After touching the goat again, the trio opened their eyes and found themselves at the other side of the village. This loop was made early in the morning, as the sun was just about to rise. The goat was merrily eating the moist grass and didn’t seem to care about the party’s sudden appearance.
“Are you people from the guild?!” A young man sitting a few meters away from the goat yelled. “I’ve been waiting for so long…”
“Aye. Are you the one who left the notice for the quest?” Gilbert asked and put out his hand for a shake. “How’d you get stuck in here too?”
The man grabbed Gilbert’s hand enthusiastically and shook it.
“Yes… I didn’t know what else to do. I waited for a week but no one from the guild came. So I had to do something myself but this isn’t at all what I expected. I’ve been searching the surroundings for what seems like months now, but there’s no one here.” He explained and sighed.
“Well done, son! I would have grabbed a weapon with me if I were you, but otherwise you did exactly what I would have done.” Gilbert said, trying to cheer up the villager. “Here’s our plan: It seems that touching the goat again brings you to the last moment where the goat was touched by someone. So we’ll keep touching the goat until we find everyone and figure out the situation from there.”
The man agreed to the plan and shamed himself for not touching the goat again sooner. It was almost time for the loop to start again so they decided to move on.
In the next couple of loops, they found three more villagers without much of a trouble. Apparently, they needed to find eleven people in total, two of whom were children. The party realized that out of the villagers, the children were the most likely to keep touching the goat and end up in the earlier loops, but they didn’t want to worry the villagers more.
By the time they found the sixth villager, organizing the goat touching became harder and it was decided that Emilia would keep an eye on the villagers while they waited a full loop after Anastacia and Gilbert had gone to the next one. This seemed to work even though the flow of time wasn’t quite the same between the loops. Sometimes Emilia and the villagers would appear almost immediately after Anastacia and Gilbert and sometimes after a couple of full loops.
It didn’t take too long until all but three of the missing people were found. They had all been in the village or the fields around it when they had touched the goat, so there wasn’t much in terms of danger.
Gilbert pulled Emilia and Anastacia a bit further away from the group.
“We’re still missing the 2 kids and their grandfather. The folks we found are saying that they were the first ones to disappear, So hopefully they’ll be in the next loop. But I need you guys to be ready if things go to shit.” He explained in a lowered voice to not alert the villagers. “Emilia, from now on wait for three full loops before going after us. If they’re not in the next one, we’ll keep going straight away and clear any problems we might run into.”
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“Wait… We don’t know what happens if something dies here. What if whatever problems you run into keep reviving after every loop resets?” Emilia pointed out. “But that would mean the village folk wouldn’t die either.”
“Good point. We’ll have to check it afterwards.” Gilbert said.
Anastacia dreaded the idea of dying and being revived again. She almost hoped that if the villagers had died, they’d stay dead. A painful death after another sounds like something children wouldn’t take well. After all, her own death was pretty bad and left her pretty messed up. If that were to happen every four minutes, it’d probably drive someone insane.
Having confirmed their plan, Gilbert and Anastacia moved on to the next loop.
This time they were a bit further away from the village, and couldn’t even see the houses, or the people who hadn’t touched the goat when this loop was created. The children and their grandpa had probably been playing outside the village when they spotted the goat.
“Shit… So the next loop will be made by whatever touched the goat before it came to the village?” Anastacia asked. She still wasn’t completely clear on how things worked.
“Aye, could be a person, could be a beast. With any luck they’ve found some poor traveler who ended up here before them and stuck with them.” Gilbert said and placed his hand back on the goat.
After a deep breath, they closed their eyes and moved to the next loop.
They were greeted by a tired old man, who was around his seventies and clearly not well.
“Old man, where are the children and why are you not with them?” Gilbert asked.
“They’ve touched the goat again, and I can’t follow them anymore.” The old man said. “When we got here, we ran into a beast who caught me. The children were able to run away as I bought them time. I woke up again after a while but the goat no longer works. So now I just sit here and wait for the beast to come again.”
“Wow, that’s the worst.” Anastacia noted.
“You died an honorable death, we’ll make sure to end this nightmare for you.” Gilbert said.
Suddenly they heard a growl from behind them.
“There it is. Did you come to end me again, you bastard?” The old man shouted and picked up a stick from the ground.
Anastacia turned around to see that a bear had somehow snuck up to them, she pointed her hand at the beast and prepared to snap its neck before it had a chance to move. But Gilbert made her lower it and grabbed his mace.
“Let me handle this.” He demanded and looked more serious than ever.
There was only five or so meters between them and the bear, so it didn’t take long for it and Gilbert to reach each other. The old adventurer swung his mace at the beast’s head and crushed its skull. The bear fell down and Gilbert proceeded to finish the job with another strike.
“Do you like hate bears or something?” Anastacia asked, since this wasn’t something Gilbert usually does.
“Nay, I think they’re cuddly, but the old man deserves some rest.” Gilbert said and stretched his arms. “We’re changing our plan slightly. I’ll stay here to accompany him and keep the bear at bay, you go on ahead, find the kids and solve this. I’ll send Emilia after you if it feels like it’s taking too long.”
“Uh… Me? Alone? Are you sure about this?” Anastacia questioned the idea.
“Yeah, I need to make sure he gets to meet his folks in peace. Just do this one for me, okay?” Gilbert explained and patted Anastacia’s shoulder. “If there’s someone who can pull it off, it’s you. You have a skill for pulling through with this kind of stuff.”
Anastacia had zero faith on her abilities, but she kind of understood what Gilbert meant. The necromancer waved goodbyes for the old man and poked the goat.
“Are you sure you want to send your lass out alone? You don’t need to do this for me…” The old man said and sat down.
“She’s far more dangerous than I have ever been, whatever it is, she’ll handle it.” Gilbert explained, sat next to the old man and dug out a pipe from his pocket.