Besides the consistent roaring of the earth, the ruins seemed more than fine. It was small and reminded her of a house. There was a living room alongside four other rooms, two of them being bedrooms, one being a study, another a storage, and a larger bathroom, but it had no kitchen, and although Lilith couldn’t quite understand how the bathroom worked, everything was there for a small family to live in.

Heading back to the living room and sitting down at the dining table, Lilith grabbed the letter Arthur had left for her.

Hey,

It’s Arthur again.

I’m glad you found this location since I don’t think anyone could’ve guessed the entire area would end up so empty. I don’t think I need to warn you if you’ve made it to this point so far, but be careful. You’re fine inside of these ruins, but there are huge worm-like creatures traveling underneath this desolated zone. If you were wondering what those sounds were, it’s those things moving. From what I gathered, they go off sound, so try your best to be as silent as possible. That said, you might’ve figured that out by now! Or got really lucky. Either way, be careful.

Now, as for where I’m headed to next, I plan to travel west from here. Things seemed to have changed far more than I expected, and from this point on, there is almost nothing else of importance that the dwarves have discovered, so I’ve been using a book I’ve found to help guide me. I can’t say it will work out well, but I plan to leave a note at every stop I tell you to go to regardless if the place ends up being safe or not. You’re free to find your own way as well, but this is the least I can do. As I said… Well, indirectly, you can ignore the dwarf map from now on and just use the old Elven one. Just don’t take the topography to heart.

……..

Lilith leaned back in her chair, letting the front two feet lift from the ground. “West, huh?” Lilith said.

More of nothing, she thought.

She kept leaning back, testing the limits the chair could go to while staring at the ceiling. “I don’t want to deal with this worm, but I guess it’s safer than anywhere else if I have my crystal.” Tilting a bit too far, her arms and legs flailed, while the chair tilted farther back beyond her control, and in that split second of realization, she reached forward, grabbing the table and with all her weight, leaned forward. The back feet screeched, and the front made a loud slam which echoed through the room. Lilith went silent. Head low, while looking around. Arthur said it was safe, and from all the walking and talking she had done so far, she believed it, but she couldn’t help but brace for an impact that would never come. It took her a few minutes, but after confirming nothing was going to happen, she collapsed like water onto the table.

A yawn escaped Lilith’s lip shortly after, followed by another, then another. The side effect was kicking in fast. Checking the date, she headed to the room she set her stuff in, and after changing and crawling into her sleeping bag she placed on top of the bed, she closed her eyes.

……….

Shooting up from her sleeping bag, she whipped her head from side to side, looking around. With a hand in the abyss, and her eyes wide open, she realized what the sound that woke her was. “Damn worm,” Lilith mumbled while removing her hand and falling back onto the bed. She laid there, letting herself adjust to the lights and her surroundings.

After giving herself a few minutes to wake up, she sat up and took several sips of water. “How long has it been?” Putting the canteen away, she got up and looked at the tool she left at the dining table. It was small and easy to handle, but it did wonders for her. A small circle with a glass cover and wooden bottom. There were two lines. The smaller one moved every minute, while the bigger one moved every hour. After a full day, from the moment you activate the tool, a wooden stick pops out from the top. In Lilith’s case, there was only one plank coming out. “One day and-” Lilith counted. “8? 10 hours? So it should still be bright out.” It was a weird device, but it helped a lot in situations like this to not lose track of time. With her stomach grumbling for something to eat, she stood up, prepared a meal at the dining table, and ate until she was full.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, minus the sudden rumblings of the worms. She continued to read the book Arthur recommended to her and searched the place for anything else she could use, which, unfortunately, was nothing. The rooms were as plain as an inn, and the boxes in the storage room had unusable food and items that Lilith couldn’t understand.

It was a mystery why a small house would be given a blessing -in the words of the book- to something so unimportant. The temple made sense, but why here?

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“From what I can tell, there’s nothing hidden.” Lilith said.

Maybe it’s the owner, she thought.

“A priest?” she asked.

Possibly, she thought.

……..

“That should do it,” Lilith said, tapping her pencil against her cheek. She jotted down her experiences over the past two days, documenting the worm and drawing a crude drawing of the spiders while writing the details of their body and what she saw while looking down the hole. Things have changed far too much, and even though Lilith might not be a scholar, she felt it was important to document everything she had come across. There were demons she had never seen or read about before, so it was important. She also added in her own worries and how it worried her and how she could see why people avoided the place.

“Knowledge is key,” she said, while jotting down her last few lines. Although it was scary, as long as humans knew what they were getting into, it would stamp out a lot of the worry and danger the north had in store.

Closing the notebook and putting away the pencil, and stretched. Another long day, but before going to bed, Lilith quickly climbed the stairs and looked outside. The sun was setting and darkness quickly crept in. After confirming nothing was out of the ordinary, and it was becoming night, she headed back down and went to sleep.

………

Cracking her neck and back, Lilith looked at her compass and, after confirming she was heading the correct way, continued her journey across the endless wasteland while occasionally stopping to take a quick peek in a hole and to be greeted by a large moving object or the sounds of skittering movement.

“The underground would be a perfect place if I was an adventurer,” Lilith said as she continued onward.

But I’m not, she thought.

She immensely enjoyed seeing the receiver's reaction to the letter Lilith had delivered, be it a letter to a young maiden that was in love, business deals that expanded to other cities, or gifts for loved ones. Being a carrier was a job she loved and never would tire of, and even though her dream, when she was younger, was to become a carrier- someone who could connect people around the world- there was a different type of romance when exploring the unknown or fighting demons. Maybe it was the stories Alex used to tell her when she was younger. The demons he used to fight and the party members he made while doing so, or the caverns and ruins he used to explore, discovering things long forgotten. It made her just as interested in the adventurer lifestyle. More so, the latter over the former considering all the ruins left undiscovered or unfound.

A part of her liked the unknown and wanted to see what others hadn’t, but sadly, that wasn’t a reality she could live in. Maybe one day, something she would tell herself every so often. Maybe she would discover a way to fully use her boundless mana. It came in handy, such as using the crystal she has been using and rarely ever needing to worry about mana issues, but she could never actually use it.

A bittersweet smile formed on her lips as she reminisced about the past. When she was a child, trying to shoot fireballs from her hand, but failed every time. She looked down at a hand, spreading her fingers out as far away from each other as possible and letting her mana travel to each one similar to when she opened a pocket, she aimed her palm outwards. “If only,” Lilith said with a hint of disappointment, as she hoped for a fireball to be shot from her palm.

The worms' sudden rumbling abruptly interrupted her peaceful reminiscing. It was different this time. Far louder than ever before and far more powerful, causing Lilith to fall down and curl up into a fetal position while keeping the crystal as close as she could. Tucking her head into her knees, there wasn’t much else she could do but wait and wait and wait. The rumbling continued, with no sign of it stopping. Hesitantly, she raised her head, glancing around.

Lilith froze, eyes wide and mouth open. It took her a moment to process what was happening. “What the-” was the only unfinished sentence she could mutter before darting her head in different directions. It seemed like Arthur underplayed the amount of worms there were as Lilith watched dozens with half their large, grotesque bodies and their thousands of razor-sharp teeth sprouting out from the ground like weeds, each out of their own hole. Soon after, in the distance, one more shot out and broke apart the ground, followed by a whooshing sound which filled the air as an identical worm, just like the others, racing through the sky. Its speed was fast, and the moment it reached the same height as the others, it stopped. No adjustments needed.

Lilith stood up, her legs wobbling as she clutched the crystal to her chest and carefully maneuvered past. Two days ago, she might have approached to see what it was doing, but not now; she had no intention of staying there. It was only by luck that she was fine, or so was the conclusion Lilith came to, and she didn’t want to see what would happen next. Well, technically, she wouldn’t mind, but it would have to be from a distance where there was no worry of dying.

Her footsteps started at a tiptoe pace, delicately moving around each worm. There was a mixture of an earthly scent mixed in with the earth eaters, or so Lilith thought to call them, and a putrid odor wafting from their bodies and mouths. The smell was so strong and disgusting that even when she attempted to plug her nose, it still seeped in. She gagged, almost throwing up, but held it down in fear of leaving anything behind and kept moving.

Her tiptoes soon became a walking speed, followed by a run, until she finally made it out of the area, and as soon as she did, Lilith took to a dash, running as far away as she could and only looking back when she was far enough away.