A few moments later, Lily left the hospital as she stared back at Kai's room. She didn't know why, but his behavior had been quite different from usual. She knew that he had regained the use of his senses inside the game, however, that wasn't it. There was something else…Lily simply didn't know what it was.
'Mhm, well. I'll be able to see him in the game in a few days. I should understand everything when that happens,' Lily thought, dismissing her worries to the back of her mind.
A few more minutes passed by as Lily was currently walking back home, her mind was full of thoughts over what she had learned over her discussion. After all, this was big news.
'Should I tell mother and father about it?' Lily thought as she quickly shook her head.
She knew that it wasn't a good idea to talk about her brother in front of them. Lily had never managed to hear the full story, but for some reason, their parents had not once gone to see Kai in the hospital. Nevertheless, she didn't pressure them at all since their gazes would turn grim every time she would mention his name.
'Ah, brother, if only you had never gotten sick…'
Lily finally reached her home and opened the door, where she was met with complete silence.
"Tsk, I guess they're working late again…"
***
Right after she left, Kai didn't waste a single moment as he was thrown right back inside the game. His sister had placed the helmet on his head right before she left, and had powered it up, making it possible for him to continue playing.
His vision went blurry for a short lapse of time, before becoming clear again as he was right where he had left off, standing on a tree branch, a few meters above the ground.
'I wonder what happened while I was gone…' Kai thought. He had no idea how it worked when a player logged off for their character, but he could only guess that he would disappear from the world of Realms of Monsters. That would be the only logical option.
Before he had logged off, Kai had managed to run away from his previous surroundings as he was now somewhere completely different. From his estimates, this place was definitely closer to the village he had seen beforehand. However, the chances of meeting human players was bound to be quite slim since everyone was extremely careful, only having a single life to play around with.
Even if the chances were extremely slim. Kai still hoped to see some humans, even if he wouldn't be able to talk to them. Seeing some players would be nice, this way he would be able to learn more about them and their way of playing the game since he was still in the dark about playing as a hunter. However, even NPCs would be welcomed. He just wanted to speak to somebody else than that weird fairy.
Nevertheless, Kai had no choice but to shake his mind at some point as he looked around himself. He needed to figure out where he had run to. Nothing much had changed ever since he had disconnected, and Isla didn't seem too troubled with it. She had just mentioned her being bored in his absence.
As far as he could see, the tree he was currently standing was the last one for at least a few acres. Right before Kai, was a vast plain of herbs of all types of colors. Some were green, some were yellow, some were pink, it was quite nice to look at. And when Kai squinted his eyes as much as possible, trying to see as far as possible, he managed to spot what seemed to be a figure of a man.
Kai wasn't too sure of the human's actions, he didn't even know if it was a player. But from the looks of it, he seemed to be working on this huge field of herbs that was as large as a few acres from all directions. He was the only one working on such a huge field too, which was definitely strange.
Curious, Kai decided to get closer to that person. He jumped down the tree and started running, surrounded by all kinds of herbs.
'Isla, do you know the effects of those colorful herbs?' Kai asked as he wanted a global idea of their use.
Isla flew closer to the herbs, observing them for a short moment. "Hm, I'm not sure. It seems to be herbs usually used in Elixirs. However, there seems to be something unusual about them, though, I can't tell you what it is for the time being."
'I see. So, the effects they give are good, right?'
"They should be. But, I wouldn't take them if I were you. As I said, there seems to be something wrong with those magical herbs. It's as if…" Isla hesitated from speaking further. "Nevermind. Just don't try to eat them."
Kai found it strange. However, he didn't insist on an answer from Isla. He knew that once she had set her mind on something there was nothing that could change it, except if her master would be the one asking. Thus, Kai didn't try to eat any of those herbs, Isla's warnings were mysterious enough and he didn't want to take any risks.
Minutes passed by as Kai ran across the field as fast as he could. Finally, he had arrived close enough to the human that he could get a good look at him.
Surprisingly, it wasn't a human. It was an Elf who was currently in the process of picking those herbs up.
'Quick, hide!' A loud voice resounded in his mind.
It was Isla, for some reason, she was stressed out from being so close to this Elf. Isla had been acting weird ever since she had observed those herbs.
Kai didn't even think for a second about those words as he dashed out of the Elf's peripheral vision, hiding in the middle of the tall herbs, which were at least twice his size.
Finding some time to breathe, Kai didn't waste time and started questioning Isla regarding what was happening. He had let things go earlier, but he needed to know the problem this time around. Kai didn't want to die.
'Can you tell me what's happening?'
'This person isn't a normal Elf.'
Kai frowned. As far as he had heard in stories, that person was certainly an Elf. It had long, pointy ears, which was the characteristic most elves possessed. If there was to be one thing strange about its appearance, it would be the color of its skin and its hair.
For some reason, both of them were dark. His skin color was brown, on the verge of being black, and his hair was completely dark.
'Then, what it is?'
'It's a Dark Elf, a different evolution path from normal Elves. Their specialty is corruption, which is exactly what they did to this field. It's entirely corrupted…' Isla shook her head out of annoyance, finally understanding what was happening. 'I knew there was something wrong, but to think that the field is corrupted. It's a good thing you didn't try to take any of that corruption for yourself or else your Monster Core would have been negatively affected by it.'
Kai frowned as he didn't completely understand the consequences of having a corrupted Monster Core. However, he stopped thinking as he observed the Dark Elf move around, and suddenly it started talking out loud.
A sigh escaped the Dark Elf's mouth. "Ah…this is boring. Should I go back to the village?"
Kai didn't know why, but even when the elves uttered completely unknown words from an unknown language, he was able to understand every single word that came out of that Dark Elf's mouth.
Before he could ask a question to Isla, her voice once more echoed in his mind. However, it had completely lost its playfulness, and Isla wasn't playing around anymore. Seeing a Dark Elf had completely changed her.
'Follow him. We need to find the source of corruption. If you were to absorb and purify it, then the amount of strength you'd gain would be unbelievable.'
Kai nodded. He wasn't too sure how he would purify it. However, he had no time to think about such things as he noticed the Dark Elf leaving the corrupted herb field. Kai needed to make sure to keep enough distance from him, or else, there was a good chance he would be captured.
'How strong are Dark Elves?' Kai asked out of curiosity because of Isla's current reaction.
'They aren't necessarily strong. However, their power of corruption is extremely dangerous and you need to be wary of it. If your Monster Core were to be corrupted, then there would be a good chance that you would lose the Mythical Evolution System.'
Kai nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. 'Then, if it's so dangerous…why should I follow him? Shouldn't it be better to run away?'
Isla hesitated for a short moment while answering which was immediately caught by Kai.
'Just follow him. Trust me.'
Kai didn't have the slightest truth for Isla, but he still accepted to follow the Dark Elf. He wanted to find out what Isla was hiding from him, and he could always run away if things got too dangerous.
'Alright.'