally time to pick the areas to scout. We were presented once again the map from earlier to pick the area to scout. There were various small wooden figures on the map which meant the number of people in one specific area.
My party, Lino, Shin, and a few unknown people surrounded the map and each picked their areas.
'Hmm, the mountains are a no-go since I'm not an elf, the lake.....definitely not, the forest is nice but not this time leaving only one place...'
"I'll scout steppes," I said the Hux.
"Alright, that's all then." In response, he puts another figure in the steppes.
Lino, Astoria, and Freya picked the mountains for obvious reasons and Shin chose the lake probably because of his great swordsmanship. The other three picked the forest and Hux then sends us off.
"Be careful, looking for the demon's hideout and reporting it is the most important thing that you need to do." We all nod at that.
I head to my room and quickly grabbed the silver sword. I wore my leather armor them attached the pack to my waist which contains a few potions and rations for three days and another pack which contains my art supplies. After checking my two swords, I leave the room.
As I was leaving this underground town, Shin stops me.
"Yo, Himura." He greeted me in a friendly manner.
"Yes?" I responded politely to his greeting, it seems he wanted to do something with me.
"Wear this and make sure that it's visible in your body or else, you might get attacked again by another scout."
He hands me a lunai frugt and a wooden insignia with the same pattern as Shin made to signal the lookout on the tower.
'This is probably the reason we were attacked in the first place.' I tied the insignia to my necklace which had my adventurers guild insignia.
"Hey, what's that?" Shin points at my adventurer's guild insignia.
"An insignia from the adventurers guild."
"Ooohhh, that guild, I only heard about that place before I was exiled. It's a place where you can use your fighting abilities to make money right?"
"Most of the time."
"I see, then I guess I should become an adventurer after leaving this place then," He says his plan after this whole thing was over and I could see an imaginary death flag raising.
We left the underground town and went outside the large house. We met Astoria, Freya, and Lino who were waiting for us.
I saw our two horses tied in a pole near the gate which I approach.
"How are they?" I ask Freya.
"Good for the most part, we managed to get a healer earlier to heal them so we can ride them now?"
"I see can I ride one?"
"Sure, we can't really use them in the mountains either way." She gave her approval then I untied one and headed outside the gate with it.
I have no idea how to ride a horse but it would probably be best to learn now. After all, I am best at pretending about things I have an idea about it.
'That's why my lying skill had a high level after all.' I said to myself.
We said our goodbyes and we headed our separate ways. After they were gone I hop on the saddle while caressing the horse to calm him down.
Thankfully it didn't panic or anything so I sigh in relief. Next was making it move, I scrounge the things I knew from the Internet about horse riding; It was either whipping him with reins or lightly kicking his side with my foot, that was all that I could scrounge up.
I lightly kicked him in the side then he moved at a slow pace then I pulled on the reins to make him stop. I breathed out then I kicked his sides slightly harder then he finally starts running. I pulled the reins from left or right to dodge the bushes and I could feel the winds passing me.
Using this horse I finally made my way to the steppes in a semi-panicked manner. "Oh shiiit, too fast, too fast!"
แดแดแดษชแด ษชแดส สแดษข
...
: Lunai frugt wine was consumed.
: Debuff received: Drunk
: Debuff has been changed: Drunk > Very drunk
: All stats have been cut in half due to the debuff [Very Drunk]
: You have recovered from the debuff [Very Drunk]
[NEW]: New skill unlocked: Animal Handling Lv.1