There was a small hut atop a snowy mountain where the moon is obscured by the gray clouds above.
The only path up to the small hut was a flight of stairs that were made from wood.
A cloud of smoke came out of the chimney of this small hut, proof that someone was home.
The air inside was thick with the scent of burning coal and there was a sound of clanging metal.
The forge, ablaze with roaring flames, radiates heat throughout the space. Rows of tools hang meticulously on the walls—hammers, tongs, anvils, and various molds, each telling tales of countless creations.
Mysterious, ornate weapons and armor, some still in progress, adorn the workbenches alongside intricate designs etched into parchments. Glowing embers dance in the dimly lit corners, casting flickering shadows on the wooden walls adorned with shields, spears, daggers and swords.
"Haaah…!" the person hammering away at a thick rod of iron collapsed on her knees and breathed deeply.
There was little oxygen left in this little hut due to the excessive smoke.
There were only two small windows in this small workshop. Would it make a difference to open them up now?
Deciding not to go through the trouble of carefully walking over the equipment that was strewn across the floor, the blacksmith headed for the door instead.
The door slid open. Immediately her body was embraced by the cold air of the mountain.
She stepped outside onto the cushion of snow blanketing the mountain range.
"Hmm, the empire looks beautiful from up here." Sylphiala looked to the rising sun to her right. The empire was also in that direction.
She could tell the shape of the imperial palace from here. She had seen this sight several times this week ever since she came to this mountain.
The reason she chose to take a break from adventuring was because she wants to go see her family. Of course, with her sliced ear, she would be treated as an outsider by basically every elf she interacts with.
Half Ears (a name for exiled elves whose ears aren't actually cut in half) are shunned by their own people. Usually, it's up to the village chief and one's family to brand one as an outcast who will never be welcomed.
Sylphy knows that she won't be accepted by her people but she had long since stopped caring about anyone's opinion about her.
Plus, she's much stronger than she was in the past so no one can force her out of the village. She's only going there to see her brothers and sisters. Her grandmother and parents won't welcome her anyway.
Sylphy took out a sheathed short sword. Its surface glowed with a teal light. There was a purplish engraving on the sheath. A low whirr sound echoed when she pulled the shortsword out slightly.
The engraving on the sheathe stood for "Orkli" or guardian spirit. It's a rune handcrafted by Sylphy that pulls a spirit from the Spirit Realm to protect its user in times of danger. While not in combat, the elementals currently in the air recharges the blade's power and applies additional buffs that last for a few seconds after being unsheathed.
The spirit summoned depends on the elemental energy affinity of the user. If you have no elemental affinity then you'll summon a generic Fairy or a lesser Elemental.
However, in rare cases, if you have an extremely high affinity for elemental energy then you can summon a Monarch Spirit like Undine or Ifrit.
Sylphy knows that runemaster arts has been lost through history ever since the establishment of the Magic Towers and completely forgotten about during the first years of the "Machine Industrial Revolution". The need for rune artifacts died down when magic sheets, potions and summoner scrolls were invented by wise wizards.
As such she decided to not reveal her abilities to the public eye, instead making obscure items that can kind of mimic rune craftsmanship. For example, she can make a magic item that can use elemental magic. The only downside to this is that you have to waste magic crystals. Runes can last forever so long as she engraves them into a magic item properly.
Her storage warehouses—scattered throughout Diacree—have been filling up with her runic items. It's just a hobby for her to be making them at this point since the demand for them died down decades ago. She might just destroy them all to get back their resources to sell. Her [Unique] blacksmith class allows her to separate materials—which were once mixed to make something new—into their original parts. This includes food as well but she'll need to have the knowledge of what went into the item otherwise it won't work. This was a useful skill for a blacksmith who works with all kinds of materials, whether it be leather, silk, cotton, metal, iron, etc…
In any case, the short sword in her hands is a special request from a young girl she knows from the village at the bottom of the mountain. The girl wanted to surprise her father with a birthday gift, something that's rarely celebrated in these parts. At best the person you like will agree to spend one day with you as lovers. And yes, intercourse as well. It's a strange custom for humans but Sylphy couldn't blame them since it's only common amongst her people.
At worst, you'll receive free fish from the villagers.
Sylphy didn't really mind giving a runic item away since she had plenty of them lying around. To be precise, she had thousands. The villagers hunt and defend against wild animals with crude spears and bows so quality weapons are essential for their survival. She found it odd how they have never approached her to ask for better weapons.
'I guess leaving all my weapons in my forge behind for them to use wouldn't hurt.' She thought as she looked back at her hut.
Sylphy locked her workshop and began descending the mountain.
She noticed something strange when she neared the foot of the mountain. There was a crowd gathered there, with pitchforks held high and torches aflame.
Upon noticing that Sylphy was coming towards them, the Winter Elves grew quiet, their deep blue eyes turned to the ground.
"…." Sylphy silently walked past them, trying to avoid eye-contact.
'Strange. They usually ignore me. Now it feels like I'm the center of attention. Oh, well I'll just continue on with my night. I need to find that girl first. She should be making dinner for the family at this hour.'
One of them suddenly grabbed her arm. It was one of the oldest elves in the village.
"You must help us, child."
"Eh?"
"Please… Our children… All of them were taken from us while the whole village slept."
"Elder Sekia, don't include outsiders in this! Our people were the ones that were kidnapped, not hers!" one of the rangers shouted at the old woman.
"It matters not. She has the means to help us. It has been more than a few hours since the incident happened. That means the tracks are still fresh. She has the aura of an archer who is capable of tracking, maybe even better than our rangers."
Sylphy turned to the old woman.
"This incident… When did you find out all the children were missing?"
'I would've noticed something if only I wasn't immersed in work these past few days…'
She hadn't left her hut for several days. Somehow, she got so immersed in her rune weapons crafting that she lost track of time. Elves can go days before hunger sets in so Sylphy wasn't that bothered by not eating while she was busy with her work.
In the end, she managed to finish two armor sets, both imbued with all sorts of runes and up to four weapons, including a bow for herself. Not all her creations are considered rubbish. She can still use them even if it was impossible to activate the runes without some difficulty. The kneecaps she was wearing were from armor that she made a few years ago but never attempted to sell. The wristguard was from a strengthened leather pouch that's supposed to survive even the most extreme weather and natural elements.
Sylphy was thinking of giving all her creations to others—including the people of this village—to reuse them but most weren't so easy to repurpose, especially the weapons that rely on their runes to unleash their full potential.
The old woman continued speaking:
"My granddaughter Fea needs to take certain medications at night to stay healthy. She usually takes them right before she goes to sleep. I bring the medication to her room just like any other night but she was nowhere to be found. As one of the children of a forest chief, everyone was alerted of her disappearance when I couldn't find her anywhere in the village."
The forest chief is one of the druids of this forest. Seeing as how the World Tree Forest was quite far from here, the chief hadn't been alerted in time to send reinforcements to help the village. It could take half a day to reach him.
There are currently four druids leading four major tribes in the Elven Country, two of which were in the World Tree Forest.
Druids are Elves who were given the Forest's blessing, said to be gifted to the forest by Mother of Nature Goddess. Some of them can shapeshift, control spirits whether lesser of superior spirits, while others could cast powerful wood magic that could revive forests impacted by forest fires. This was how it was in the past, however. Their blessings had grown weaker every year for over a century now.
The World Tree's light grows dimmer every day, which was noticeable even to Sylphy in her hut. The World Tree used to create a powerful light that could brighten the night sky and the forests like a second sun. Now it was barely able to create a light that could match the empire's night city lights.
The Hiisi Elder—the guardian of the forest, father to all druids and the first druid—was also in the process of fusing with the tree he was born from. His roots were already growing out of his back in search of that tree. Soon he'll be absorbed and become the tree's nutrients. That was a sign to every forest-dweller.
"Did the fairies not see anything strange?"
"The Druid of the mountains recalled all fairies to the head village a few moons ago…" the old woman said with a grave expression. "We do not know why he would do such a thing. I suspect there is trouble brewing in the settlements around the World Tree. Even if that is so, we cannot spare the effort to investigate as we have problems of our own right now."
Everyone else nodded along with her words.
"Let me get this straight… No one saw anything? Aren't rangers supposed to patrol the village for every hour of the day?" Sylphy glanced at the elf—who is a ranger—who tried to silence the old woman earlier.
His ears drooped and he averted his eyes.
They've grown complacent, thinking their only worries were wild animals and small monsters…
"I am not suspecting you of cooperating with whoever did this and I hope you don't have suspicions of me as well. I am simply looking for answers." Sylphy turned away from the ranger, casting her gaze among the people gathered her, "Are only the children missing? I don't see a lot of young people amongst you."
There were almost a hundred gathered here. The whole village population made up two times that number, most of which consisted of the young people and children. Sylphy could guess a person's age just by studying their facial structure, wrinkles and body.
It's not exactly a useful talent but it helped her figure out that there weren't any young ones in this crowd. No, there weren't any small girls in this group but there were boys here.
Another thing she found strange was that there were young men but not young women gathered here.
The elves glanced at each other. Judging by the expressions on their faces, they had noticed the same thing as Sylphy as well. Maybe some of them thought that the young ones went out looking for the children? Elves like to dote on their younger kin even if they aren't family. But this can't be the reason for them going missing, otherwise the men would've accompanied the young women.
One raised his hand.
"My daughter, who recently got married, was kidnapped too…"
Another raised her hand.
"My young daughter—who is only 54 years old—is also missing…"
"My 74-year-old lover was also taken from me—"
"My—"
After hearing everyone out, Sylphy concluded one thing.
There was a specific reason all of these young people went missing. Most of those gathered here were middled-aged women and old women, with about a third of them being boys and young men.
"Slave traders could be responsible for this…" Sylphy said out loud after she studied everyone's faces.
""""What!?"""
That could only mean one thing—humans were behind this since "slave trader" was frowned upon in this country.
An illegal organization or even a black-market brothel could be behind this. The motive could be money since elves, especially young virgins, go for a lot of gold, some up to millions of gold alone.
"Slave traders use any means at their disposal to kidnap their victims. They also employ people from many professions. Mages can cast all kinds of spells that makes detection by sight or hearing almost impossible. They can also cast illusion magic on patrols to make them think that nothing is happening and their eyes are just deceiving them." She glanced at the rangers who looked at her with widened eyes.
"I can recreate what happened if anyone can point me out to a place where a struggle is visible."
She meant that literally of course. The villagers didn't question what she meant.
"Ah! I can lead you to my house." A man spoke up, "A lot of our furniture was knocked down and some paintings kicked off the walls in the hallway. The suspects blew our wall open since my daughter's room doesn't have a window and our doors are always locked, not for people but wild animals."
"Okay. Take me there."
◇◇
Sylphy and the rest of the crowd arrived at the man's house. It was a little far from the other houses so it was the perfect place to do all kinds of things without being caught.
"Look there. I only noticed something was amiss when I felt cold air inside the house and checked which window was open." The man from before pointed at the broken wall on the side of his house.
"The wall was broken down to hasten the escape…"
Sylphy examined the hole in the wall that definitely needed immense force to break down. Not just sound but the owners should've felt the vibrations of the attack.
"If you or anyone else couldn't hear or feel anything, it's safe to say a mage is involved in all this. Let's not focus on vibration masking spells as those are common amongst even thieves. The sound should've been sent throughout the entire village yet none heard it… Most First to Second-Rank silencing spells can be broken if a noise made by objects reach a certain frequency. There's only one Third-Rank spell that doesn't have that weakness. Only elite mages can cast that spell… Which means an elite mage or someone possibly on their level could be aiding these slave traders."
"We need to find this human and make them pay!" one of the crowd members shouted. Several of them murmured in agreement.
Sylphy took something out of her magic bag.
A mechanized sphere with a magic crystal imbedded inside.
"First, we need to find out which direction they took for their escape. This item will use the elementals in the air to reconstruct what they saw in the past few hours. I can't extend past that. So, we won't be able to save some of the missing people if they were kidnapped on different occasions throughout the night. Even a three-hour difference could cause a case to go cold."
Sylphy had noticed that this village's people typically sleep for 10-12 hours a day so the kidnappers had more than enough time to plan their operations and split up. The reason she won't be able to reconstruct past more than three hours of footage is because elementals typically only live for up to that long. This isn't a cause for concern since they multiply an awful lot daily, even up to five times the amount that die on average. They leave their residue spirit energy in the air which allows the new elementals to form in their place. Their energy gets reused like that to avoid wasting so much of the World Tree's energy. It can also benefit the forests.
In place of sunlight or water, trees and vegetation can thrive on spirit energy. This is why droughts had never been an issue in the Elven Country. Wild fires were the only thing they feared but the mana in the atmosphere, coupled with the spirit energy, helps prevent this.
Sylphy activated the mechanized sphere's runes, and a faint glow enveloped the area. The air shimmered as the elementals began to recreate the past events.
The wall to the house was filled with some kind of blue energy to mimic what it looked like before being broken down.
Three glowing silhouettes stood on the side of the house facing that wall. One of them held something up.
Magic circles formed around that something. Unlike the criminals, the magic circle and its runic formations were perfectly visible. Sylphy, who had studied runes for 200 years could recognize the spell. It's a Third-Rank spell, all right.
'A magic sheet…? Those are fairly easy to buy but adding spells to them requires a mage to infuse their spells into it.'
Blank magic sheets go for less money in magic stores than those that come preloaded with spells. This is why it's more common for adventurers to buy the blank sheets and commissioning magicians to infuse spells.
In this incident, a Third-Rank spell was used which means someone capable of casting Third-Rank magic infused the spell into the sheet. Those types of magicians are commonly found in high positions like elite mage, tower managers and S-rank parties.
Sylphy doesn't believe S-rank adventurers were responsible for this. One S-class commission alone goes for millions of gold coins, way more than what the average elite mage or tower manager earns.
So, the first two had a better motive to be aiding slave traders.
One might ask: can't people just commission magic sheet infusion from those professions for the right price? The answer is no because there are many dangerous spells taught to elite magicians once they become part of a tower. One reason for the rules preventing anyone from commissioning elite mages was: no ordinary citizen needs to know what kind of damage a Fifth-Rank spell could cause. There's also the concern that in-house spells (spells created by the towers) will leak to the public if enough money is presented to the tower employees. The towers don't like sharing their secrets or discoveries, which is something Lucia told Sylphy about a few years ago. Despite being united under one leader, there was still some infighting amongst the members of the towers.
While she was deep in thought, the wall that the man was pointing at earlier burst open. Of course, there was no sound since it was being projected using the power of spirits.
The three people from before jumped outside while carrying another person on their shoulder.
"Shelle!" the owner of the house screamed when he saw them dragging the person away like luggage.
More individuals—about ten more or so—suddenly walked in the same direction as the other three.
'They're infiltrating homes as a team… Given their numbers, they must've been watching this village for quite some time to see who they could kidnap.'
Sylphy followed after them, however they were suddenly blown away by the wind like dust.
"They're gone…" Sylphy looked at the spirits that dispersed.
Well, it can't be helped. Sylphy put her magic item away. Her eyes widened as she looked down the mountain trail the individuals had fled along. She stood in the middle of the unpaved road, staring into the distance, her eyes landing on a particular place.
She could see the border separating their country from the human nations—a long row of gigantic trees that rivaled a palace in height. These trees had been specially planted thousands of years ago using seeds from the World Tree. Legends said they reached their mature state in just a day, but Sylphy didn't know if that was true; she had only heard rumors.
"Could they have gone to the empire…?" Sylphy said softly, casting her gaze toward the empire far across the great tree border. It seemed foolish to think the criminals would take the patrolled roads, so they must have found an alternate path. But perhaps Sylphy being led here was a sign?
**
Two weeks later.
Sylphy hasn't been able to make any progress in finding out what or who was the cause of all the disappearances and why it had only been young female elves and children who had been disappearing.
"—Silver Chalice Inn, the inn within the imperial capital where every shady deal begins." Sylphy looked up at the sign hanging out front.
'Is that person here yet?' she thought as she looked at the piece of paper in her hands.
There was a note that said "I can help you look for the missing victims" followed by the location and time that they should meet. There was also a brief description of the contact.
This piece of paper was taped to her small house's door, the same house she bought in the empire a few years ago. She found the paper and its sender's motives suspicious but she was mature enough to know that being afraid of risks can cause you to lose out on some great awards. This is something that can be applied to raiding dungeons or farming for experience in monster zones.
Without further ado, Sylphy entered the inn. She wasn't here for accommodation so there was no reason to bring any luggage. Of course, she had some underwear and fresh clothes handy if she needs to clean herself after a quest.
"…."
Sylphy knew the contact would ask for compensation so she was trying to come up with some methods to repay the person's services if they turn out to be helpful.
Sylphy was anything but rich. In fact, life as a solo A-class adventurer hasn't been kind to her after she split up with Crull, Clint, and Lucia. She was well-versed in magic and bow arts but couldn't exactly take a quest that requires a full party. Those pay way more than quests that don't have a party requirement. Due to her struggling financially, she thought of teaming up with other parties but knew that most didn't like having a Half-Ear in their party.
She was thinking of asking Misteltein if they would accept her. They had surged in popularity lately due to their Newbie Program. There were rumors going around that they received an S-class quest. Whether that was true or not, Sylphy didn't know without going there.
Elora wouldn't exactly turn a friend away, especially one she confided in and trusted more than anyone else. Sylphy had first thought about teaming up with Lucia but assumed that said person was too busy whoring around to care about adventuring.
The inn's bar and entertainment area was bustling with life and activity. It was still a few hours until noon so it was not that surprising that they were enjoying their time here before going out to do their quests.
Long wooden tables and benches were crowded with adventurers and mercenaries of all sorts. In one corner, a group of burly warriors, their armor still caked with mud (probably from a recent journey), exchanged stories of their exploits over large mugs of ale, their laughter ringing through the establishment. Nearby, a pair of elven archers, their bows resting against the wall, spoke in hushed tones, their eyes glued to Sylphy who had confidently taken off her small hood, exposing her ears.
A bard stood near the hearth, strumming a lute and singing a ballad of ancient heroes, while a few patrons toss coins into his hat in appreciation. At the bar, a grizzled bartender with a scar running down his cheek serves drinks with practiced efficiency, sliding tankards down the polished wooden counter to eager hands.
Scattered throughout the room are smaller tables where more private conversations take place, each table possessing a magic item that creates a small dome that blocks sound. This simple dome can be broken if the right spell is cast so the inn manager had a rule for all customers. Magic is banned to avoid leaking information outside your table.
Perhaps Sylphy's contact picked this specific place with the above rule in mind.
This means that the contact is no ordinary person. All Sylphy knew was that it was a woman.
Sylphy sat down on an empty table and opened the paper that she found at her house.
'Hmm, hourglass figure, top heavy, long slender brown legs, the face of a model… This woman is quite confident in her looks...' she thought as she read the description that her contact wrote down.
The "brown legs" caught her attention. She hadn't seen that many brown-skinned people in this side of Diacree.
'It can't be a member of Crull's tribe, can it? Or could it be a member from one of the forest tribes who have their settlements on imperial land?'
She scanned the inn, taking caution not to maintain eye-contact with anyone for too long.
"—There is no need to look for me. I've been here for a while now waiting for you." A voice came from behind Sylphy.
'It's her. She sounds rather young.'
The woman walked over to the other empty seat at the table and sat down. She swung one leg over the other and let down her black cloak.
She touched the magic item on the table, turning it on and smiled at Sylphy.
Droopy ears, long silver hair and chocolate brown skin that glimmered in the sunlight.
A Dark Elf.
"Greetings, Miss Sylphiala. You may call me Liumiala, a Legion from Serz."