Skipping ahead of the forest just now and the next village is within sight. It's best for me not to show off this bike in front of the villagers and not to startle them. Grabbed my stuff and walked the remaining few steps into the entrance of the village.
A wall less yet surrounded by a river village from the looks of it is focused on agriculture. While the guards are quite relaxed with few to no armor on their bodies seems like a peaceful place from the looks of it.
I walked to a guy sitting by the fountain for some help.
"I wanna know if there's a guild in this village?" I asked the guy.
"Oh right over there by the church. You should find it there." The guy points at the building he was talking about.
"Thanks." I replied.
"Don't mention it, adventurers like you are rare in this region." The guy replied as he waved bye.
Seems like this place is gonna be very peaceful. But since Lady Agata sensed there's a Demon Lord here I can't be too comfortable with this faux peace of this place. I entered the guild building near the church.
"Welcome to the Guild of the South. How can I help you?" As a Guild receptionist is waiting behind her desk with a smile on her face.
I looked around the guild building with a few adventurers relaxing and resting on the tables nearby. I walked closer to the reception desk.
"Hi, I would like to ask if there have been recent sightings of Demon activity in this village?" I asked calmly and politely.
"Recently we haven't been getting any reports from it but we've been getting normal reports of monster sightings. If you have a guild card, may I take a look?" Asked the Guild receptionist.
I handed her my card, which from what I've realized is different from the one she mentioned since I'm from the Guild of the North. She jittered for a second there from the looks of it she might have been surprised I was from another branch.
"Well, it seems like you've adventured quite far from here. But since you're here to do some commissions the board is over there for you to check if there's anything that caught your eye and enjoy your stay here." The Guild receptionist bows.
I went to the board to check if there's anything I could do and use for my investigation. And probably find something unusual from it. Took some basic monster subjugation quests for the meantime.
And headed out to the said forest where monsters reside. This is where I began my first guild mission and my first conundrum.
After a while…
It's odd that these monsters out here are pretty much diverse and widespread here but they never touch the village. I haven't spotted any barrier magic as I cross the border.
"What do you think, Lady Agata?" I asked her.
"That is pretty unusual for a village not to get attacked by monsters and by how many they are in this specific area." Lady Agata replied.
"Wait, specific area?" I questioned her answer.
"There's no monsters within the vicinity of the forest apart from this spot alone." Lady Agata answered back.
"There's something happening behind everything here." I said that while I fought the seemingly endless monsters that reside in this forest.
But no matter, they haven't been a problem taking them down. From the looks of it they fight pretty pathetically than those monsters I fought back up north.
"I wouldn't be too comfortable right now Alan." Lady Agata warned me to keep my ego in check.
"I know, I know it would be dangerous for my life to get comfortable with just the current situation here." I grabbed one of my axes and began subjugating the monsters that kept appearing one after the other.
I knew that something was off from this forest and as soon as I left the premise of that place the monsters seemingly disappeared. There's probably magic that lingers around the forest.
"Lady Agata, can you scan the magic of this forest?" I kindly asked Lady Agata.
"I'm on it, speak to me. My children!" Lady Agata tries to communicate with the plants that surround the forest to look for answers.
"How long do you think that will take?" I asked
"Give me a few hours for now you finish your guild quest." Lady Agata seems to have everything under control on her end.
I headed back to the forest to continue fighting the monsters. While I was fighting there I found 3 more fragments for me to later learn. I collected what I needed after clearing out as many monsters as I could.
Surprising that there weren't that many monsters after a few waves. So I headed back to the Goddess to check what she had found out.
"Lady Agata, how's your search?" I asked while carrying a sack of materials.
"I found someone I don't know if it's just one or more of them and they are underneath the forest. There's some kind of basement or a cave underneath the entire forest." Lady Agata replied with hesitation.
"Do you know where the entrance is?" I asked.
"Not yet, it'll take me another few days, I'm limited to what I have here in the forest at the moment." Lady Agata replied as she looked concerned.
"Seems like the situation looks serious." I observed her.
Soon after I headed back to the guild to confirm my subjugation quest and the guild rep was surprised I came back. Her reaction alone raises some flags right now.
"I never thought you would finish your quest that early. We've only had relaxed adventurers here, first time seeing an adventurer doing a quest swiftly. Here's your reward for today." The Guild receptionist hands over a sack of gold for my reward.
I hear some of the adventurers there mumbling and probably gossiping by how quickly I finished the quest which isn't actually hard to be honest. Since right now I don't have enough trust in this village I headed back outside near the forest to camp out.
By the time I arrived back into where the Goddess is it was sundown by then. And prepared my camping site right beside where she is to relax and wait for a verdict or an answer from her while she does her thing.
Laying by the campfire relaxing after a good day of work is nice. While I crack the Memory Fragments I found while doing the quest. What I found was fascinating.
The first one was negotiation skills which will be useful for transactions and handling contracts. The second fragment was about potion making simple enough to be honest would be handy to keep some of it around me for emergencies.
The third one though was… Peculiar, it was an actual memory. It was vague but I saw my Father doing some kind of quest. I couldn't hear what they were saying but he looked frustrated from the looks of it.
Seems like Father was fighting a very powerful foe. I approached Lady Agata to ask about the fragment I found.
"You saw your Father's memories?" Lady Agata raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, it wasn't normal like his skills or knowledge, it was a very vague memory. I couldn't even hear what they were saying." I replied.
"Intriguing, I guess you need to find more of it to complete the memory. You might learn something very important about it. That would be the rarest type of Memory Fragment if I have to say something about it.
Skills and Abilities are great but History gives the best kind of information to know what had happened in the past. Where everything had happened and how it even started." Lady Agata explained the importance of my findings.
"I'll keep an eye out for that one. I might find out how I've become and what happened to them here because of it. Might be useful for me to understand my very vague Father living with him throughout my life." I proceed to look up in the sky and reminisce about the only few memories I made with him.
"While you were talking to yourself I may have found a trail that might lead us to the entrance of that place where someone is beneath the forest. We may need to act fast because the person's mana is slowly depleting and they might die there." Lady Agata informs me of the situation.
"Seems like it's an emergency. Let's rescue that person right now." I replied.
"What about your sleep?" Lady Agata replied.
"Don't worry I have been blessed with good stamina from one of the fragments I learned it from. Plus we may get something from this to know what the hell is happening in this village. And why is it too peaceful?" I stood up and killed the fire while I'm at it.
Preparing the gear I'll be bringing and walking with the guidance of Lady Agata to where it's located.
"Should be around here." Lady Agata looked around.
"Is it here?" I pointed to the cavern entrance over by the rocks.
"I can sense the mana from here it should be it. Be Careful this is your first cave." Lady Agata warns me.
"I'll be careful." As I lower myself to the cave with a rope going down a very narrow entrance.
I fear we may find something very disturbing from this place. I hope it's not something our worst fears would realize.