Caben was a far cry from the man he once was. He was more skeleton than flesh, malnourished beyond what could be saved by a few simple meals. Dirt and grime covered his pale skin. His brown hair was thick and long, infested by lice that fell whenever he scratched his head. His brown eyes were tired and blank, withered by tears he could no longer call upon to sate his grief. He smelled of neglect.
There would be no end to the grief that had overwhelmed Caben's mind, not unless he was finally able to bury his wife and daughter. The mere thought of burying his family pained him immensely, yet he knew that there wasn't much else that he could do. And he was grateful to have the chance of doing so.
The man had lost hope that his quest would be accepted by any Adventurer. Having nothing else to offer but a few hundred copper and some silver, Caben made the gamble and placed his request among a hundred others in the F-Grade, hoping that an Adventurer would take pity.
Yet he knew that the journey to Casmont was long and treacherous. Not only that, but to search for the bodies meant exploring as of yet uncharted lands, carrying the risk of being taken away or killed by whatever lurked in the Western Expanse.
With such a paltry reward for an otherwise risky endeavor, his chances were slim to none.
But much to his surprise, he was right. After months of seemingly no help arriving, a party of two came to his door and called out his name.
He stumbled across his chair and hurried to the door, finding two adventures and a mule pulling a wagon.
A smile appeared on his face and a single tear rolled down his eye for the first time in months. He was not ignored.
It didn't matter to him that the young man he saw looked unassuming in his simple clothes. It didn't matter to him that there was an orc with the largest ax he had ever seen resting on its broad shoulders. None of that concerned him. What concerned him was that they were Adventurers.
And the Adventurers were finally here.
-
Adam had seen how bright the sight if happiness could be when viewed through his psychic senses. It was like a beacon of light in a sea of darkness, shining through the thickest of hopelessness and despair. But never had he been so blinded by the happiness of one man before, especially from someone who had been despairing mere moments ago.
Caben's mind had lit up like a star exploding in a supernova, drowning out the darkness that had flooded him mere moments agi. A warm and bright smile appeared on the man's face, reflecting the immense joy that now permeated him.
"Adventurers!" Said Caben, "You came. You finally came!"
Adam nodded as he returned a smile of his own, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Caben. We're here to help."
Ruk planted the head of his axe into the dirt and proudly declared that the Rukdam Duo had arrived.
Caben's smile grew wider and his eyes regained some semblance of shine.
"Come in, come in!"
As Adam followed in the man's wake, he turned around to find Ruk still standing beside the wagon and Mr. Mule.
"Aren't you coming?" Adam asked.
"My head won't fit inside that puny human home." Ruk said.
Looking at the hut in question, Adam nodded in understanding before heading inside, pushing aside the thin curtain draped over the entrance.
Caben lived in squalor. There was nothing about his living conditions that would make for a good home. The floor was dirty, the walls were peeling off, and the ceiling was waning under the weight of the tatched roof.
The hut had not been properly maintained in a long time, and yet the small and fragile structure still stood against the elements. It was either a testament to its robust construction or a result of Caben doing the bare minimum to keep it from collapsing and killing him in his sleep.
Regardless of the reason, Adam couldn't help but feel pity for the man that had lost everything. Though his mind was brightened by their arrival, his state of mind was in many ways in a dire place.
Adam saw through his telepathy that Caben was only a few more days or weeks away from descending into insanity. Their arrival, however, had put that descent into madness on hold, replaced by a renewed hope that gave him back some strength.
Despite this, the young psychic knew that Caben was only holding out for a bit more longer, waiting and hoping that his family could be found and then buried. Once the quest was done, Adam had a feeling that the man would simply dig his own grave and join his family.
Caben gave Adam a stool and the young man sat. He then took the moment to look around inside the hut. There was nothing here of any note. Aside from a mound of straw tucked in one corner of the room, a torch flickering on a wall, and a spear with a rusty iron tip leaning beside the doorway, the place was barren.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Squinting his eyes, Adam saw that the rusted tip of the spear was smeared with something dry. A green liquid of sort.
Blood. It was blood. Green blood. And if Adam were to guess, it belonged to the monsters that destroyed this place and left this man with nothing but despair.
Adam grew angry as he reminded himself of what he was here for. He was here, in this abandoned village, to do something good. To help a man regain some semblance of peace. It was the least he could do, but the young man figured that he could do more.
But what exactly could he do? Adam could not bring back the dead. If he were to try and exact revenge for the village, how? He wouldn't even know where to start. Most importantly, would such a course of action even be good?
It begged the question: is revenge ever good? Or was it just but a pitfall for those consumed by rage and despair?
Caben sat on the pile of straw. Leaning forward, he placed his hands together and gave Adam a smile and several nods.
"So uh, is your friend coming?" Caben asked as he glanced towards the doorway.
"No, he's too big," Adam said, "But don't worry, we follow each other's lead."
Caben nodded again, "I see. I see."
An awkward silence befell the hut, but it did not do so for long. Shuffling from his seat, Adam went straight to business.
"You stated in the quest document that you wanted some help in finding your wife and daughter. We would like to start as soon as possible."
The mention of his wife and daughter visibly pained Caben, causing his face to twist into a frown, but he quickly recovered and shook his head.
"Ah. Yes, yes of course. We must indeed begin immediately!"
Adam did not know what to consider, where to begin, and how they should go about searching. As a matter of fact, he had little to no clue on how to proceed. That said, the young man had an advantage in the form of his potent and powerful psychic powers. If he so wished, the young man could stretch his telekinesis and telepathy beyond twenty square kilometers, allowing him to sense and feel the surrounding region with relative ease.
He would be able to peer into every corner, nook, and cranny, scanning any and all minds that were smarter than a critter. However, doing so for a long period of time and around such a wide and expansive area meant that Adam required immense mental focus and a significant exertion of his psychic strength just to achieve what he sought to do.
After only a few seconds of consideration, Adam made a decision. He would do it. However, he first needed to know where to start looking and what exactly he should be looking for. He already had an idea as to the latter, but he was hesitant to say it out loud.
Skeletons were not exactly the best things to find, but from the looks of it, Adam was going to try and find exactly that: two skeletons. It wasn’t the brightest prospect, but it was the most realistic.
All of this said, the day itself was coming to an end. The light outside grew dim, and the unseen sun was surely setting over the horizon. The thick fog that blanketed the village grew thicker too, threatening to strangle whatever visibility they once had to the bare minimum.
Not only that, but Adam felt the call of his stomach, asking to be filled. It was almost time for dinner, and the young man figured that all three of them needed the respite of a hot and hearty meal. Fortunately for everyone involved, the supplies the wagon carried were enough for four people.
Thus, before they discussed the quest any further, Adam invited Caben to share a proper meal with them. Not expecting the generosity and desperate to fill his own belly after a long time of living off scraps, Caben happily accepted the invitation with a bright and crooked smile.
As expected, the evening came and darkness loomed over the region. Though the forests, bogs, and swamps around them were drowned under the shadow of night, the village of Casmont glowed. It was lit by torches and lamps, placed in a circle around a small but growing campfire. It was a surreal feeling for the Rukdam Duo to make camp within what was once a village with people. The abandoned homes made for a solemn scene, a reminder that they were resting on the graves of homes.
Adam, Ruk, and Caben were sat around the campfire, warming themselves as a pot of chicken soup steamed boiled over the crackling blaze. Adam had chopped a few vegetables, sprinkled in some spices, and cut up two whole chickens in order to make the soup. It was a recipe that his mother taught him, one that emphasized sour deliciousness. That said, he was slightly sad to discover that some of the vegetables and spices he knew back home did not exist here. Or were not discovered yet. He wanted some tomatoes and onions, but he was out of luck in finding them. At least they had spinach, radishes, and some peppers.
As they waited for the soup to cook, they staved off their hunger by eating some strips of bacon wrapped around a stick and roasted over the fire and some bread. They didn’t eat too much as to not fill their stomachs before the main course, but Caben was too happy and starved to not take advantage of the food he was being given.
“Human, what you have you been eating here in this smelly place?” Ruk asked. The orc sounded curious.
“I… uh…” Caben hesitated as he swallowed his fifth long strip of bacon, “Fruits and small animals, yeah.”
Adam knew that there were no fruit trees near the village, at least none that he recognized to be edible. However, the man could have reasonably survived by hunting or fishing since there were bodies of clear fresh water nearby. Ignoring the swamps and bogs, there were small streams of fresh and clear water flowing from north to south, which Adam assumed were connected to Ruwa’s Lane.
If so, then chances were that Caben could have scraped by with fish alone. That said, the man’s state of being and health spoke for himself. He was hungry and sick, desperate and destitute. If he wanted to, the man could have simply left the village and forged himself a new life in another village or town, maybe even finding himself in Drigsburg. Maybe he could have thrown himself into a foolish and doomed quest for vengeance, getting himself killed and forgotten in the process. Or maybe he would have succeeded and avenged his family.
Regardless of the possibilities, the man had made his decision, and he was haunted. Deep inside Caben’s mind, Adam felt the man’s true regret. If he had not been such a fool, so lustful for riches and adventure, and instead stayed with his family in the village, then maybe he could have saved them from the goblin attack.
Or maybe he would have failed regardless, but at least he would have died with the knowledge that he was there to try. It was barely any comfort. But it was comfort, nonetheless.
Adam sighed and stood, walking over to the pot with bowl in hand. The chicken soup was close to ready, and all of them were hungry.
Unbeknownst to them, however, they had made a mistake. Just beyond the boundary of Adam’s passive psychic senses, creatures of malice and envy stirred. They sniffed at the air with their pointed snouts, taking in the aroma of freshly cooked soup as it travelled with the wind. There was food to be plundered and more humans to kill.
And so the goblins went their way, snickering into the night.