What was the reason behind the entire group being outside in the wilderness? Buck had asked himself that a few times on their journey. Their so-called adventure had started over by the prison only a day's walk away. Inside that blasted place, they had been told of the disturbances that had befallen their trusted clean river. Objects had started to float down it, some having Dark Mana nestling inside it, making the liquid unsafe for drinking. While it could have been a random chance, it had started occurring at relatively regular frequencies, making the people worry. That was the reason the group was hired, in the end. They were meant to fix the problem and stop it from happening again.

“The artefact is not far away,” Aloy informed them. She wasn’t a part of the group. The woman had been one of the people working at the prison though she was mainly a hunter that brought meat on the table for the inmates and guards. Food was too expensive to transport out into the middle of nowhere, after all, making it cheaper to just have somebody on standby. The side-effect of such an strategy was that the prison had many readily available people who knew the land as if it was their back pocket. Was a good thing to have when one needed to get a group of people over to a relic of the old ages.

“Why did you even need us here anyway?” Raphael had the gall to ask, clearly not having been listening during the initial explanation. “You know where the relic is, you know how it works, what it does, and you’re also more than able to hunt the creatures around here. I don’t see any reason we should have been hired.”

‘Argue against the only reason that they were being paid.’ Buck felt like throwing a few words in himself yet stopped anything from coming out. It was best to let such things rest easy. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t curious as well. Why were they actually brought in?

“The artefact is not an understood relic,” the hunter corrected, not seeming too embarrassed by that fact. Buck knew that he would’ve. It was meant to be the pride and joy of the area, some powerful device spewing out the cleanest drinking-water that could be found within a hundred kilometers. Not much more than that, however, seeing as there were a few springs down south from there that brought a very fine [Stat-bonus]. “There are many intricacies that have not yet been understood. However, we do know of several features that change around the energy inside the liquid. For that, we needed somebody who’s adept at sensing the [World’s Energy].”

The focus was put on both Raphael and Buck at that point. Both had a semi-good grasp on the skill, though either had perhaps put it out as being greater than it was. Buck could barely even feel anything at the worst of times, really needing to focus before getting anything out of it. If the whole quest depended on him finding a secret Mana-Node in an ancient relic, it would perhaps take some time.

“Your logic is flawed,” Birka stated, speaking up for the first time in a good hour. Sometimes, one forgot the woman could even talk. She gave advice, she commented on badly thought-out actions, and she looked at Buck disapprovingly. A days break between all those things weren’t that uncommon even, making it peculiar she would join in on a conversation so eagerly. “You needed a mage yet you commissioned a whole group. Why?”

“The relic is not silent in its outbursts,” the hunter continued, clearly having asked the same things during her initial run-up on the quest. Why they hadn’t been told of that detail earlier did make the Druid wander about how much trust there was in them. “It calls out creatures nearby to join it. Most can feed off the energy, after all.”

Energy-filled creatures. How utterly fun that was to know. Buck wouldn’t have minded to have been told just a few days before so he could have declined the offer to join the group. There were many things he would do for coin yet fighting creatures at such levels wasn’t something he would do for five silvers.

“That was not mentioned at the commissioning,” Birka pointed out, likely having similar thoughts about fighting more powerful creatures than expected. “We were hired to survey relics and make necessary adjustments. We were not hired to kill monsters with a level higher than fifteen.”

Fifteen? Three levels above Buck’s level and certainly more powerful as well. If required, the group would likely take one or two of that type, yet Birka’s directive to protect Raphael at all costs would make it impossible to take on more than that. And if there was a cluster of such creatures ready to attack at any moment, the [Druid] wasn’t that far away from considering just leaving. He could talk with the forest and find his way out. Living beside wood was his life before and he could survive getting back to it at some level. Making sure he didn’t die during the nights would be harder, though. He knew he shouldn’t have sold off those trinkets.

“If you can avoid fighting while fixing the issue, we will allow it without complaint,” Aloy replied. “We just have no expectation of you doing so.”

They really should have expected that. Quest-givers were known as ruthless people, not a single one of them too unhappy about cutting corners in descriptions if it meant that it allowed for a lower price. And when it was mixed into people who ran a prison, it just became so much worse.

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“I don’t understand how you people got your license to hand out quests officially,” Raphael said, the kid sounding more stunned than anything. “This should be illegal.”

“Nothing is illegal when you’re the one handling those rules,” the hunter informed the child passively. Or, at least a person with a child-ish personality. The kid had to have been close to the round twenty at that point. Buck wasn’t too sure from appearance alone. He was an example of how deceiving they could be. “Now, we are getting closer. Prepare yourself.”

It was another ten minutes before they finally came to a point where the energies could be felt. It wasn’t all-powerful but the senses granted by his heritage were fuming at that point. Buck was sure he could have found his way to the relic by himself at that point, the energy bouncing off the trees and bushes. Everything was screaming in delight as if the Mana was hungry to satiate everything close to it.

Yet the roars and growls were missing. The in-fighting among the creatures wanting the Energy for themselves was missing. Where were they? Spreading out his senses, Buck tried to answer just that. He called for nature to answer his questions yet nothing came in reply. There weren’t any animals near. The tracks on the ground hinted at some having run through recently yet they had gone back the way they came. They had left the wonderful place filled with plenty to go around.

“Something is wrong,” Buck blurted out before anything else. Yet it wasn’t needed anyway. Birka had already pulled out her axe and Aloy had cocked an arrow, ready to shoot anything that moved. Tom and Raphael were a bit slower but they likewise got ready for everything.

“The creatures are missing,” Aloy explained to the two who were not experienced enough to guess it. “Last time I went through, the howls were omnipresent. Something has changed in a major way.”

“We were already expecting change,” Birka stated. “The relic is meant to be broken.”

“The relic is meant to have shifted its settings randomly because of time. It is not meant to drive away all the creatures from here,” the hunter that had lived there for several decades corrected. “This is not something that has happened in living memory.”

“Does that mean we go back?” Tom, the warrior, asked. Buck nearly forgot he was even there, the large man able to stay surprisingly quiet.

“No,” the hunter said, rejecting the notion. “We have come too far to leave. We need to assess the changes, figure out if you can solve it, and return at a later date if needed. Anything else is not a priority.”

The movement was started anew, though all felt less joyful. Raphael, still unhappy from the death of the pups, had seemingly grown excited about reaching their needed goal. Yet the moment that Birka began to grow tense was the moment where the kid’s attitude turned for the worse. Buck wasn’t entirely adept at reading faces yet the constantly shifting eyes must have meant something.

Going further on, they reached one of the forest’s many rivers. They had crossed a few parts on their way there, the streams of water putting up a massive interconnecting masterpiece. Buck had never seen a full map of the place yet he still knew from word of mouth how large the system was. Mapping it out by hand was impossible, even if it was meant to have been man-made in olden times.

With the trees gone, however, the relic finally came into sight. It stood at a crossroads of sorts, two rivers connecting into a larger one while a smaller run ran by the side. Through sight alone, one could see the [Light] being pumped into the water, wave after wave coming from the larger sphere.

How big was it? Buck and no real idea, never really able to focus his eyes on the object. It floated in the air, looking like a blurry mess. Getting closer could perhaps make the appearance more clear, yet that wasn’t going to happen in the next few moments.

“There really aren’t anybody here,” Tom stated, starting to pack his sword away again. “Every creature has left.”

“Take your sword back out,” Birka harshly stated. “Just because we can’t see anything does not mean nothing is there.”

They spent a few more minutes simply walking through the area, going along the river to make sure no creature was hiding in the nearby bushes. Yet, even with the best of everybody’s abilities, not a single sign of life was found. They had all left, abandoned an area that should have been worth its place in gold.

“They truly have left,” was the comment that made everybody loosen up. “Every single one has left.”

“Acute observation, hunter,” Buck stated, before starting the trek back to the relic. “Should we get this thing fixed so we can leave before they come back?”

An opportunity to get things over with had been found and there was no chance he would let it go. Before anybody had the chance to answer that particular question, though, the [Priest] of the group came in with a statement that didn’t seem comforting at any real level.

“There is no [Taint] here,” Raphael stated.

“[Taint]?” the hunter questioned.

“[Dark Mana],” Birka answered before anyone else. “The thing we’re supposed to be getting rid of.”

“Could it be because we’re not close enough to the relic?” Tom offered, though it was shot down without words even needing to be said.

“No. Being along the river should be enough,” the [Priest] stated, sounding conflicted as they looked around. Their eyes had a soft white glow to them, hinting strongly that some [Holy Sight] or something like that was being used. Buck had seen it one too many times before to really be surprised at it. “There hasn’t been any traces of [Taint] here for months. Why isn’t it here?”

That was the question of the year. After double-checking that nothing was wrong with the relic itself, a few got annoyed. Birka wanted to return, the Hunter wanted to stay for days to see if it would change, and Buck just wanted to get away from that source of power.

Yet… during a walk away from the relic, a new sign was found. Or well, it had been found since the start. There had just never been a pattern in it all until that movement.

“Did you all realize that the tracks all go the same direction?” Buck asked. That got the others interested. Having the hunter double-check the find made it much more interesting.

“They went down the river,” Aloy stated. “They weren’t scared of the relic. They detected something else that was more attractable.”

“Something that could be the source for the Dark Mana,” Birka finished before anybody else could say it. “We have a new destination.”

How fun. Buck already felt himself getting into more danger.