As the black haired youngster was busy clashing with the enraged boss, granny Tacha was observing the situation on the sidelines. The one armed human-like goo was attacking the poor guy quite agressively. As he got hit by a kick, shoving him quite far back, he barely managed to scream a few words “Help me out a little here!” However, he had no time to look around for the granny, as the boss was already in front of him, ready to grab him.

“You’ve got it covered, young man!” She didn’t want to help him at all, especially after the little confrontation they had earlier. Besides, the slimey boss was ignoring her, targeting more the flickering lamp of the other player rather than the guy himself. After nodding a couple of times she left the guy to fend for himself to search deeper in the room. She might find a few clues related to Layla that way.

Frӧst, hearing some movement, was finally relived as the boss wouldn’t aim for him only. With two people it would be easier to kill the boss. He had worked hard to grind his level up to 9, but soloing a boss was still too much for him. Afterall he was still a classless Alter; he only had some proficency into Beginner Swordmanship and no active skills to make use of.

But as he kept blocking swings and evading blows, help never arrived. His face changed to horror as a thought crept into his mind “Granny...? Granny! I really need help!” There was no response. Only the groaning of the boss was giving him some kind of answer.

The humanoid goo threw itself at him, too tired to dodge he tried him best to block with his sword, only for the two of them to fall on the slimey ground. The golden eyes of the boss shined evily as it towered over him. It got its face closer, making sounds that could be mistaken for words “Graaa-io ooowrry...” Goo dripped onto his face, fast pacing notifications covering part of his view.

The goo is sizzling on your skin. Hp -3

The goo… Hp -2

Endurance check.

Passed successfully!

… Hp -4

Looking straight at that ugly face wasn’t enough torture. At this rate he was going to die. He couldn’t afford to waste even a day. No matter what, he was going to survive!

ᴥᴥᴥ ≈ ° ≈ ᴥᴥᴥ

Tacha could clearly hear the sounds of fighting and screams for help as she fumbled around in the dark. She was hoping that the other player could hold the boss for long enough, he was more armed than her anyway. The most she could do was bonking it in the head with a radish.

Besides, it would make things easier for her if the guy could weaken the humanoid slime before dying. That way she could reap all of the rewards.

Tacha checked on her status. She had no time to check it before, but now that she had some respite she might as well check how much damage the Voidblight caused.

Name: Tacha Macha

Level: 2 (Alter)

Race: Human

Hp: 15/17 (-2)

Mp: 18/18 (-2)

Strength: 5 (-2)

Endurance: 7 (-2)

Wisdom: 9 (-2)

Intelligence: 8 (-2)

Dexterity: 17

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Speed: 16 (-2)

Luck: 8 (-2)

Charm: 5 (-2)

Unassigned Points: /

Temporary Effects: Hp Regen: +5%, Voidbight, Mirage

Thanks to the Hp Regen, her health points weren’t decreasing as fast as before. Instead of losing 9 Hp every two minutes, she was only losing 5 Hp every two minutes.

Still, she had no more than six minutes. That is of course, if she doesn’t risk a gamble with one of her dishes.

Now that her strength had dropped all the way to 5, she wasn’t even able to weild the radish as a weapon. Maybe she could throw one of her hellish dishes if push comes to shove.

Tacha sighed. She should’ve never put all of her points into dexterity and speed. Next time she’ll put some on strength, so that she could at least do something more than just running away.

Her eyes then fell into the Mirage effect. At first glance it didn’t look like a dangerous status effect, plus she couldn’t see anything at the moment anyway. Rather, she was more scared of the Voidblight to worsen. If Tacha’s stats decreased even more… she really didn’t want to imagine what would happen. It might be possible that she won’t even be able to walk.

“Hehe” A laugh escaped from her mouth before tripping over something. She stopped herself from falling before grumbling. A night vision skill would be very useful in situations like this. Even if her lamp was still working, she wouldn’t turn it on. Tacha was guessing that the boss was prioritizing targets with a light source.

Granny Tacha squatted down. With her hands she touched around to find what tripped her. The tip of her fingers touched something smooth. She kept them going, tracing all of its curves and holes. With a frown she picked the object up and kept trying to get a better image in her head. Then, when she felt a craggy surface, she trembled on the reflex, but soon stopped herself. She had found a skull, a human skull.

Layla came to mind straight away, afterall she came all of the way here to find her. If it wasn’t her, then who else could it be?

But then she discarded that thought. She had only disappeared for one month. Even if she died as soon as she disappeared, the skeleton was too clean and dry for it to be hers.

Then who was it?

No one else was reported missing in the village. So an unfortunate explorer? Or was it someone that had lived in these ruins long ago?

As granny Tacha went through the rest of the skeleton, she found a pendant trapped inside its ribcage. After putting it inside the inventory, she heard the bones breaking down and turning to dust. Then, the familiar sound of a new notification resounded in her mind.

Tears of the Moon

You found a well preserved skeleton in the depths of the Amber Jackal ruins. As soon as you took posession of the pendant it held, the skeleton turned into dust, as if it was the pendant itself that kept it togheter.

What mysteries does the pendant hold?

Completion percentage: 0%

You received an Investigation quest.

Explore every nook and cranny to find more clues to raise the completion percentage!

An Investigation quest can be completed with a minimum of 20% completion percentage.

If you miss important clues, the completion percentage will be lower and rewards will be dealt accordingly.

She didn’t think that she would get a whole new quest. An update on ‘A Cry for Help!’ maybe, but not an unrelated quest. Tacha checked the pendant, maybe the description will give her some insights.

Lumashir’s Moondrop

The striped, moon shaped agate was for long believed to be a gift of the gods to protect the belivers against death. There might be some truth to it, as its previous owner could still be found by someone...

Int +5, End +3, Lck +4, grants Moonblessing

Moonblessing (passive)

Status and ability checks will fail less often. Blight statuses will have a lower chance to take effect.

As soon as she read the effects, Tacha rushed to put it on, however she was soon disappointed to find that her Voidblight status didn’t disappear. She read the text again, soon finding the problem. She was already under the effects of the Voidblight, but the pendant ability only worked if one didn’t have the Blight in the first place. In other words, the passive ability was useless to her at the moment.

Still, she kept it on as it granted a nice stat boost. Those never hurt anyone.

Before she could check more, on the corner of her eye she saw the other player’s lamp die out. For all of this time Tacha kept on checking the battle, or rather if the light was still on.

Now that there wasn’t a convenient distraction for the boss anymore, granny Tacha became as still as a statue. No matter who of the two survived the clash, both of them were enemies.

The only advantage that she had over them is that they didn’t know where she was.