Jude and Iris made their way to the exit of the cave, from where they came. They walked and walked, but when they felt they had arrived at the correct location, all they saw was the mountainside, no cave opening, nothing but rock.
In an attempt to make certain that they were in the right place, they walked up and down the edge of the mountain, but again they found no opening.
“I guess it’s closed,” Iris said, finally.
“Yeah. Well, we thought that might be the case. Still, it’s even more strange that we haven’t found anybody else. There were thousands of people in that cave. How many paths could there have been?”
“No way to find out now… You know, I’m going to be real honest, I need a change of clothes. The lacy dress is not gonna do it for thirty days here.”
“Haha! I guess not. I need something else too… I know this is grim, but do you wanna search for the corpses?”
“The… corpses?”
“Of those people last night. They could have better clothing for this place.”
“What time is it?”
“Almost 4:00 p.m…”
“I want to, but I think we should go back to our hiding spot,” Iris said somberly.
“That’s… probably for the best.”
So, they went back to the tree. There was nothing they could do. They didn’t know precisely when night would fall, and night in that forest had proven itself to be extremely deadly.
They hadn’t taken any food back with them. They would be hungry overnight, but there was also the possibility that whatever was hunting things at night would be able to track the scent of the cooked fish to them. They had water, however. They had taken care of their bodies’ needs near the river and they would have to hold whatever else overnight. The idea that there could be something hunting them, that all those people had died in a flash, made them overly cautious.
Night came early, around 5 p.m., and they were glad that they had returned to their hideout on time. For the first seven hours, there wasn’t any movement in the forest, no sound from any predators, and the chirping of the birds stopped altogether.
They weren’t tired yet, so they took the time to go over every inch of Iris’ status screen. They analyzed every attribute and skill and concluded that her First-Aid skill had been maxed out due to her real-life experience studying medicine and her work at the hospital. That told them that whatever life experiences they had had could and would influence their attributes in this new world. Heal had been given to her as a magic substitute to her training as a doctor, in the same way that Purify had been acquired through her knowledge of sterilization.
Because of the way her skills were set up, Jude assumed that fifty mana was a lot to start off. Taking in consideration that Purify only cost one mana, and Heal cost five, Iris had a lot for her level. The other thing that made them feel like they were in a game was the fact that mana existed. Mana was a term ubiquitous to any magic game or story. It was the energy from within that allowed people to perform magic, and sometimes it could even be acquired and replenished from nature.
All of that analysis went on for a while. Iris had wanted to level up her Purify skill or her own level to find out how long that took, but the use of it for the fish and the water hadn’t been enough for that.
Around midnight, the howling and growling started again. It felt like the sounds were coming from every direction, and it took them a while to parse what was actual noise and what was echo. They could hear things bounding across leaves and cracking branches. There was no way for them to tell how many beasts there were by sound alone, and the dimly lit forest night prevented them from seeing anything.
Knowing that they would be unable to figure out anything else that night, Jude and Iris started taking turns on watch again. This time, however, they decided to wake up with the sun. They felt that, because night came so early, they had wasted a significant portion of the day resting the day before, and if they were to find things to wear, they would have to venture farther in their search.
At daybreak, the chirping started again, a signal for them to move, and off they went.
Jude and Iris first went back to the riverbank they had found the day before. There, they replenished their water and caught more fish. Iris purified everything again, and they ate.
“It’s been two days,” Jude said, fishing for something.
“And?”
“It’s too easy…” he added.
“I… see what you mean. But if I didn’t have my skill, we’d probably be poisoned by whatever is tainting that river.”
“That’s true. Maybe your skills were unaccounted for.”
“I mean… I get something brought us here, but they can’t control everything.”
“I see that, but think about it, was there a reason all those people that died left the cave before acquiring any skills?”
“Maybe they were forced to. Besides, you don’t have any skills yet either.”
“Yeah… That’s going to become a problem.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“It’s not a problem to me,” Iris said. She smiled at him and added, “I wouldn’t be able to do this alone, skills or no skills. It would’ve been too lonely and too scary.”
“Thank you. And thank you for taking care of me… of us. I just want to be able to help too.”
“I know. Maybe it’s taking longer because your coming here is some sort of anomaly. Whatever happened to you in that alley is the cause of it, but why?”
“Wish we could ask the woman.”
“Yeah…” Iris finished in a sudden serious tone.
“Have you finished?” Jude asked while pointing at the fish bones in front of her.”
“Yeah. Let’s move.”
They cleaned the area again. More than ever, after the previous night, they knew they could leave no traces of themselves. Whatever could be traced back to them had to disappear.
Once everything was in order, they went back to the forking path, before they turned toward the river, and went in the direction of the dried blood splatter. They both thought it was possible that they could be pushing into the territory of whatever hunted at night, but they felt they had no choice. The birds were still chirping, and somehow, that made them feel safe. Both Jude and Iris had yet to see a live bird, however.
After a couple of hours walking, a distance that surprised them, they came to a clearing. The sky was still covered by the leaves of the trees around them, but it could be said to be an open area. There was a large rock in the center with what seemed to be writing on it, but they couldn’t make out the language. By the rock, there were two mannequins, a male-looking one and a female-looking one. They were dressed in sets of clothes that seemed to be about their sizes. The clothes were red.
“Is this for us?” Iris questioned.
“I think? This is certainly a message for someone on the rock.”
“Do we take it? I wanna take it. I need to change out of these clothes.”
“Let’s do that. You change while I’ll look over this writing a while longer. Hopefully I can make something out of it.”
“I wanna tell you not to peek, but it would be so stupid of me to step away. Just… Don’t stare, but keep an eye out for me, OK? Don’t let anything take me away.”
“Haha! I guess you like horror movies.”
“I used to… before all this.”
Jude went back to the writing, but kept looking over at Iris every few seconds to make sure she was safe while she dressed. When she finished changing, she joined him.
Iris was wearing long pants made with some sort of heavier fabric, which would definitely prevent any cuts and bruises, hard-soled fabric shoes that she had wrapped up all the way to her ankles, a shirt, and a crude, short jacket that ended just beneath her breasts. The jacket’s only purpose was really just to cover the length of her arms when she wasn’t hot, to prevent injury like the pants. Once she donned the clothes, they turned white.
“You should change too,” she said when she joined him.
“Just a sec. I think I almost have something here.”
Jude stared intently at the script on the rock. It felt like even the chirping was fading away into the background.
Suddenly, he heard a voice.
[Analysis complete.]
[Call “Status” for more information.]
“I got my skills!” Jude exclaimed.
“Now?! Why?”
“No clue. Let me check my status. Here, I’ll share the window with you.”
Their cheeks touched as they stared at the floating screen.
[Name: Jude Masters
Occupation: Linguist
Sub-Occupation: Unknown
Lvl. 1
Health: 125
Mana: 25
Dexterity: 10
Strength: 15
Agility: 10
Notice: Other status options will open on level up.
Translation/Interpretation lvl. 10 (Max)]
“That’s it!” Jude exclaimed. “One skill!”
“We don’t know what happens at level two yet, and it’s more like a dual skill,” Iris replied, trying to lift his spirits. “Why don’t you read the rock now?”
“Yeah, OK. Let’s see what it says.”
Travelers from Outside,
My name is not important for I will die soon. I am of the Fae. We used to rule these woods until the rot appeared. My people are dying. Even now, we hide at night from the thing that hunts. These garbs are my creation. After much research, I created them to deliver significant protection from the rot. They adapt to those that seek them, but only if they are cleansed of the rot. My people have been tainted already and suffer from disease. The garbs need pure, untainted mana to function. We do not have that anymore. The rot is everywhere. In everyone.
It eats the dead, leaving no trace of what once was. If you die here, nobody will find you. There won’t be anything to find.
Travelers, save my people of this curse. If any are still alive when you see this, please.
Search the largest tree and speak the words “of the wood I’m borne and to the wood I return,” and if any are alive, they’ll welcome you.
Beware the night.
To Jude, the message scribbled on the rock hadn’t been that lengthy, but once he started reading the words, images of more words started to fill his head. Whatever language these people spoke, their writing seemed to be able to give those who read it knowledge above what was written, or maybe it had something to do with his newly acquired skill. Jude wasn’t certain one way or the other.
Written on the rock, was simply:
Travelers from Outside,
Beware the night.
After relaying the entire message to Iris, Jude changed into the clothes left for him, which turned black once he was fully dressed, and they headed back to the hollow tree trunk. There was much to think about now. They had found out why all of the people from the other night and their belongings had disappeared. Their new clothes seemed to hold some kind of power, and they knew they weren’t alone.