So eager was I to find some manner of new normal in this apparent rebirth that I allowed myself to bounce between maladies. As nice as rest sounded, there would always be some evil lurking within the shadows that had the need of being quelled. It shouldn’t be my burden to endure the weight of such hardship on my shoulders alone, but it had become an incessant itch that put me on edge. How any hero intending to live their life scouring the sin from the land when it seemed unending - without going mad - was so far beyond me. Perhaps I too was going mad.

“Are you sure about this?” Florence asked, her eyebrow raised.

I nodded. While I still hadn't recovered fully, the night’s sleep had done me a good deal of healing and even Angelos was surprised at how improved my arm looked in such a short time. He had wrapped it in a bandage as we sat and ate the breakfast provided to us by the villagers. The night had gone by uneventfully, although the faint hauntings of my nightmares still clung to the back of my mind — things that even a nice warm meal and hot tea couldn’t put to rest.

“There’s no guarantee that I’ll be better than this tomorrow, even if I am recovering quickly.” I gave a tired shrug. There was still an amount of lethargy that weighed me down. I could function and had no doubts that I could fight effectively. Just because I was slightly below my maximum didn’t mean we needed to waylay our adventure any further.

“You're tough as shit,” the Guardian shrugged, closing his eyes as if to shield away from my terrible decision making. “But, if you are sure we won’t run into any other horrors beyond comprehension along the way, then lead on.”

With a smile, I exhaled deeply before responding. “I can make no promises of that, but I will leave it up to the group to decide.” I gestured with my hand for the other two to share their thoughts.

Florence and Jakob exchanged glances. The Mage was the first one to speak up. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I neither want to wait longer than necessary to complete this Quest, but I don’t want to rush you into any further danger after yesterday.”

“I agree.” Jakob tilted his head. “If you say you're ready and capable, then we are okay with going. But, no false bravado — if you need more rest, let us know.”

“I understand.” I rubbed up my nose and then my eye sockets. Internally, I had to question myself, make sure I wasn’t trying to push myself too hard. A dead hero could do no good deeds, after all. Not that I’d consider myself a hero yet. The day was still young.

They had been some brief commotion in the village during the morning. It was only natural that there’d be odd tensions and mixed feelings amongst those still surviving. For what they had done, for what they had allowed others to do. It was something hard to compartmentalize. When normally all they were used to was attending a farm and living quaint pleasantries between ale and close family - feeding strangers to an eldritch creature was quite a step up.

Not really our problem, unfortunately. As Heroes, we might have the hard skills to end the dire circumstances, but we didn’t do well with tidying up the mess afterwards. These people still had to live with everything they knew, and a brain held horrors not so easily vanquished with a sword. Well, not in a way that wasn’t permanent, at least.

“I feel ready, and won’t be a hindrance to our success.” I raised my hands and gave them a nod, which they at least found partially encouraging.

Florence rolled her eyes, but didn’t want to push the point. “I’ll start getting supplies ready then. I’m sure you wish to set off as soon as possible?”

“Certainly.” I smiled and raised my eyebrows to the group. “Unless anyone else has anything interesting they would like to do in the town before we leave?”

“Not especially,” Angelos grumbled.

The other two shook their heads. Although the village was keen to supplant us with all manner of gifts for saving them, we could see that they would struggle if we ended up taking more than we truly needed. It was almost enough that we had a warm breakfast and a safe place to rest for the night. It was hard to ask more, and we were supposed to be so self-sufficient. All was wished for was food for the day and ask that they host us for another night on our return. That was enough.

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And thus it was done. Petal and the wagon were checked up on and left in good hands. We gathered all our belongings alongside some extra supplies as supplied by the villagers, and with awkwardly grim smiles we waved off the groups of people who were somewhere between elated and traumatized. It was hard to feel like we did a good job of things, but things would have been a lot worse had we not stumbled upon what lurked beneath the otherwise unassuming village.

“You think that counted as an F Rank?” Florence asked from the front of the group as we set off.

“No idea.” I shook my head and sighed as I looked back at the slowly rescinding clump of houses as we headed down the dirt road past several more farm lands. “I don’t think we get extra credit for most of the things that we do – we lucked out that the necromancer and cult had a contract or evidence behind them for the guild master to grant us leniency. The large maggot thing may not have the same effect.”

“I took a finger, just in case.” The Ranger withdrew a bottle from a side pouch. A slim vial that was sealed tightly, most of the space within containing the gray appendage, wet with black ichor.

Briefly, I was worried that the creature may be able to infect one of us just from that small part of him. Overzealous in my paranoia, perhaps. It looked well contained enough, and if the Ranger was safe enough, then we wouldn’t have to worry about it. “Very well. We will see what she has to say when we return.”

The weather this morning was conflicted, much like our moods. At first it looked like rain was about to approach as clouds gathered to block out the sun, but they cleared with no downpour and we were left with a semi-overcast day where the sun would briefly shine through to illuminate the world and let us know that there was a capacity for light, despite the darkness always surrounding us. A little overdone, perhaps.

There was a bit of tiredness in my legs as we walked. Although, compared to the underground tunnels, the outside world was much appreciated change. Mostly, despite my disdain for traveling by foot, I was at least happy that my feet were dry. You had to hold on to the small things to be thankful for, when all around seem dire.

“How well do you know the area, then?” Jacob asked me, allowing his hood to slide back from his head now that we had moved further away from civilisation.

I rubbed my chin through my beard. “Not especially. I had been a shut in for a few decades, and before that I… was active further afield. My estate was a new home. I moved to this area as it seemed to be quiet.” How wrong I had been. Well, not necessarily — it was deafening quiet in terms of the amount of Heroes or Rankers in the area, but not so much in terms of evil.

“You know this Rat though, right? He was your pet?” Florence raised an eyebrow. The slightly odd nature of this particular quest coming back to light now that the shadow of serious horror had passed.

“Not… entirely.” I tilted my head I looked out to the roving fields of unplowed farmland. How best to explain this? “It would be more accurate to say that it was a pet project that got slightly out of hand.”

The looks that they gave me didn’t fill me with confidence that they particularly bought my explanation. Licking my lips, I continued.

“You remember Frank, the alchemist? In trade for the potion that I had requested from him, he wish to test one of his elixirs. Something that could supposedly grant eternal life.” I rolled my eyes. “Of course, I would not test on myself — we all know how that sort of thing usually pans out. So the next best option was on the rat.”

“So you fed it to a bleedin' rodent, and now the arsehole is immortal?” Angelos shook his head but gave me a wry smile.

“If it really worked, do you think I would still be here? And Frank would have been so easily separated from his head?” I furrowed my brow in trying to remember the exact details. “The rat can be killed, but won’t naturally die. As long as he has food and shelter, then he would just grow and persist.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Florence tilted her head. “If I could live forever, but just had to eat… that would be reasonably doable?”

I shrugged. “I’m sure there were some other downsides, that he has become an F Rank Villain, a monster in his own right despite being just a rat. We should be wary. It may have mutated him, driven him mad, or granted him abilities beyond what he should be capable of.”

Silence covered the group as we each tried to imagine the horror that we were slowly approaching. The quest contract from the Guild just had a picture of a rat drawn, hardly indicative of what we may truly face. Then again, facing the unknown or something we were becoming accustomed to — having a little heads up on our potential foe was a bit of a pleasant convenience.

Probably the only thing that was bound to be pleasant or convenient about the looming battle.