I waltz into the inn, taking note of the sign I am mysteriously capable of reading that is labeled as “The River’s Side Inn,” which while unimaginative, is accurate. The room I'm greeted with is an open space similar to the one found in the Adventurer’s Guild, wooden tables and chairs set about the place, except the ceiling is of a normal height. A stairway is located to the right of the room leading up to the second floor, but I decided to check out the back room first. Past all the tables is a sectioned off area with a doorway that leads me to a kitchen area with a layout similar to the one in the barracks. Unlike the barracks’ kitchen, this one has two doors, one leading out back and another room to the side that seems to be for storage. Heading over to the storage room first, I open up the storeroom to be met by a miraculous sight. A bag of corn.
Not just the corn though, a few carrots, some cuts of meat, a couple loaves of bread, some opaque clay bottles, and another bag filled with potatoes, all of which benefited from the odd protection from decay found in the other two important buildings. My stomach uses this opportunity to remind me that I haven't eaten all day, and I grab one of the large carrots and start chowing down. It is weird to find all this lying about on wooden shelves without any mold or rot whatsoever, even the fish looking raw and ready to be cooked at any moment as if it came from the water it was caught from just moments ago. Finished with the carrot, I grab one of the loaves of bread and start munching down on it right then and there, not really wanting to cook anything right now. I grab one of the clay bottles and pop open the cork stopper to look inside, and seeing a yellowish liquid inside, I dip my finger and give it a taste, finding it to be some kind of cooking oil.
Whilst consuming my impromptu dinner, I checked all over the room for anything other than the treasure trove of food I've already found, only to come up empty handed. I guess I shouldn't look the gift horse in the mouth, having access to a decent amount of miraculously fresh food is definitely a blessing to not take for granted. After grabbing a palm full of corn to continue to snack on, I leave the kitchen storeroom to check out the rest of the inn, reasoning that the food staying fresh most likely had to be related to how this building, the barracks, and the Adventurer’s Guild were all in better condition than should be found in an abandoned town, and that leaving the rest in there most likely meant they would stay fresh.
I walk over to the stairs whilst popping kernels of corn into my mouth, making sure to not drop my guard too much as I do so, and pause for a bit as I realize just how dim things are getting and that it is starting to get difficult to see from the reducing amounts of sunlight peeking through the windows. I try thinking for solutions for a couple minutes, before I resign myself to my fate and hold up one of my fingers on the hand not holding my food. Activating [Light Of Justice] on just the tip, I try to focus on brightening the light emitting off of it. It took a surprising amount of focus to do so, but I managed it in the end after only a minute or so of me staring at my finger intensely. It only changed the brightness from a dim glow to that of something like a nightlight, but that was enough for me to use it as a way for lighting up the darkening building. One exciting outcome from this exercise was the appearance of a system message in my vision.
[Skill [Light Of Justice] Has Reached Level 14!]
[Skill [Light Ability] Has Reached Level 4!]
Sweet, looks like me testing the limits of what my skill can do paid off, but I should start exploring now, even with the smaller coverage, my finger is already starting to sting a bit. I start climbing the stairs, popping the last few kernels into my mouth, and once I reach the top, I find that they open up to a “T” shaped hall similar to the one in the barracks, but this one has another set of stairs going up to the third floor instead of the dead end that I got pinned against the wall at. Extending out from the longer end of the “T” is a hall with three doors on each side, most likely leading to the inn’s rooms. I approach one to check inside, opening the unlocked door to survey its interior.
The room itself is fairly small, about the size of the bedrooms the others and I had to service clients back on Earth, furnished by a decently sized bed that could comfortably hold a person with room to spare, and a desk with an accompanying chair both made of wood like the rest of the building. I press down on the bed to test its comfort, finding that it's actually filled with straw, which is unfortunately not the worst thing I would have had to sleep on. The room also had a window consisting of a pair of shutters, but no actual glass. After leaving that room and checking all the others, I find them all to be empty other than their identical furnishings.
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Deciding to leave them be for now, I go back to check out the third floor this time. This time, I’m met with another floor similar in layout to the first, but instead of six rooms, this one only has four taking up the same amount of space. When checking these, I find them to be slightly better furnished than the ones on the second floor, with larger beds housing feather mattresses, a desk and chair combo similar to the other rooms, and a table with four chairs to the side in an open area presumably for dining. They must have been the more luxurious options, but they were not five star quality or anything, just marginally better. One of the rooms had more furnishing, such as an open chest empty of anything, as well as a dresser and wardrobe, but I figure that it must have been the room that the innkeeper used themself.
It was as I was checking out the innkeeper’s room that I heard a commotion coming in through the window that had its shutters open. Walking over to it, I peer out to see some smaller building in the backyard of the inn that is in somewhat more decay, with a dirt path winding around the building and towards the main road in the center of town. I can't get a good look from here, but the long rectangular building might be a stables, storeroom, or something similar, and is also where the noise I'm currently hearing is originating from. A combination of a metal rattling sound and something banging against wood reaches my ears up here from down below in the offshoot building’s interior.
It's most likely another skeleton, but that just means more experience for me!
Since the inn was a bust other than the miraculous food vault, I leave my burlap sack of miscellaneous goods in the innkeeper’s room, then head back downstairs to check the building out back to hopefully beat down another skeleton. Walking back through the kitchen, I head out the back door this time and start walking towards the left side of the maybe-stable building. Once I turn the corner, I find a large set of wooden doors left open and head on over to them to head inside. Once I turn the corner once more to get inside, my gaze immediately focuses on what's inside and my heart drops, instantly nausea begins to well up at the sight. At the center of the stables, surrounded by piles of broken and shattered pieces of skeletons, a skeleton unlike those I've seen is bound to a pole by chains connected to a collar around its neck, its eye sockets filled with a hateful red glow as it tries it's hardest to rush out, only to be stopped by the pristine device wrapped around its neck. Maybe because of an accident, or maybe on instinct, my [Eyes Of Aspirations] activate, and what it shows only sickens me even more.
{Wrathful Skeleton Of A Tortured Soul: Level 19}
[Current Desire: Revenge]
(Slave Collar):
The mark of a slave, these collars are usually enforced via magical inscriptions to be extremely durable, with some allowing for the coercion and punishments of slaves through these inscriptions.
As Chloe enters a stable house to discover that Dharta isn't as different from her old world as she hoped, the sun begins to set, its light starting to leave the small town of Littleroot. As the sunlight disappears from the horizon, mist begins to spread out from the river dividing the town, most densely emitting from under the bridge crossing the center of town. In a matter of minutes, the mist spreads out to fill the town to take up the space of the sunlight once occupying it, and once the sun fully sets, a shadowed figure emerges from the waters depths, climbing ashore as water drops down their pale white form. They begin to climb the grassy slope that leads down to the river, and soon the figure reaches the top, where a pile of destroyed skeletons lies scattered about on a road between two buildings. The pale figure walks with an unsteady gait towards one, stooping down to pick up one of the skulls in her thin-fingered hands. A silver glow starts to emit from her eyes as her hands start to tremble, the pale white hair lifting up from her back and floating in the mist as if it were water. Even more mist starts to spew out of her mouth as it opens slightly, and another figure emerges from the riverbank to tower over her in its full suit of armor. A rasp exits out of the female figure’s mouth as a whisper escapes her gaunt lips, “Dared. Destroy. What. Is. Mine… She… Will… Die…..”