It was morning, and the sun hung in the sky, casting a gentle, radiant glow that illuminated the tiny settlement below. Painting everything in warm hues.
At the moment, the very scarce population of the Hamlet was outside their houses, quietly undergoing a series of activities.
A few women could be seen strolling together, clay pots balanced on their heads.
The men walked with their farm tools, clad in their roughest, dirtiest clothes as they readied themselves to till the infertile soil for the day.
Children played around—some escorted their parents, while others stayed behind to watch over their small huts.
Although the settlement was in its worst physical state, the people's mood remained bright, especially after the meeting yesterday morning.
At that moment, Ragnar strolled alongside Merlina and a messy, black-haired youth—the same one who had noticed and alerted the others about him last night.
Ragnar learned that Merlina and the black-haired youth, Noah, were twins.
As they strolled down the busy streets, people greeted them with friendly smiles, and children tried to play with them, calling them big sister and big brother.
Ragnar played with the little kids for a bit and sent them away politely.
He turned to Merlina and asked her about the war.
"The Third South Continent War to this day is remembered for the destruction and death it caused. It began between the two greatest empires, and very soon, other big territories began to participate, and the war quickly escalated and spread across the entire south continent.
Countless vast territories were wiped off the map, and tens of millions of innocent people were slaughtered in cold blood.
Our Hamlet and the other small hamlets surrounding us are the only survivors of a once prosperous town.
My father was a powerful warrior, and my mother was an intermediate mage; both of them died trying to defend the town from summoned beasts belonging to the army of its adversaries."
Ragnar listened attentively to the narration of the beautiful, youthful red-haired young lady.
She mentioned all the necessary details of the war, emphasizing that it ended up meaningless, started due to two emperors ogling each other's resources.
When she spoke about her parents, her voice lowered. Ragnar could tell how sad and furious she was to mention their deaths.
Noah maintained the same calm expression on his face even as the memory of their loss surfaced.
"That is just seriously fucked up!" Ragnar said after Merlina told him that the empire held forbidden rituals and turned most of its soldiers into mindless killers who killed without reason.
On Earth, there were dark experiments held by powerful nations during world wars, but none were as dark as the rituals Merlina described.
"There are so many dark entities that now roam the south continent due to the greed of two stupid old men. There is even a story that a whole kingdom was turned into zombies that started consuming themselves," Merlina spoke with hatred lingering in her voice.
Ragnar shook his head as he finally understood the history of the Third South Continent War.
From her narration, Ragnar also learned that there were series of powers in this world including mystical magic, beast-taming, technomagic and many more. It was also home to monsters, savage beasts, and demons.
Because he did not play the game before transmigrating into its world, Ragnar was very excited by the revelation, but he did not relay it to the two of them.
He turned to Merlina, who now wore a cold frown on her face, and said, "Do not worry; we will soon grow our territory and improve our living condition to become as good as it was before the war, even better than that."
Merlina nodded her head gently. Recalling the details of the war had unlocked a dark part of her memory that she preferred hidden and forgotten.
Ragnar turned to Noah and noticed that his face wore the same calm expression.
The three of them strolled quietly afterward, only responding to the people greeting them.
Moments later, they arrived at the old storage house.
Standing before the tall and wide storage house, Ragnar realized that it was made entirely of wood—something he didn't notice as it was dark last night. The big house had no windows, only a small wooden door.
Merlina and Noah led him behind the house.
"Observe this spot," Noah spoke calmly as he pointed at a spot close to the roof of the storage house.
Ragnar lifted his head and observed where he pointed. For the first few seconds, he observed nothing out of the ordinary.
Only after squinting his eyes did he observe that some of the wooden boards that formed the upper part of the house had hardened resin running along its edge.
'I only predicted something like this last night and it is already happening,' thought Ragnar.
A frown appeared on his face as he turned to look at the twins who awaited his reaction.
"Someone is stealing our harvest. Who could it be? Do you think it's the same idiots from the neighboring hamlets?" Ragnar asked, irritation sharpening his voice.
He could not suspect anyone inside the Hamlet. Even though he had met them for less than twenty-four hours, he trusted them not to attempt such a betrayal.
Also, there was no way someone from this impoverished settlement would have that kind of resin to conceal their crimes.
It could only be the same bastards who killed him and tried to steal their harvests.
"We do not know who the thief is, but it's definitely not our people. Also, I'm not really sure if this is the handiwork of a human being," Noah responded after a moment of silence.
"And why is that?" Ragnar turned to him.
"So many reasons," Noah replied, "First of all, there were no footprints on the ground even though it was wet last night. Also, there is no way a human being would be able to climb up to such a height naturally."
"This could either be the handiwork of a monster, a tamed beast, or someone who has wind or earth magic affinity."
Ragnar fell into contemplation and finally understood the point Noah was making.
As he fell into his thoughts, a quest was triggered.
|| Urgent Quest has been triggered ||
Urgent quest: Find the harvest thieves and punish them
Rewards: 50 XP, Progression in territory development
Penalty: N/A
DEATHSKETCHER:
Hope you guys enjoyed the first 6 chapters?
Do not forget to add it to your library if you haven't already, and also PLEASE VOTE!!
ARIGATO