Fern Village

It made the hair on the back of Eliz's head stand up. Her first thought was, 'Ghosts!' And she really didn't like ghosts!

Eliz backed away, startled, but she forgot that there was a wall with a window behind her, and she was in danger of falling through it. Alarr, ever alert, stood right beside her, steadying her with his hand.

She looked up at him, but Alarr was already searching the room warily for danger with his eyes. When he found nothing, he looked at Eliz with a question in his eyes.

Eliz looked away and took a deep breath before turning her gaze back to the front. She was still using Potential and could see the windows of the system. She waved her hand for a moment and leaned forward, trying to ensure there was nothing standing in front of her. However, Eliz felt no resistance.

Everyone was looking at her strangely now.

"Lady, are you feeling alright?" Raiana finally asked.

Eliz let her hand drop along her body. "Errr..." She hesitated, unsure of how to explain.

Finally, she cleared her throat. "I just feel... like I'm seeing something. It wasn't entirely clear, but for a moment, I thought I saw a lot of other people here with us," Eliz explained somewhat awkwardly. She couldn't explain how it was possible, but they were in a strange and potentially dangerous situation right now, and she shouldn't keep these things a secret just for fear of looking like a fool.

As soon as she said that, the windows of the system showing the Potential began to move quickly, closing in on her. Eliz subconsciously backed away again, feeling like there were now a lot of excited people crowding in front of her face.

Fraril turned his head, and his ears twitched. "Hm. I don't know what you saw, but I also hear something. It's very faint, and I initially mistook it for the wind. But when I concentrate, it kind of sounds like a lot of voices."

Eliz looked at Fraril and noticed that several windows were also flying in front of him. Then she observed that Grash had a strange smile on his face, so she fixed him with her gaze. Grash immediately regained his composure and looked up at the ceiling. Eliz suspected the fellow knew something.

Eliz moved over to stare at him, and Grash lowered his ears a little, giving her an evasive look. "What?" he asked.

"What do you know?" Eliz asked bluntly.

Grash looked away from her and scratched his nose. "I don't know anything. I don't know what you're talking about," he denied. Eliz didn't believe him, though; that smile of his was too sly.

"Really?" Eliz smiled and then kicked the chair he was rocking on. Grash had no way to prevent his fall, collapsing to the floor and hitting his head.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, grabbing the bruised back of his head with both hands and rolling from side to side.

"That hurts, you crazy asshole!" Grash cursed her.

Eliz didn't care and poked him with the toe of her boot. "Yeah. That's right. I'm crazy, so don't forget that. If you're obedient, I'll treat you well, but if you make trouble or keep things from me, I'll punish you. And don't whine; are you made of glass? One bump won't kill you."

Alobela saw the interaction between them for the first time, and her eyes slightly widened. She hadn't expected their relationship to work with the roles of master and servant. Alobela began to wonder when her young mistress' personality had taken such a turn.

Grash sat up and rubbed the top of his head, glaring grumpily at Eliz, who returned his gaze with a haughty look of her own.

Just because she was in control of Grash now didn't mean she was going to be friends with him. She might tolerate his excesses, but when she could tell he was hiding something from her, she didn't hold back, and she didn't have the slightest remorse. He's a man-eater, after all. And truth be told... teasing that cat was kind of fun. His reactions were hilarious, as he was completely unable to control his facial expressions, making it easy to tell what he was thinking.

"So, if you've finally got it, speak up. What were you smirking about?" Eliz pressed him.

Grash growled. "You're going to ruin all the fun."

"What do you say?"

"Nothing. I just... have better eyesight. I can see a little more," Grash started to answer. As he said it, Eliz figured it out. Don't they say cats can see more? After all, they are said to see ghosts too, and in ancient Egypt, they were worshipped. So it made sense that he saw something. Fraril may have had much better hearing, but as far as eyesight goes, even if he had healthy eyes, he was no match for a cat.

"Good. So what do you see?" Eliz looked around.

"Ghosts. Lots of ghosts. They're pretty vague, like wavy hot air. Except they seem rather alive and not dead. Hey!" As Grash was explaining, he suddenly stopped and got all pissy.

Grash jumped up on all fours, only to hiss and slash his hand into the air.

"Shit! Don't crowd me!!" Grash sounded stressed and started running towards the wall. Eliz didn't even move; they all watched Grash rush away as if something was chasing him.

"What are you doing?" Eliz finally asked.

"The ghosts started chasing me!" Grash complained, sputtering again.

Eliz left him to it, thinking. The ghosts seemed to hear and see them. When she said she saw something, they started flocking to her, just as with Fraril when he said he heard something, and now with Grash. When he said he could see them a little, they rushed after him. What were the ghosts trying to do? Communicate with them somehow?

Grash saw that no one cared about his troubles and felt offended. He might as well have stayed with his group of Dark Mages. Their attitude towards him was the same! Uh wait... could the problem be with him then?

Grash jumped up onto the beam under the roof, which he held on to tightly and glared down at the ghosts that were harassing him, wagging his tail angrily.

Eliz let the cat be a cat and turned to the others. "What do you think of this? It's definitely all weird," she said.

Holm scratched the whiskers on his chin. "Logically speaking, this village shouldn't be in this state at all. Like I said, we're not far from the bigger cities. Someone would have reported this long ago."

"That means it must have happened fairly recently," Alarr said, not taking his hand off his sword and moving close to Eliz again.

"The place looks ruined and abandoned for years. The place looks like there has been some fighting. But if it happened recently... it's not right," Holm added.

"There would be blood here. Bodies. Or at least the smell of blood and death. Usually the smell of death lingers at the sites of tragedy for a long time," Fraril joined their discussion. Eliz was sure Fraril knew this firsthand, so she didn't doubt his words.

"Then shouldn't we go explore the place a bit more? Maybe we can find out what happened," Raiana suggested, nervously touching her horns; perhaps she didn't like ghosts as much as Eliz did.

But after everything Eliz had heard, she no longer had the impression that they were ghosts. Still, she didn't understand what was going on in this village. She had a bad feeling about it, though. If they could, she would have left right away, but they were stuck here because of an unknown force.

At Raiana's suggestion, Eliz shivered a little. It reminded her of all the horror movies and stories she had read.

"Or we could stumble upon the reason for what happened. It's not a good idea to wander through a place that can manipulate space. Before you know it, you'll be walking into somewhere you're not supposed to and losing your life," Eliz refused. She wasn't going to divide the group; just because nothing happened to Alobel now didn't mean it would work the second time either.

"So what do you want to do?" Fraril asked as he sat down on the chair Alobela had cleaned, and in a moment, she placed a steaming cup of tea in front of him. Alobela did not stop to attend to her duties. After she had cleared the table, she went to make the tea.

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Eliz also sat down, and tea was placed right in front of her. Eliz thanked Alobela and began to blow on it. Meanwhile, she was thinking.

It would be best to try to communicate with the ghosts or whatever they were somehow. But how to do that? The spirits could see them, hear them, but obviously, they couldn't affect their surroundings or them in any way. Fraril could vaguely hear them but not clearly enough to make out what they were saying. Grash could see them vaguely. Eliz had only learned about them by being able to see the Potential.

Eliz began fiddling with her hair while she sipped her tea, glancing at Grash, who was hissing on the beam and slashing his claws at the air below. Even if they weren't real ghosts, maybe she should consider them as such for now? And in every ghost story, they could manipulate small objects. Maybe if...

Eliz paused, catching the thought. She remembered the ghost movie where the ghost had left scary threats on the foggy bathroom mirror. Maybe that could work too?

"Ahem," she cleared her throat and spilled some tea on the corner of the table. She stopped Alobela, who immediately wanted to wipe it up. "Guys... or whatever you are. Can you... try writing down what's going on? Using the water?" Eliz felt weird talking into the air but still looked at the wet spot on the table.

Everyone leaned in to see if anything would happen. But as the minutes ticked by, nothing happened. Eliz sighed. "I guess this isn't going to work," Eliz said, trying to wipe the stain off. But Alobela was like lightning, and before Eliz could wipe the stain with her sleeve, she was already there, wiping it carefully and piercing Eliz with her green eyes as if she was reproaching her for what she was trying to do.

But when the stain was removed, something else appeared underneath. It looked like knife cuts.

"Oh! There's something here!" Eliz uttered, and everyone gathered around the corner of the table.

Eliz read it out loud. "An illusion. A corpse?"

There was silence, and everyone wondered what it meant.

"'Mimic Illusive Corpse'!" Holm suddenly called out, startling everyone.

"What?" Eliz immediately turned to him.

Holm ran his hand through his hair with an unhappy expression. "Monster. No one knows how they are created. There are only rumors that they are created when a monster dies at the same time as an Enhanced Warrior when they kill each other. But there is some doubt about that. The bodies coalesce to create a new monster equal to the sum of the strength of both the monster and the warrior. The Mimic Illusive Corpse then mimics a living being, in its own strange twisted way, and wields powerful illusions," he explained but was interrupted by a shout from Grash.

"Hey, Kitty! Something's going on. There's a bunch of other ghosts running inside, and they're rushing to the second floor!"

"What?" Eliz turned to him. "They're running to the second floor?" She repeated uncomprehendingly. Something was going on?

"Yeah! Some are even jumping out of the windows. Aha! One of the ghosts is waving his arms and pointing up," Grash started to climb down as he said this.

Eliz hesitated. Holm frowned. "We'd better do what they did," he suggested, and Eliz nodded. They all began to move to the second floor, eventually going up to the attic for good measure.

Eliz looked around the attic that served as a dormitory, with many beds crammed on top of each other, probably the cheapest places to sleep in the inn. The beds were stuffed with straw, but when Eliz sniffed, she didn't smell the scent of rotting straw. Just more proof that the village hadn't been abandoned for as long as they were trying to make it seem.

Everyone stood around the small windows looking out, but the streets were empty and quiet. Eliz looked at Holm again. "So? Mimic Illusive Corpse?"

Holm nodded. "Not much else to say anymore. This monster may wield powerful illusions, but if this monster is strong enough to cover an entire village, it will be very powerful. Maybe even Rank 5."

Eliz was worried. A Rank 5 monster would be deadly to them. Even a Rank 4 would be quite difficult.

She looked at Grash. "If it was a Rank 5 monster, would you be able to stop it with Dark Mana?" She asked him.

Grash rolled his eyes at her like she was crazy. "Hey, I may be unreasonable and rash, but I also don't rush into obvious suicidal things."

Eliz frowned. "And the attack on Sun Alley wasn't the case?"

Grash snorted. "That was something else. It required preparation and producing a lot of Dark Mana. That's not something I can do on the spot. Granted, I'm Rank 3, and if I wrap myself in Dark Mana, I'll rise to Rank 4, but that takes time! Give me a few days, and I might be able to do it. But definitely not like this."

Holm scratched his arms, remembering how he had been infected with Dark Mana and was slowly turning into a Dark One.

"Then how about just infecting him with Dark Mana like you did before?" He asked.

Grash snorted. "Again. I also need a certain amount of Dark Mana for that, though not necessarily enough to cover my entire body. Besides, the stronger the opponent, the harder it is. I had to infect you a few times too before the Dark Mana started spreading through your bloodstream. If it's a Rank 5 Monster, which is two Ranks higher than me, then give me a thousand tries, and one of them might work."

Eliz rubbed her temples. Okay, she should have dealt with the workings of Dark Mana sooner. She hadn't really thought about it, after all, Dark Mana seemed like a pretty versatile and powerful thing.

"But the dead change rather quickly..." She objected.

Grash rolled his eyes. "Well, duh? They were dead, after all. No defense. The dead turn in seconds."

"Silence. I hear something." They were interrupted by Alarr, who peered cautiously out the window.

They all fell silent and began to crane their necks to see what was going on. At first, they didn't hear anything, but after a while, they thought they heard a strange sound in the distance that sounded like someone moving rubble. The sound was getting closer, and in addition to the sound of something large moving, there was also a low whistling sound that resembled escaping steam.

Alarr discreetly peeked out and immediately ducked back down. "Silence. And try not to breathe too much," he warned them quickly, and they all began to crouch by the window, breathing shallowly. Eliz had a good seat, squatting by the side of the window so she could see part of the way down.

The sound got closer and closer until it was so close it sounded like it was just around the corner. And then Eliz saw the giant Peacock. Or something that looked like a Peacock.

The creature was three meters tall with a massive snake body covered in silky-looking green and blue feathers. It was probably as long as it was tall, maybe a little more. Connected to the feathered serpent body was a human body in a tattered but ornate blue robe that was the same color as the feathers. On the creature's chest were two red eyes, and the creature held a bird skull in front of it in its purple hands, which took the role of a beak. On the creature's shoulders was a head similar to a human's, but it had the texture of decayed purple wood, and long mushroom-like leaves grew around its neck. Long amusing feathers with a hint of purple protruded from its back, and just at the root of the peacock's feathers grew purple glowing mushrooms from which purple smoke hissed into the air.

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The creature's entire existence mimicked a giant Peacock, but one wouldn't have to be blind to know it wasn't a real peacock. As the Mimic Illusive Corpse moved, its body mimicked typical bird head movements, looking to the side or bending its body to peer into the windows of buildings.

Everyone in the attic froze, not daring to move.

Mimic Illusive Corpse slowly moved forward and startled everyone when it suddenly let out a terrifying scream that mimicked the Peacock's call, which sounded like a combination of a child's scream and a bird's cry.

A familiar system window appeared before Eliz's eyes after a long time, and after reading it, Eliz felt like joining the monster's screams.

Quest Updates !!! Main Quest Description: Reveal the truth about the story of Everybody Loves Selene Reward: End of cycle Failure: Restart the cycle New Secondary Quest!!! Description: By your own choice, you've stumbled upon a hidden danger. Survive two days in Fern Village or kill the 5 Rank Mimic Illusive Corpse. Reward: Survival for two days: Bonus: Unheard Scream

Killing Monsters: Bonus: Hypnotic Sight, 1x Revival

Bonus: Unheard Scream - Your scream can only be heard by certain beings. Others are disoriented by your scream for a brief moment.

Bonus: Hypnotic Sight - Your captivating gaze has the power of an army. It instills fear, respect, and submission.

Failure: In case of Revival: Bonus or Achievement Degradation, Increase the Visitor number

In case of no Revival: Death Side Quest Description: Keep Eren on your side until you leave for Blue Rose Estate. Reward: Random Bonus Failure: Death of Eren Quest Chain: 1/7 Description: You have encountered a Cursed Item with Dark Magic and triggered a Hidden Chain Quest. Find all 7 Cursed Items and destroy them. Destroy the cursed object. Reward: Achievement - Dog Nose

Dog's Nose - You can sense the presence of Cursed Items in your surroundings within five meters; your nose is more sensitive, and you can follow the scent if it is no more than an hour old, dogs like you.