With Panda clinging to my neck for dear life, I swam to shore. We weren’t very far away and with my increased strength stat it turned out that I could swim pretty damned fast.

We reached the shore in only a minute or two and I walked out of the water and resummoned my armour. Naturally I’d unequipped it as I dived off the boat.

Panda fell from my back as we reached dry land and started hacking up water. His fur was a mess, all puffed out and standing erect in flurry tufts.

It was quite the sight.

“I… hate… you.” He said between spluttering.

I chuckled and surveyed our landing zone. We were on a golden, sandy beach. The kind that lacked seaweed or pebbles or… well anything other than sand.

I was pretty sure that back on Earth people had to clean beaches to get them to look this nice. I wondered if it was just a natural phenomenon of this world.

Barely a few dozen feet away, the beach gave way to clusters of tall trees. The trees themselves were fairly barren.

They didn’t seem to have any leaves or branches apart from right at the top. I hadn’t seen trees like this before back home.

They looked a little out of place compared to the rest of the scenery.

Behind them was the fortress wall. A stone behemoth that completely blocked my view and stretched as far as I could see.

“I need a better view.” I murmured to myself thoughtfully. Panda was still puking up sea water on all fours.

I wondered if I could climb one of the trees somehow. They seemed to be taller than the wall. I’d climbed some of the smaller trees that grew near our house when I was a kid.

With my new super strength I was certain I could climb these ones too.

I walked towards the closest tree and tried to wrap my arms and legs around it. The idea being to shimmy up it. However, the trees had a rather large circumference and they felt kinda slippery.

That’s when I had a lightbulb moment. I equipped my two new daggers, reached up, and stabbed the first one to the bark.

It held and when I put my weight onto it, it barely budged. That should do the trick. I got the idea from an artic survival show I’d watched once where they used pickaxes to climb ice cliffs.

Using a similar method I began climbing the tree. The ascent was pretty effortless and I soon found myself near the top.

At the top of the tree there were still only a few branches, but they were quite thick. I swung my leg up and over one and hoisted myself onto it. I was sure my agility stat had come in handy for that manoeuvre.

I shimmied along the edge a bit until I cleared the foliage that was blocking my vision. From there I got a relatively unobstructed view beyond the wall.

From my vantage point I could see most of the island. The large stone wall seemed to be built in a circle the entire way around.

The area near the wall itself was pretty barren, but there seemed to be some kind of village in the middle.

I used the Sniper skill that came with my bow to zoom in. It was pretty powerful, essentially giving my eyes the ability of high-powered binoculars.

I saw a slew of small buildings surrounding a large stone castle.

The buildings were made of wood and some of them had smoke coming out of their stone chimneys. There was definitely something living there.

It was a little harder to tell with the castle. The strangest thing about it was the perpetual black cloud that sat above it. The rest of the sky was cloudless with a lovely summer heat beating down.

However, a dark black cloud hung over the small castle structure.

It was like something from a fairy tale.

I watched for a little while but couldn’t see any people or creatures. There were definite signs of life though. I’d have to get closer to find out more.

I climbed back down the tree using the same method I’d used to climb up. Panda was sat near the bottom, wringing out clumps of wet fur and grumbling to himself.

“We’re making a boat for the return trip.” He muttered as I approached him. “Well, what did you find out?”

“The wall covers the island like we thought and there’s a small village in the middle. It’s got a weird castle with a cloud over it in the centre.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“That’s strange. Sounds like a curse or magic of some kind. Did you see any cultists?” He asked.

“No. I didn’t see anyone actually, but there were signs of life.” I replied.

“I take it this means we have to go there then?” He sighed, pulling out his bamboo pipe and taking a few drags in quick succession.

“I guess so.” I said in a much chirpier tone.

I was actually quite enjoying this quest so far. Now we’d arrived I felt like a real adventurer. You know, the kind that actually goes on adventures and explores the unknown instead of just exterminating monsters all the time.

I was like Indian Jones and Panda was my Short Round.

I scooped Panda up and had him hold onto my back whilst I used my daggers to scale the stone wall. It was a lot more effort to force my dagger through the stone than it was with the wood.

Though thanks to my strength stat I still managed it. It didn’t take long to climb up and over it.

We stood in a barren wasteland of ploughed mud. It could have been farmland, but I honestly wasn’t too sure what could grow here. Potatoes maybe? Does Celestia even have potatoes?

The village was a straight walk from the wall and it didn’t look too far away. It wasn’t very large but had enough buildings to warrant a population of a few hundred people.

Which made it even stranger that I couldn’t see anyone, even now. I walked with my Sniper skill active, just in case.

I was hoping to gain some kind of idea of who lived there before we arrived. But alas, after about forty minutes of walking, we reached the village without spotting a single person.

“Are you sure this place isn’t abandoned?” Panda said as we passed by the first building.

It didn’t look abandoned to me. None of the wooden buildings were in disrepair and there was smoke coming from a few of them.

It was almost like everyone had just disappeared, and not so long ago.

“It looks lived in.” I replied thoughtfully. “Maybe we should look inside a house?”

I knew it was rude to just let yourself into someone’s home, but I needed to gather information for part of the quest.

I turned towards the closest house. It was a small single-story hovel really. It had a smoking stone chimney, but the rest of the house was made from wooden logs.

It had a rustic, log cabin-in-the-woods vibe. I actually kind of liked it.

I knocked on the thick oval door. We waited about a minute but no one answered so I pushed and the door swung open.

“Leaving your door unlocked is a bit of a safety concern.” Panda pointed out as we entered.

The house consisted of a single room. It had a few tattered beds on the back wall, an old looking carpet, and a blackened pot simmering on the fireplace.

That would explain the smoke. I thought as I moved towards the cooking pot.

There was something bubbling in it. It smelled pretty good too.

“This is weird.” I said as Panda dipped his paw in and licked it.

“Doesn’t taste weird. It’s actually pretty good.”

“Not the food. I mean this situation. Who leaves food cooking unattended like that? And why would they leave the house without locking the door?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s a safe community and the pot is on a slow cook?” He replied, dipping his paw back in for some more stew.

“It just doesn’t sit right with me. Let’s explore the village some more… and stop eating their food.” I said, slapping his paw away before he could have a third taste.

We left the small house and continued walking towards the centre of the village. The roads, if you could even call them that, were well travelled.

There were fresh-looking footprints on the ground too. Now I was no tracker, but even I could tell that something was seriously wrong with this scene.

It was so eerily quiet as we walked through the village streets. It was like we’d entered a ghost town. I half expected a tumbleweed to come gliding across the intersection ahead of us.

After a short while of walking we came across a large wooden structure. It was also a single story, but it was three times the size of the other houses.

A town hall maybe? I thought as we approached.

This building didn’t seem to have a chimney, but there were plenty of footprints in the muddy street outside its door.

I pushed it open and we walked inside.

The interior was once again a single room, but this one was much larger. It had long rows of benches laid out with a podium at the far end.

It was like a primitive church or a meeting place of some kind. It was deserted just like the rest of town. However, there was a thick, leatherbound book left open on the podium itself.

I walked towards it and realised that I could read the language. My Speak English Damnit! Skill was so useful. I mentally thanked the system as I skimmed through the page it was open to.

Meeting Notes:

Athenile 347-35

Agenda:

* Discuss the castle that appeared in town.

* Plan the harvest market.

* Open discussion to the floor.

It was a pretty simple agenda for a village meeting. Though it confirmed one thing. The castle wasn’t normally part of the village.

It seemed that it had just appeared for some reason. I wondered why. Perhaps that had something to do with the missing villagers.

Also, there was something else.

“Panda, what does Athenile 347-35 mean?” I asked, struggling to pronounce the foreign word.

It had been translated into a familiar alphabet, but I had no idea what the word meant. Therefore, it must have been something specific to this world. Something that couldn’t be translated into English.

“It’s a date. Yesterday’s date to be exact. It seems that this village follows the Athena calendar.” He mused, waddling towards me, and taking a look at the book for himself.

“The Athena calendar?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s one of the major gods in Celestia. She’s quite popular. Major gods like her sometimes have their own calendars. It can get a little complicated honestly.

“Though the only real difference is the name that appears before the number. The numbers pretty much always coincide.” He answered absently as he flicked through the book.

“I think Chrysus mentioned her before you know.” I said, racking my brain to try and remember. I knew she was a Greek god back in my world but I doubted there was any correlation.

Though if there was. Did that mean some ancient Greek’s had been isekai’d here once before and managed to get home?

It stood to reason that they’d bring their religion back with them if they’d been in Celestia a while. If that was the case maybe I could bring Layla here one day.

Of course, that was all just postulation. If I really wanted to know I’d have to try and talk to this Athena myself.

CRASH.

My head snapped towards the door as I heard a loud crashing sound outside. It seemed someone was here after all.