As the vision disappeared and the sight of the secret study replaced it, Tacha pondered on what she saw.

The Lumashir’s Moondrop was the necklance that she picked up from the skeleton in the underground chamber back in the Amber Jackal Ruins.

What she just saw was most certainly about the last moments of said skeleton. However its appearance wasn’t human at all. Instead it had some canine traits.

On his skin were wriggling purple markings, the same ones that she saw all over the boss Layla’s second phase. She suspected that it had to be a poisoning or infection of some kind.

And lastly, he was clutching the ruler in his hands, as if letting go was an impossible thought.

Worn Down Ruler

A dark bronze metallic slat with multiple straight incisions on one side. Every ten incisions there’s a bigger one marked with a symbol you’ve never seen before. Each symbol is different from the others.

One of the ends is circular with a hole as big as a finger, while the other end is as sharp as a blade.

One needs a compass to not lose the Lodestar.

She would’ve understood it better if he was clutching at the Static Compass, the item that the system gave as a reward and that helped her traverse the weird red foggy world. However he was clinging at the ruler instead. An item that apparently had no use in the world beyond the gate.

The Lodestar… Tacha couldn’t help but stop at that last sentence in the description. An item important to the skeleton?

Maybe there was something more important than his own life. Important enough to keep the way to find it close to himself.

However she had some doubts about that theory. The description mentions a compass, however the only compass she had was the one that worked only in the world beyond the gate. And even then, it only pointed at another gate.

The granny found the clue provided by her new skill not clear enough. So she wanted to give it another try.

Charting Compass is on cooldown.

Time remaining: 28:31

For some reason she didn’t expect there to be a cooldown. But is seemed to be quite short, just 30 minutes of ingame time. That wasn’t really an inconvenience.

However she just now noticed… was it a coincidence that her skill was a ‘compass’?

The skill hadn’t shown her enough to progress with the quest, so the granny decided to wait out the cooldown and try again later.

Then she glanced at her status. She hadn’t checked if there were any changes yet.

Name: Tacha Macha

Level: 1 (Exp: 0)

Race: Human

Hp: 3/14

Mp: 20/15

Strength: 11

Endurance: 12

Wisdom: 7

Intelligence: 6

Dexterity: 11

Speed: 11

Luck: 6

Charm: 5

Unassigned Points: /

Temporary Effects: Corruption

Her mood dropped when she saw that her level had decreased from 6 to 1. But when she glanced at the rest of the stats she was confused. They had remained the same as when she was still level 6.

Then like a flash, a remote memory appeared in her head, she remembered reading in the forum online that the class she had been levelling up until now was just a temporary class, which would be replaced by the first class acquired.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

But seeing the points gained upon level up not being reset, she regret it a little. If only she had dedicated herself to level up, she would now have more stat points.

In a sulky mood she checked the class tab.

Class Mastery

Pathfinder: 1/15

For now only the Pathfinder class was there, but in the future all of the classes she acquires would be found in there.

She didn’t read in depth about the class system, she had only skimmed through a synopsis on the online forum.

Tacha knew that there were three main categories that every class could be divided in: the Base Classes that could go up to level 15, the Advanced Classes that went up to level 10 and lastly the Mastery Classes that could go up to level 5.

Base Classes had no requirements aside from finding either the quest or the Class Trainer to unlock it from. Advanced Classed could only be unlocked if the player possessed some specific Base Class when it was obtained.

As for the Mastery Class, no player had unlocked one yet, so the conditions were unclear for now. But the official sources mentioned the requirements being a specific Advanced Class and another condition that would be up to the player to discover.

For now Tacha wasn’t worried about her current max level being 15. As long as she found another class by the time she completely levelled up, she could keep gaining stat points.

Setting the quest and class aside for the moment, the grandma looked through the notes on the desk and right away she found some interesting research notes on the items laying around in the secret study.

Artifacts research notes:

…

Clear Lake Prism – Artifact recovered from one of the thieves of the Order. The Chief mentioned that it’s likely to be a sacred relic used in religious ceremonies.

I have tried to stir it with mana stones and other common means. There has been no reaction from it.

Further tests have been conducted. I have been trying rituals using the sigils found in the ruins. There has been no reactions.

It might have only a symbolic meaning.

…

Canine Statuette – wolf-shaped statuette recovered before the concealing operation. It looks worn out around the edges, some eye-looking symbols carved all over it.

It was carefully hidden in the living quarters. If we didn’t destroy the place we would’ve never discovered it.

Tacha decided to pick up all of the objects described in the notes from the box on the opposite side of the room.

They were bound to be useful someday in a future quest. If not, she could always sell them later on. It was always good to have extra coin on hand.

Fading Reef Prism

A jade-like 12 faced prism. There seems to be something inside, but it is barely noticeable.

Wolf Idol

A worn out stone figurine of a wolf in a seated position with a raised paw. Numerous eye.like symbols have been carved upon it.

Once she put them all in her inventory, she started looking through the library. Similarly to the notes on the desk, all of the books were written in a similar handwriting. It looked like it was the librarian himself who penned all of them.

Granny Tacha skimmed a few books. Most of them held information about the White Order and the runes found in the ruins. However information about the ruins themselves were scarce in between.

All of the information on the White Order was painted in a negative light, often referred simply as ‘thieves’.

It was a religious organization that came from the lands in the far east, past the mountain region that divided the continet. They were described as charlatans, masking themselves as peddlers and adventurers who would go plunder any ancient site they could find.

They were followers of an heretic religion, believers in prophecies and in a being called the ‘Ashen Tree’.

To her disappointment, there were no other datails about said order. However the name itself sounded familiar to her.

As for the ruins? Not even the name was noted down. The most she could find about them was that they belonged to an ancient civilization and that they were dangerous to explore. However a note made by the librarian himself doubted said dangers.

Meanwhile the notes on the runes had both a drawing and an interpretation for each of them. Just by looking at the references to other sources it was evident that this was the topic that was worked on the most by the librarian in his spare time.

The last book she picked up was in a dark red leather cover. Skimming through, it seemed that it was mostly a record of relevant events happening in the village. Unfortunately, there were no dates to pinpoint the events with.

Some suspicious traveler, the appearance of a skilled apotecary, the moving in of a gruff man and the arrival of a child and his mother. Alongside them there was an annotation on their behaviour and daily life in the village.

Even though no names were written down, the granny had an idea on the identity of some of them.

In a matter of minutes she reached the last couple of pages.

There has been an influx of strange vagrants of various races in the last few months. They’ve been coming and going from the village and all of the poins of interest around. Some might belong to the White Order.

We took preventive measures and burnt down the relevant areas and murals. The most important books and artifacts have been moved here and in the other chamber.

...

The vagrants are weird. Some of them have been running around for days without sleep, while others have been pestering people to give them stuff to do, demanding to be compensated for it.

They’ve been using weird terms like ‘enpisee’ and ‘quests’. Their behaviour is abnormal, but mostly harmless.

Most of the vagrants have left for Midwrath after only a few days. Those that remained behind have been helping with the extermination of monsters in the forest. It’s nice to be able to stay at home and do some more research.

...

Some traces have been found near the secret chamber in the ruins. Someone has been coming and going from there under our noses. Ella and I agreed to take turns to keep watch on the ruins.

We cannot let the thieves discover the secret of the ruins.

It has been done.

At first she thought that it was a simple report of the people moving through the village. However when she read the word ‘quest’, she had to make a double take. Reading it again she realized that it was referring to the players themselves.

It was a nice touch from the devs to put such a nice detail even in a place hidden like this one.

The granny kept reading on. But when she read the last part she came to a realization.

‘It has been done’.

They had guarded the ruins. They were waiting for the one that was going in and out of the secret chamber. And they succeded. They took care of the intruder.