The village went back to normal.
Some wolfkins harvested their farms, some went out to hunt, and others remained stationary on their posts.
I didn't have much time to see the village the day I arrived, so just now I realized how big it is as I look around it.
There aren't many people but they are building this place so more can live here in the future, so it's more like a tidy small town than a village actually, all because they want it to grow like it once was.
Before, this village was a town to all kinds of species, known as a great communal space that welcomed any race to live in, it was incredibly peaceful and prosperous.
They were well placed at the center of the old Gonkdim, merchants would pass through here every day, so any kind of merchandise could be sold or brought without much trouble. There also weren't many monsters around, and if there were, any adventurer passing through was enough to help them. This region was one near the Easy level, so I doubt there were any powerful monsters.
Whatever, that was completely erased once the Plague invasions came. Even their name was forgotten.
But once advancing soldiers found this place in ruins they saw the opportunity to rebuild it, so they requested help throughout the kingdom and many wolfkins came.
Now, the village's new name is Debeta, which is the direct translation for "Wolf Den". Though I don't know which language they are translating it from. From what they explained, "De" means 'wolf' and "Beta" is 'den' in the god language.
I've never heard of it, so maybe it's a fantasy idiom inside the game?
Not only that, but I learned that their wolfkin's names are also written in this weird language, and it's less of a name and more like a title. Depending on what you do or did your name changes.
Dutakave, or how we call her "Ave", the leader's wife, has the title of "Swift Wind" because of her aptitude for offensive speed magic.
Pejehade, the elder, literally means "Elder Wolf".
While their leader "Benipenate", means something like "Dark Claw", mainly because of his Sword of Shadows and good hunting skills.
Once you reach a certain age, it's hard to change your name unless something extreme happens, like a great feat or loss. For newborns, their name is generally based on their appearance or the family's fame, but when reaching adulthood their title generally changes.
In official documents, they need to take both their parents' names as surnames for registration, though they don't use surnames commonly.
Not only that, but I also discovered that wolfkins live half the age we live. The centenarian who died was actually fifty-three years old.
And their children grow faster too, reaching adult age at ten. And no, it's not a cultural thing, they physically look adult at ten years old.
That information drenches me with even more sadness.
To think that a two-year-old tried to lift my spirits with a pep talk, it's even more depressing.
That's probably why there aren't many children in the village.
From what I could observe, there are about three below "five years old", other two before "ten years old", four more below "fifteen", then a couple before the "eighteen" mark. When there are a current total of one hundred and thirty-seven in the village.
Theoretically, the number of people below the adult level should be around twenty percent at least, but it doesn't even add up to ten percent.
--Actually, that logic is wrong.
If their life span is halved and the children's growth is doubled, the percentage should remain the same.
Then, is it because the village is somewhere dangerous? so they send them away or are afraid of having children? That looks more like it.
They are one of the "border protection villages", after all. The Shadow Army and the Plague are their close neighbors, the two strongest threats to the kingdom.
No surprise they have to grow faster and are way stronger than normal NPCs.
Also, with my Divine Vision skill turned on, I can see their names and levels. Some are almost at the three digits number, way above my level seventy-five character. Even the youngest wolfkin are above level forty.
In SFO there is a mechanic that allows you to start ahead in levels, but I didn't know NPCs had it too.
But even so, starting at a certain level is one thing, the other is leveling up.
Even I, who is level seventy-five would need about three days to level up. And I'm disregarding the fact that I can't use Quick Travels or the fact that I have no efficient plans to gather experience.
Under those conditions, I would need somewhere around a month to go up one miserable level.
So how do they do it?
I know it's possible to gain experience with jobs, and I heard they do hunt almost every day, but… in SFO if you keep on doing the same tasks over and over again, your character basically stops gaining experience with it, like forever.
That's why there's always some guide to level up faster on the internet, "go to different places and do different things to level up faster".
But if you are an NPC and you have to stay in the same village, how do you level up so fast?
--No, I'm thinking it wrong again. It's not being fast, they live in this world so it's only normal.
They don't spend that much time thinking about economics or need to level up multiple characters all at once.
Their lives are cut in half, but they spend all their time leveling up their bodies.
Imagine fifty years of grinding in a single character, even if you're doing it inefficiently, you'll have a lot of progress.
…
Maybe I should take on that hunting invite and see what they do, perhaps I can grind some levels and prepare myself better if I end up not being able to leave this world.
Nah.
It's not like leveling up changes much. I can try going to level 120 to unlock all my class skills and try to improve my attribute values, but neither of those is worth it.
Skills don't improve with levels, you only unlock new ones, but because you are set to have six active skills and six passives, the only thing I would win are more options to choose from.
Then there are the attributes: every level adds 1 Strength, 1 Agility, 1 Intelligence, and 3 points to spend on which of the three you want.
1 Strength adds 20 Health and 4 Energy, plus it increases your melee damage by 1.
Agility increases your overall Speed and Cooldown Reduction by a very minor percentage.
And 1 Intelligence adds 8 Energy, plus minor improvements in Critical Chance and Magic Damage.
Those attributes do even more than that, but those are the most important changes.
I currently have 3710 of Health and 3680 Energy.
If I level up now and place all my points in Strength, for example, I would only gain 80 Health.
Imagine leveling up for an entire month to improve less than 3% of health. It's simply not worth it.
Then there's the risk.
With this stupid Orb of Samsara, I can't have the luxury to die and try again later.
There's no reason for me to continue in this village "Leveling Up" like some kind of hero, the most rational plan is to go far west and live as safely as I can until someone pulls me out of this world.
But again… am I going to be rescued?
There's something deep in me whispering that it's not going to happen.
A creeping fear within my bones with the certainty that I will be living here for the rest of my life.
Maybe I can try searching for a way out...
Maybe there's a hidden key somewhere in this world that would allow us to leave…
But where would it be?
If I was a Dev, I would put it in the most dangerous place possible together with the biggest boss I could imagine.
Somewhere at "the last final battle to save the world" kind of trope.
If I was at least with my main character, maybe I could try doing that path, but with this one… that's impossible.
Where would I find the right equipment...? How would I get stronger?
I have a lot of money in this account, but all the equipment they sell in this village are of no interest to me, all they have are hunting equipment or old loot they found while exploring the forest. Nothing I can use for a decent build.
And beyond that, how would I improve their quality level? have them up at "+20"? How do I ascend them with the skills I want them to be?
Not even the wolfkins I asked know of those. They kept telling me to go to a library or ask a great mage, but there weren't any in this village, those you only find in a big city.
In the game, it was done with a click of a button and every required material was shown right above it, then I could use my notes to know exactly what build I wanted and what strategy to go with it.
But how does it work inside this world? What do I want to build myself into? I can't access the main menu to see the recipes, nor do I know where I can improve my equipment. And more importantly, I don't know what I'm going against, so how I'm supposed to go about it?
There are too many missing variables to trace any kind of plan.
I should first go to a safe location and then search for more information.
But before I could think any further, I see Willrus gathering quite the crowd of wolfkins at the center of the village.
It's around the end of the afternoon, in an hour or two it would be sunset. Has the commemoration feast already started? I thought it would be only near the middle of the night.
Willrus: "Ah, Strider. There you are."
"Uh? What's happening?"
Willrus: "I'm leaving."
My eyes widen in surprise.
Willrus: "I'll go to that dungeon we came from, I need to check it again with my own eyes."
"Wait, what?"
He's going east? Back at the Legendary-difficulty region?
Willrus: "Don't you remember? You said something about a shady character who gave you the Orb, Baldo Sigivald."
"Oh-, y-yeah…"
Willrus: "I'll go back and search for him."
That's right.
Willrus told me last night that he never met Sigivald.
I thought it odd, but when I asked how he got his Orb, he remained quiet.
But to actually go back to find him… Well, I guess that would be the first step to leave this world.
It's the only lead we have.
But even so…
"Why you're going there?"
My voice cracks with fear.
"If you die… it's over. You won't respawn like in the game. If you get hit, you'll feel real pain, you know that right? I know how bad it is to feel your bones break and bleed out to almost death. Fighting those things isn't worth the risk."
Willrus turns to the side and stares at the far mountains.
Willrus: "…I can't keep on waiting and stay here forever. I need to go back."
The wolfkins don't pay attention to our conversation, they keep on chatting casually all around us.
"I know how you're feeling, but going back to the real world--, it might be impossible."
Willrus: "Sure, there is no way of knowing it… but I have a daughter waiting for me. I can't disappear from her life like that. If there's a slight chance this Sigivald guy knows of a clue to leave this place, then I'll grab his neck and take the information out of his throat even if he doesn't want to. There isn't a world where I will give up on going back to her."
Willrus starts to walk away, and the wolfkins stop their conversations to wave him goodbye.
"I- I see…"
But after a few steps, Willrus tilts his head up as he remembers something.
Willrus: "Oh, and Strider… The next time we meet," – His eyes pierce my skull. – "treat me as an enemy."
"Hah-? What?"
Willrus: "That's how I'm going to treat you until I'm sure you're not, so do the same. There's no way of knowing the difference in our knowledge when we meet again."
He turns his back to me and continues to walk away.
The difference in our knowledge?
What he's talking about?
Why does he always need to say things in puzzles?
...
Wait--
Is it related to being able to leave this place…?
Could it be… is he predicting we will be against each other because of it?
Why do I feel like I've heard this somewhere before…?
...
Yeah, it was inside that dungeon... that magician boy, he said something about the dungeon's objective being for players to kill each other until the last man, wasn't it?... Is that trial still happening? No, that can't be, it doesn't make any sense.
I was thinking that something story-based was the key, like "go against a demon god", "rescue a princess", or "save the world" kind of thing.
But to kill each other in a free-for-all?
There's no way that's the right answer.
Willrus waved his last goodbye to the wolfkin and disappeared into the forest.
The two of us are separated now.
I felt abandoned.
Maybe deep within I thought he and I would be trying to survive through this until the end, but it appears it won't be that way.
While you go searching for a key to get out of this world going east, I'll go west to run away.
I knew he was different from me, but not to the extent of being the exact opposite.
But of course, he would go for the Hero route… he's in his strongest character, one who is at the top of the entire game.
…Huh…
Would I follow him if I was in my strongest character?
Maybe, who knows?
But we are clearly in distinct situations and with different motivations, there's no way to know if we'd group together in any scenario.
…
I spent so much time thinking, that it turned night.
Well… now I will have to participate in the commemoration feast… then I'll sleep in the inn and leave when it's daytime.
I'll probably never cross paths with Willrus again.
Maybe I should have apologized to him before he left.
I don't know if he recognized me… but I feel like I tricked him by hiding the fact that I know him.
If I see Willrus again… It doesn't matter if he sees me as an enemy…
I'll apologize and tell him the truth.
Next time, I'll tell him that I am DArk, the lowlife merchant of the blackmarket who handed him the worst idea of his life.
That I was the one who discovered the Plague core and planned to contain it and use it as a farming resource, then I presented it to the strongest connection I had, the Yellow Rabbits.
Because of that, we lost control and we were swiped through;
His guild broke down and he was treated as the villain;
He lost everything because of that stupid scheme of mine.
I wonder if he can ever forgive me.