"Big sister, are you gonna leave?" Anne, the daughter of village head asked, hugging Megumi with her teary eyes. "I will miss you" She continued.
"Anne…" Aunty Eleonora, Anne's Mom, tried to warn her daughter to not giving Megumi a hard time.
"I will be back if you be a good girl and don't run away from home again." Megumi replied, patting the little girl's head affectionately with a smile. The little girl promise, and finally let go her hug, and going to her mother's side.
"Megumi, take this. The air in the wild must be cold especially when the night comes. Don't catch cold, okay?" Aunty Eleonora said, and give Megumi a warm cloak. Megumi take it and say thanks to the Aunty.
"Take care" said Uncle Alden, Village head. Megumi nodded, then saying goodbye to the family before walking to the west gate. Nightshade City actually located to the north. But since Megumi going there alone, she choose the safest route, and that is going from west gate.
…
"Megumi, are you going today? Here, take this" said a shopkeeper of a fruit stall in this city. He gave megumi a bucket of fruit. Megumi thanked the uncle and say goodbye.
…
"Here, take this honey. It's delicious for a breakfast" a bee keeper, give her a bottle of honey as the goodbye gifts. Megumi thank him and again, say goodbye to him.
…
"Megumi, have a safe trip!" A sister said while waving her hand after giving Megumi some mana potion. Megumi thank her and say goodbye to the sister. "Please give my regards to Father, Sister. I'll get going" Megumi replied.
…
"Come back whenever you want, okay?" A fisherman come and give her some fish. This uncle is pretending to be cool as always. Megumi can't help but giggling. She thanked the man and said goodbye.
…
"Bis sister, have a safe trip!" said a young boy, hugging his cat and give Megumi some flower. The flower the young boy give not only beautiful, it can be used as herbal medicine too. Megumi thank the young boy, and say goodbye.
…
"Don't forget to eat well." An aunty from the farm gave a basket full of fresh vegetables and a big hug. Megumi thanked the aunty and said goodbye.
…
Every few steps, villagers will stop her and give her something and saying goodbye to her. Even the gate keeper give her some healing potion—Megumi is a healer, she doesn't need that but she still accept that and thanked the guard.
"Good bye, everyone. Until we meet again !" She shout with big smile in her face and waving her both hands towards the villager in the city. She finally walks away from the city. She got a lot items from them. There's no notifications or something when they give the goodbye gifts, so that's crearly not a side quest or anything. Do the npc have their own feeling too? She can't help but in awe with the AI in this game. If only player can be this kind…
That's quite a long journey. At first, she can handle to fight with the monster she meet. Like when in The Whispering Woods, monster like Willow Tree, Feral Wolves, or Monkeys, those who can be attacked with physical attack, she tried to fight them alone for extra experience points. Of course, she can only attack one by one. But if its monster like slime, whisp, or anything that immune to physical attack, she can only run away. Yes, that's low level monster. But it just tiring her to fight that kind of monster. Better run away.
In the middle of journey, the monster's level started to increase, making Megumi can only hide and run away from every monster she met. She can't lit a bonfire because it can attract monster. But thanks to the cloak from the village head's wife, she can still feel warm. She can't even have proper rest. She doesn't want to wasting her mana by using barrier for a long time.
Now, she arrived at The Cursed Valley. Nightsade City is just across this valley. As this place's name, the atmosphere in this valley is really tense, like in horror games. The fog is thicker than the fog in Lullaby Forest, limiting visibility to only a few meters. Megumi really wanna cry and just go back to the Eden City. But remembering the head priest, and all the villager, not to mention her grudge against the players, she made up her mind to keep moving forward.
This is really a cursed valley. She's been trapped in this valley for weeks. The city is supposed to be right in front, just a few hours walking. But seems there's a spell which make her can't escape from this valley. There's a time when she meet a banshee, but turn out that's not only one banshee but a whole gang. When she finally escaped, it turns out that her running steps from the banshee took her to the centaur's nest. Hiding in the water isn't a good choice either, as the sirens is prepared to drown her to death. In the night, succubus and incubus try to suck her life drain in the dream if she's been careless. Since when this game (—and novel *cough*) became r18 game!!! She can only cursed while chased by a group of succubus and incubus, crying.
She finally free herself, but run out of stamina. Just when she about to suicide herself so she can get out from this place and choose other route to the Nightsade City, she remember the rosary head priest gave her. How can the people of church easily going there and even establish a city there? Well, it's right that they're npc and programmed to do that, but there must be a way for them to get out from the city to report the condition to the Kingdom, right? Maybe this rosary is the answer.
She lets out the rosary and holds it in her arms. Sure enough, even though it was still covered in fog, she could see the actual direction of the city. She cry out of joy and running like hell to the city. She finally arrived to the city gate. The gate is closed, but when Megumi show the rosary, a small gate opened for her that immediately closed again after she entered.
---o0o---
"It's rare to see people come here. Sorry for the inconvenience" the soldier said politely. They really check on Megumi with complicated procedures earlier to make sure she isn't a monster. Well, a high level monster can easily take a human form to lure the human. So, Megumi understand their suspicions.
"It's okay. That's your job after all" Megumi replied. "Anyway, is there any inn here? I'm tired" Megumi continued. She really is tired.
"Yes, we have. But I think you should go to church first—"
"No no, I will go there tomorrow. I'm really tired. Please…" Megumi cut him off, begging. I wanna take a bath, I wanna eat, and moreover, I wanna sleep so bad!!!
The soldier seems hesitated before, but finally bring Megumi to the inn. Megumi who finally meet the warm bed, sleep a whole day. Even forgetting to take a bath or have a meal. This time, she doesn't need to worry about succubus or incubus in her dream.