Thankfully, Tacha Macha was able to speed through the forest without meeting a single radish.

With the village in sight and the depths of the Nightgleam forest way behind her, the granny could finally take a breather.

Glancing back, she thought it strange. The Spirited Radishes are a very common mob in the forests near the village. To not see even one of them… did she kill too many of them, affecting their population?

Heh, surerly not. Right…?

But thinking about it, the developers could have implemented something like it. A decrease in population aftee excessive hunting is very realistic!

However at the same time, wouldn’t this anger the players? Levelling up by hunting mobs is an instinct for all of them, afterall.

Now that Tacha was out of the radish danger, she had enough time to check on her status and notifications.

It was obvious since she had not died yet from the Voidblight that the status was gone; however she just wanted to make sure.

Name: Tacha Macha

Level: 6 (Alter)

Race: Human

Hp: 3/14

Mp: 23/15

Strength: 11

Endurance: 12

Wisdom: 7

Intelligence: 6

Dexterity: 11

Speed: 11

Luck: 6

Charm: 5

Unassigned Points: /

Temporary Effects: Corruption

Seeing that she had only 3 Hp left, her heart almost jumped to her throat. She almost died! Her quests, she had almost lost them all!

She took a couple of minutes to calm down. Then, her eyes landing upon the temporary effects, she frowned. If she remembered well the Corruption status appeared in the fight against the slime Layla. However, at the time it had been difficult to read due to the unrecognizable letters.

Was it because of a system error? Did they give the game a patch fix while she was away?

Corruption

A status effect that increases the affinity with the Void attribute.

She couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. But an increase in affinity is usually a good thing in games. With that in mind she didn’t worry about it too much. Since it was a temporary effect, it was bound to go away sooner or later.

Next, she checked her quests. Before logging out she remebered being some quests updated, but since she was in a hurry at the time she didn’t even look at them.

At the top of them all she could a greyed out quest, a notification appearing right after.

Void Red World

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As you look over the desolate red world in front of your eyes, you notice how there doesn’t seem to be any sign of life in your immediate location.

However you can’t shake off the feeling that you’re not alone in this place.

Moreover the fog that permeates the surroundings seems to be sapping your strenght. Find a safe place before it’s too late!

Quest rewards: Abyssal Fragment, 5000 exp, 5 status points (SP)

Quest failed.

As penality for failing the Urgent quest, all of the main quest items related to it will be destroyed.

She failed it!? But didn’t she get out of that place alive together with the other kid?

When she saw that the main quest items would be destroyed she panicked and checked her inventory. She took a sigh of relief when she saw that she still had everything with her.

But then a question naturally came to mind. How come it mentioned quest items being destroyed? Was this common to all of the Urgent quests, or was it specific to this one?

And if so, does it mean that she intruded upon the questline? If there was a chain quest leading to that weird world, then it would make sense for there to be some quest items.

Tacha looked at the greyed out rewards. Maybe it’s related to the Abyssal Fragment. She made a mental note of it. Someone was bound to know more about it. It wasn’t a bad idea to know more about this ‘red world’.

Due to the appearance of the Mark of Styx, a new quest will be created.

She had a vague recollection of said mark. Going through her status menu she found it among her passive skill section.

Mark of Styx

Passive Skill

A curse left by the Arbiter of Death to those that trespass upon his realm. Beings that belong to the sun-kissed surface are not welcome there.

Only if you were to shed your ties with Yggdrasil, will you be able to set foot in the Abyss and look upon the only truthful ending.

All stats will decrease by 40%.

Hp and Mp cannot be regenerated when over 20% of the current total.

She still couldn’t believe that a skill so full of debuffs could exist. What was worse was that she had to stay at 20% Hp. With that she was basically a sunfish.

Tacha couldn’t help but cuss out the devs. Whoever created this skill is a devil, a devil I say!

Urgent quest assigned: ‘The Curse of Styx’.

The Curse of Styx

You have escaped from the mysterious red world. However it seems like you’ve been unable to shake off its influence.

Moreover, the gate you’ve escaped from has been forcefully shut. You can’t be sure that such old and delicate mechanisms can function properly after a rough handling.

With the Mark of Styx appearing on you, now you have to find a way to get rid of this ancient curse.

Quest rewards: 13000 exp, 7 SP, unlocks Unique Quest chain.

So the reason she failed the quest was because she received the mark? Wasn’t that still back in that weird place? Why didn’t the quest fail as soon as she got it?

Tacha Macha had no answer for such questions. And by just looking at the rewards, she could tell that it was a difficult quest. The boss she killed didn’t even give half of that exp!

She wondered wether it was difficult because it was dangerous or because the clues to the curse were too difficult to find.

Still, living with such a passive was simply terrible. No matter what it would take, she was going to find a cure.

There was no new notification, and in her quest list only two older quests were left. The first one was the chain quest that lead her to fight the corrupted Layla, meanwhile the other one naturally popped up while she was scavenging a rather well dressed skeleton in the ruins.

Corruption Runs Deep II

You have successfully discovered what happened to Kirio’s missing mother.

Now you have two options in front of you: report back to Kirio with the information you know, or you could attempt to discover the culprit responsable to trap Layla in the depths of the ruins before reporting.

Report back: (0/1)

Find the culprit: (0/1)

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: 2%

While she had a few leads for Kirio’s quest, she had no idea what to do about the last one.

Tacha started pondering. The skeleton was found in the boss room, the same boss room that would give you the Voidbight status and the same room that has a big ass gate that leads to the Red World that gave me the mark. Moreover, the skeleton was wearing a necklance that has the passive to prevent Blight statuses.

To say that it was all a coincidence it was very unlikely!

“Mmm…” Everything felt like some sort of ceremony. Something related to the Blight and the Red World.

She then remembered that there were a lot of paintings in the ruins, and one of them was ruined by anything but accidentally. Who else would be bothered to ruin an old mural but one of the villagers that fear those ruins oh so much?

Tacha felt as she was on the verge of discovering the answer. With sparkling eyes, she headed towards the village.