[Year 22]

[Demon forest]

Arkum was in a predicament, it had been 4 days since Lazarus disappeared and they were running out of time. But since their Patron god had informed them that Lazarus was still alive and probably still fighting how could he give up?

The feelings were the same for the warriors and hunters, how could they leave a brother behind who is fighting for dear life? Life has proven to make it difficult for them. But only those who keep getting up after being kicked down are rewarded by life itself, the fruit, in the end, is not the reward, the struggle is.

Arkum and Shavik worked in tandem, marking the forest, but that didn't come without casualties, and since the qualities of monsters that come out of the dungeon are getting more and more dangerous, Kavo decided to come. It was met with opposition as he is the most valuable asset in the town.

But Kavo insisted. With new powers he is willing to test, given by their Patron God. Thankfully, the decision to allow Kavo to come with the search proved beneficial.

Kavo's new skill is [Mend] it stitched and healed the flesh together and brought the broken bones back to their place and slowly healed them. It took hours to heal but it was better than nothing. Though too much use would get Kavo fatigued, it saved resources.

Though Kavo advises not to move too much and eat a lot after casting the skill. He explained that the skill rearranges the bones and heals missing flesh but all in all, it accelerates the natural healing of the body so it still uses the resources of the body. So if they push themselves too much Kavo might not be able to control the self-inflicted damage.

“This is it.”

Arkum stared at a hole, it seemed fake, artificial. Like it was dug by hands but he knew better than to assume that Lazarus was ambushed.

“It isn't made by any people. Probably… it collapsed on its own.”

“Nature waiting for a victim?”

They looked at a tree in front of him, a marking, in their search, this is the farthest tree that has a mark, no other tree has a mark other than this tree. They were at the end of the search.

“Could it possibly be…”

“No… look.” Arkum pointed his spear.

They all looked, the hole has another hole barely poking through, it was overshadowed thanks to its location. They all understood at that moment.

“He went deeper,” Shavik commented. “How would we get him out?”

“We don't.”

“Why?”

“That hole is like connected to those Monster spawns”

The monster spawns are their term for the dungeons, unbeknownst to the term dungeon. The entries for the dungeons are caves, it looked like a normal cave as well. They discovered a few while searching and the only system prompt that appeared in front of them was:

[Monster Spawns at 00:00]

[Overloaded with Mana, expelling monsters]

It appears for a second then fades within a second, as the message disappears they can only name the dungeon after the first few words. After all the two words are the only thing they could name it. The name of the dungeon did not pop up at all.

“Can he come out?”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Let's believe he will.”

They believed that setting camp near the hole was the best idea. But before they could do so, Arkum and Shavik felt a presence. Both heads looked in the same direction first before the others followed.

What came out were dogs, grey and big enough just to be below Arkum’s leg, they were big as Arkum is over 178cm. They were all alert Arkum foremost, but immediately their wariness was replaced with confusion as elves came out along with the dogs.

“W-we come in peace!”

The humans within the group were confused, hunters and warriors alike. The Orcs, however, displayed a bit of wariness. It's not that they know what elves are, their forefathers might, but they are of a newer generation. It's just merely a racial trait that keeps them wary.

The Elves that appeared also had this same reaction, wariness but not hostility. Thankfully though, is that the elves are speaking the same language as them. But with a different accent, so they could at least communicate.

“You all are?”

“I am Miriel!”

Arkum looked at Miriel and pondered. “What are your intentions?”

“Our Patron god had given us a quest to come here. We expected to meet people”

The elf looked at the air for a moment, then Arkum and the rest of the party did the same as a quest pop-up appeared in front of them.

[Connect with the Elven village]

[Connect with the Human and Orc Village]

Two separate quests appeared before them. This may sound like a distraction with the Humans and Orcs are on a rescue mission. But thankfully, the Quest is not urged to be complicated nor it is a high priority.

“I see the intention of our Patron God, however, we have a problem at the moment,” Arkum stated. “My name is Arkum, a Hunter of the Foreline Villa-Town.”

“I see! My name is Al’feth. The son of our village chief.”

Arkum nodded, welcoming the Elf and his group.”I see, why won't you come with us for a while, it seems it took you all quite a while to come here.”

Roughly, there is Al’feth and three more elves with him. All in all, there are four, two men and two women, one woman was looking at Arkum quite suspiciously. Alfeth noticed this and elbowed the woman.

“What? He looks good…”

She aggressively whispered to Alfeth. But sadly, the Hunters have good hearing, so a few smirked and looked at Arkum. The elven woman saw their reaction and she hurriedly looked at Arkum to see his reaction, expecting him not to hear just for that expectation to be betrayed.

“I already have a family.” Arkum smiled and spoke respectfully.

The elven woman blushed in embarrassment. The other woman beside her chuckled and introduced herself.

“Hello, I am Zein, an Archer of the Archwoods. This splendid woman,” she nudged at the girl blushing. “Is Samira, and he is Liran.” she pointed at the last elf that hadn't introduced himself.

“There would be a lot of introductions. However, they will handle that themselves.”

Arkum looked around the people, and with that cue, everyone started introducing themselves, one by one they told their names, and while they were introducing themselves the others began setting up camp.

They let out the jerkies and grabbed water near the river to drink. They also packed some dried fruits that they ate with joy. The elves shared their stories along with the humans and Orcs. they all had their fair share of stories to tell.

The Elves told their story where their ancestors had to cross the sea but they were hit with a week of continuous storms, a week of monster attacks and a week of aggressive waters just to cross the land to make a settlement in these forests. Of course, the humans had told their stories that came from their forefathers, the city that was destroyed by a deity and the Orcs shared their story on how they crossed the sea similar to the elves.

Kavo kept an interest in their stories, even buying a paper on the spot from their system store to record them.

“Wh-what was that?”

An elf exclaimed in awe and disbelief, it was Liran, who saw what Kavo did in his peripheral. Kavo’s eyebrows jumped, he forgot that the elves were new to the Awakened System given by Hadro.

“You see the second icon in your system?” Kavo asked.

Liran opened his system and nodded. “Yeah.”

“That's the store, that's where paper is available.”

He waved the paper in his hand, the method of his writing though is a charcoal ink he had brought. It wasn't on the store but created back at their settlements. The reason for that is simple, Hadro placed the Learning packets in the store, The moment they started to purchase the learning packet of a sold item in the store it would become limited.

A curious bunch bought the [Learning Packet: Charcoal Ink] instead of the paper and now they could produce the Charcoal ink. Though it's for the better, Hadro intentionally made the items expensive after learning that they might develop a reliance on the store.

“That is so convenient. I never knew you could just pay for paper… that's quite expensive.” Liran commented.

“You have paper in your settlement?” Kaso asked, curious.

“Ah… yes. Though, of lower quality.”

“Theres also of the learning packets. Try searching them.”

“Uhm… what do I?” looking at Kavo quizzically.

“They're separated, or rather, categorized. Those icons on the top usually indicate what they are.”

Liran nodded, and the other elves started fiddling with their systems, Kavo occasionally pointing out whenever they wanted to learn something. In the end, they got to the topic of what they would do with Lazarus’ disappearance from the dungeon. However, after several discussions, the Elves decided to ask them a meaningful question.

“Our elders may have some knowledge about the dungeon, they might fulfil some information.”

“That's a good suggestion.” Arkum nodded. “Might as well know our settlements so we could travel to each other. Might have something to trade the store doesn't.”

Alfeth nodded, having friendly relations with another village would surely help them since the dungeon has stopped releasing weak monsters. They need to get every advantage they can get and having allies adds to that, though Orcs and Humans are the only sapient creatures these young elves had med in their century of life.

The elders might have known something but it's not like Alfeth and the other young elves know about it. With that, Arkum and a few humans decided to stay near the hole Lazarus is presumed to fall in. while the others escort the elves into their settlement.

“What are these by the way?” Kavo asked while petting a dog that was showing its belly.

“A dog.”

Kavo discovers man's best friend.