After walking for a while, they finally reached the entrance of Murloc Swamp which was covered by a very thick fog. Theodore said “Be careful guys, the fog may disrupt our senses.” Russo replied “Relax, its a swamp, of course it is covered with fog.” Kija added “I will cast a light magic to make it easier to see through the fog “Illumination!” Kija’s light magic radiated through the fog to quite a distance. Kija said “There, nothing to worry about right Theo? Hehe” Theodore replied “Thanks Kija. I’m just saying we can never be too careful.” Kija and Russo just nodded and went along with Theodore's worry. Seeing Kija’s light magic, Veera commented “W-wow, high ranking adventurer magic is really on a different level.” Kija replied “Dont worry, once you start adventuring, it’ll be no time until you catch up.” Veera got her hopes up and replied “Really? Lets quickly finish this and get stronger then!” She continued in a low voice “… so that I can support Klaus forever…” Kija suddenly felt a second hand embarrassment after hearing that. However, she understood how Veera felt.
Klaus who walked just behind the guild’s party got curious and asked Russo “Hey Russo, Theodore said that the investigation quest was posted weeks ago. How is it only taken care of today?” Russo sighed and replied “Let me be blunt with you. There are a lot of investigation quests coming from the Adventurer’s Guild in other cities with higher risk levels. But, we officials dont have that many members to accommodate the quests. So, we got sent out a lot even though we were originally stationed in Quarzith. We have just returned to Quarzith after assisting a neighboring city, hence the quest being handled just now.” Klaus replied “Ah, I apologize if I was being rude. That must be hard for you all.” Russo just gave a waving hand gesturing that he didnt mind. Kija then added “He’s right. Since this swamp is a place for lower rank adventurers, the quest didnt get prioritized by the guild. And, since the report only said an E rank adventurer party was missing.” Kija paused shortly before delivering the truth “You should understand what I’m trying to say right now.” Klaus nodded and said “I understand.” Theodore added “Even with the guild’s presence, adventurer is still the most risky profession there is.”
Despite all the explanation, Batara’s curiosity still lingered because if not the officials then other adventurers could have handled it as it was a posted quest. But he didnt ask that fearing that it would be more rude to the guild’s party. Until Pamme suddenly asked “Why dont just let other adventurers handle it?” Theodore now explained to Pamme “Because of money. Investigation quest usually require experienced adventurers but the money it gives does not compare to what they get doing normal quest in their rank. Us officials get stable income from the guid so we didn’t mind taking any investigation quest.” Pamme replied “Well if I were in higher rank I would do too to be honest.” Theodore just laughed awkwardly.
After walking through the swamp for a while, Theodore noticed something and said “Why are there no monsters around when we are this far into the swamp?” Russo replied “They probably went hiding. Swamp monsters always do that”. Pamme then said “Ugh its suddenly smelled awful.” Kija then noticed something and pointed out “Your senses is right Pamme. Look right there.” There are corpses ahead of them. The group approached it and started looking around. Veera said “Ugh I’m sorry I really stand the stench. I will wait over there.” Veera walked away to a tree. There are a total of 5 corpses with their adventurer equipment still attached. Theodore checked the bodies and said “Yes these corpses match the description of the missing adventurers. Mountain Dwellers, help me extract their adventurer license from their body. I will show you how.” The Mountain Dwellers except Veera moved near the corpses. Batara chose the body that matched Isha’s description of Desmond out of curiosity. Theodore explained “Simply channel your mana into their adventurers tattoo and their license will come out.” Batara did as instructed and an adventurer license came out of the corpse tattoo as the tattoo vanished. He read the license and it said “Desmond Han. Adventurer Rank E.1” Batara thought for sure that the corpse must be Isha's brother and felt a sudden guilt in his gut. Then everyone collected the licenses and gave them to Theodore. Theodore continued to explain “Good thank you everyone. These licenses will be processed by the Adventurer Guild as it contains the last 3 minutes of the late person’s memory. The guild has specialists for the memory extraction and investigation on the cause of death.” Everyone nodded as they understood.
Pamme suddenly said “Hey, dont the bodies looked weird to you?” Theodore replied “Yes there are claw and bite marks. They probably got killed by the Swamp Alligators. Swamp Alligators are not that strong but they hid themselves well and pounced at the right moment.” Kija said “Oh you’re right. I will cast a detection skill for safety. “Mana Detection!” Mana Detection is one of the utility skills that is commonly learned by mages. It disperses mana to a certain range that detect others’ mana. Kija said “Weird I detect nothing in the area. I thought some monsters were just hiding.” Pamme then continued “I meant not the wound marks. But the limbs seemed weird, like its not natural.” Russo said “Let me take a look.” Russo examined the body from different perspectives and realized something “You’re right. Your sharp senses must have noticed it. It seemed like their limbs had been re-attached somehow.” Klaus replied “Thats very creepy. Who wouldve done something like that?” Batara got curious and looked at Desmond’s body once again. Batara has handled a dead body once which is her mother’s so he was not that bothered to examine a body. After examining, Batara found something that is similar to a very thin and clear thread and started to pull it from Desmond’s limb. Klaus noticed what Batara was doing and commented “What is that Bats?” Theodore and the others started to look at Desmond’s body. Batara kept pulling and the limb started to fell off. Pamme shouted like a girl and said “Ah! What the fuck was that!?” Klaus giggled in response.
Suddenly Kija’s detection magic caught something and she shouted “Everyone! Something’s coming!” Everyone readied their weapon and changed into fighting stance. Suddenly a group of Swamp Alligators showed up from the swamp and pounced at them. Theodore shouted “Everyone go behind me!” and casted an Arte “Iron Taunt!” which lured all the alligators to him and increased his defense significantly. The Swamp Alligators started to pounce at Theodore as he used his large sword to parry them all. Russo quickly follow up with his two knives and casted an Arte “Rogue Steps!” that made him move swiftly and more flexibly followed up with an Arte “Hundred Cuts!” to perform a turning and slashing movement around Theodore. In a short amount of time, Russo killed many of the Swamp Alligators that pounced at Theodore. Kija then casted her magic “Earth Shatter!” that caused the ground beneath to rip open and create a strong explosion that killed the remaining Swamp Alligators. The Mountain Dwellers party dont even have a chance to do anything and were amazed by the guild’s party teamwork. Pamme shouted “You guys are so cool!” Klaus commented “So this is how high rank party fights.” Klaus' words are mixed between excitement and insecurity. Russo “Haha this is nothing. Be sure to take note kids.”
Amidst all that excitement, Theodore said cautiously “We should move out fast guys. My gut is telling me something’s not right.” Russo “Whaat? We still can investigate further though.” Kija replied “No Russo. Theodore’s right. Its very unusual that my magic only detects the monsters when theyre that close to us. Its like theyre dead before and brought back to life suddenly.” Theodore said “Lets go we should go back now.” When theyre about to head back Batara realized that Veera has been missing from the group for a while, so he asked to Klaus “Hey where’s Veera?” Klaus replied “Oh right I forgot. She was sitting by that tree right?” Klaus then focused his eyes but it seemed that the tree is covered with a thick fog. Klaus then immediately said to everyone “Guys, Veera is missing!” Pamme replied “You’re right I cant smell her scent anymore.” Klaus looked at Pamme with a judging look. Pamme replied “Hey I’m not being creepy its just what I do!” Theodore said “Okay lets pick her up quickly before we head back. Maybe she fainted from the stench.” The group then walked to the nearly visible tree that Veera was sitting.
However, when they reached the location a very unsightly view appeared. Raha immediately retched and Pamme screamed in terror “What the actual fuck!?” Everyone was terrified by the view of Veera’s body torn apart limb by limb with a clean cut and no blood floating on the sky. Batara who was rather calm throughout the trip finally felt very sick and about to vomit. But he still managed to see that Veera’s body was not floating and said to everyone “Her limbs are held up by the same clear thread we saw earlier.” Russo suddenly said “Okay I’m outta here. I’m not paid enough to deal with this shit.” Russo was starting to show his true color. Russo then casted his Arte “Rogue Steps!” and started to walk away on his own. Theodore then shouted “Wait Russ we should stick toget-“ Theodore words got cut by the sight of Russo’s head being severed by threads. Theodore immediately shouted “EVERYONE DONT MOVE!” Everyone stopped moving and the fog that was there started to appear as threads. Kija said “Careful! This swamp turned out to be covered by deadly mana threads instead of fog.” Raha grunted as his skin was torn apart by threads “Akh! Help!”. Kija remembered that earlier her utility magic can clear up the fog so she casted her magic “Illumination!” with a lot of mana at once. The magic reached a very far distance and cleared up the mana threads in vicinity. However, the group were stunned by the sight of a giant Tarantula which suddenly appeared behind the tree Veera was sitting. The giant Tarantula then let out a loud screeching noise. Theodore immediately shouted “RUN!” Everyone started to run, but Raha stayed still struggling. Klaus was the closest to him and noticed that he wasnt running. It turned out that Raha’s legs were trapped by the Tarantula’s threads. Klaus then ran towards Raha trying to help and shouted “Raha grab my-” Raha looked at Klaus, but before Klaus can do anything, the Tarantula’s leg pierced through his torso.
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Klaus was terrified and unable to move due to shock. Batara saw Klaus and shouted while running to him “Klaus! Move!” Klaus suddenly snapped out of his fear but the Tarantula had already shot its threads towards Klaus. However, before the threads reached Klaus, Theodore pounced to push him away. The threads missed Klaus but hit Theodore’s legs instead. Kija shouted “Theo!” and casted “Earth Spike!” a wave of spikes rushed towards the Tarantula and hit one of its legs. The Tarantula got knocked back a little giving them time to recuperate. Theodore shouted “Everyone Run! I will hold it back.” Kija replied “You run too Theo! The giant monster is at least an A rank, we can’t possibly handle it!” Theodore replied “Look at my legs!” Theodore’s whole legs were turned blue due to the threads’ toxin. Theodore continued, “I can no longer move.” Theodore drew some kind of rune on his adventurer’s tattoo with his magic and his tattoo started to disappear and his adventurer’s license popped out of his hand. He then throw his license to Klaus and said “You guys now go! and give this to the Adventurer’s Guild they’ll know what to do.” Batara felt very conflicted as it felt like he’s betraying Theodore if he leaves him for his own safety, but he also thought that he can do nothing to help. Pamme then immediately said “No. We will help you beat this thing old man.” Theodore's face suddenly changed to rage and said “HELP ME YOU SAY!? ALL YOU GUYS DO WERE JUST HOLDING ME BACK, LOOK AT MY LEGS!” Everyone’s shocked by Theodore’s sudden rage because throughout the trip he seemed to be very composed. Theodore then continued “Now go away before I kill you all!”. Batara, Klaus, and Pamme decided to leave after hearing Theodore. Batara knew that Theodore only said that to make sure he and the others can leave safely but deep down he thought that what Theodore’s said about holding him back was also true.
Kija didnt leave and stayed by Theodore’s side. Theodore said to Kija “What are you doing? You should retreat too!” Kija replied “No. I will stand by your side. Always is and always will be. Because I love you Theo.” Theodore was shook by the sudden confession and immediately burst into tears. Theodore replied “If only time can be reversed. I’d spend it all with you Kija.” While running back, Batara heard Theodore and Kija shouting and fighting loudly, but after a matter of seconds they went silent. It was the loudest silence Batara’s ever heard. Batara tried to look back but Klaus stopped him and said “Dont look back. Just focus on running.” while forcing to hold his tears. After running for a while it felt abnormally quiet and Klaus said “Is it still chasing us?” Batara shook his head and replied “I’m not sure.” Pamme’s ear suddenly twitched and he immediately shouted “Watch out its coming!”. Suddenly the Tarantula’s leg pierced the ground where they stood. Pamme and Klaus were able to successfully evade it, but Batara was barely able to evade, causing him to fall down hard on the ground and hurting his left arm. Klaus shouted “Batara!” and quickly help him up. Pamme shouted “You guys go hide by that small cave. I will distract the monster and get back to you!” Klaus shouted “No Pamme wait!” but Pamme was already gone along with the monster. Klaus and Batara ran to the small cave. Klaus then took his potion and gave it to Batara “Here drink this.” But Batara was shivering in fear and cant even hold the potion bottle properly. His breath was very fast and hard from having a panic attack. Klaus then slapped Batara’s shoulder with both his hands and said “Get it together Bats! We will get out of here alive. You have to believe me!” Batara felt Klaus' hands were also trembling so he tried his best to catch his breath and tone down his panic attack. Batara then drank the potion and his left arm started to look a little better. Batara replied “I’m fine now Klaus. Lets look for Pamme-“ Klaus' face showed that he was hesitant to the idea. Batara thought it is understandable for Klaus to react that way because they can barely survive the situation if they left Pamme. But Batara still felt wrong if he were to leave Pamme.
Suddenly a soft whimper was heard behind them “H-hey guys…”. It turned out to be Pamme’s voice. Batara and Klaus were shocked by the sight of Pamme that had lost his right arm. Pamme’s face was very pale and the part where his arm was torn had turned blue due to the toxin. Batara approached him but Pamme immediately fell down. Batara caught him and put Pamme’s head on his lap while he sat. Klaus said “What happened?” Pamme replied “Ugh, I tried to evade but one of it leg still got me.” Pamme coughed up blood and said to Batara “Tara, I dont have much time left I can feel it. Please take this and save my sister.” Pamme handed over a locket with a key attached to it. Batara only nodded and didnt ask any questions since Pamme seemed not to be able to talk more. Pamme then smiled and said “Thank you Tara. I’m glad I didnt die alone.”
Unexpectedly, one of the Tarantula’s legs approaching the three quickly. Klaus shouted “Watch out!” Batara and Klaus almost got pierced by its leg but managed to evade. However, the leg instead pierced Pamme’s body. Batara was stunned by the sight and unable to react. Klaus immediately pulled him and said “WE HAVE TO RUN! NOW!” Batara regained his focus after hearing Klaus. The two then ran as fast as they could. Batara casted his magic “Wind Walk!” while Klaus casted his arte “Haste!” that enhances his leg muscles to run faster. The Tarantula was still occupied with Pamme’s body so the two got time to flee. Seeing the Tarantula tear Pamme’s body made Batara feel extremely sick so he averted his gaze and focused to look forward. After running for several minutes, Klaus asked Batara “Bats! How much further to the exit?” Batara looked around and remembered some of the landmarks. Batara replied “Not far ahead!” Klaus nodded.
Suddenly, a string of threads was shot between the two. Klaus shouted “Damn it! Its here already.” and quickly casted his arte “Physical Enhancement!”. As if he knew something he cant evade was coming, Klaus intuitively turned around and assumed a defensive stance right away. Batara was still running and slightly late to realize what Klaus did. Batara stopped a little further behind Klaus but didnt have time to react and cast his magic. Then, one of the Tarantula’s leg was approaching very fast and about to pierce Klaus. Klaus put up his scimitar and shield together and casted his arte “Golden Mandala!” which creates a strong protective gold barrier in front of him. A loud impact sound was heard. However, Klaus efforts were not strong enough to block the Tarantula’s strike. Klaus got thrown far back strongly from the impact and hit a large tree. He immediately lose consciousness, his body got all roughed up, his clothes were torn, and his weapons were damaged. Seeing Klaus’ condition, Batara felt a surge of despair along with a strong fear. In that moment, a magic of unknown origin suddenly popped into his head. Batara didnt know why, but he was really tempted to cast it. So he casted that magic towards the Tarantula “Fool’s Charade!”. Batara felt unusual because he didnt feel any of his mana was used during the casting. However, Batara saw that the magic made the Tarantula’s eyes change color and its movement suddenly went disoriented. The Tarantula’s starting to screech and attack aimlessly.
During the Tarantula’s disorientation, Batara used the chance to escape. However, he is now conflicted as ever because he couldnt possibly lift Klaus unconscious body while running back as Klaus was at least twice as big as him. In his mind, he thought about hiding Klaus' body and seek help as the exit is very close, but he knows that the chance is very thin for Klaus to survive being left alone. Batara also didnt know how long the abnormal state of the Tarantula will last. In that moment of pure desperation, Batara went over everything he had in possession in his head and suddenly remembered what Ikki told him about his belt’s imperfect enchantment. Batara quickly took of his belt and wrapped it around Klaus’ waist before infusing his mana into it. He was desperately hoping that it would work as he didnt have any other option other than that or leaving Klaus behind. After infusing just a very tiny bit of mana into the belt, Klaus’ body suddenly lift off very quickly that it hit Batara’s chin. Batara grunted in pain “Ugh!”. Due to the impact, Batara immediately stopped infusing mana and Klaus’ body was floating just above his chest. Without further thinking, Batara quickly wrapped his arms around Klaus and held his floating body on his side before casting “Wind Leap!” to leap towards the exit. He used his Wind Leap over and over again and didnt look back at all even though he heard the Tarantula’s chasing him. Shortly after, Batara managed to leap through the exit but fell on the ground in process due to mana exhaustion. He immediately turned back in panic only to find out that the Tarantula was no longer there and the swamp was back to its full of fog state.
Batara then laid down for a while before taking the belt of Klaus’ still floating body. Klaus’ body dropped on the ground as soon as Batara took off the belt. He then used his remaining strength to take a lesser mana potion and drank it. He managed to avoid fainting due to exhausting his mana but decided to lie down for a bit longer. However, he suddenly felt a massive headache and after a while, he fainted.