Chapter 35: Mythical Detective Case File, The Nightmare At Droom Village 2
1737 Words
Three Months Ago…
On the next day, after his hard earned victory against Boor Mangeni, Grimm left the Man-Eating Forest and continues to head southwest. He doesn’t have a map but while he was still at the top of the high mountain where Loki had dropped him off after his Class Change, he memorized the geographic structure of the lands of Reyner that stood between him and Varkas. And by matching it with the overall information given by the World Map, he pinpointed the locations of the countryside villages that he could encounter in case he takes that certain route.
In all MMOPRG, Towns and Villages are lifelines of the adventuring players. Regardless of how big or small, they would have shops, eateries, and inns which will aid the players and even the NPCs to trade, restock, and recharge in preparation for their next journeys.
At the moment, Grimm is in a situation where his bag is close to bursting due to the mountains of loots that he’d accumulated ever since the plights from the Forest of Illusion up to the hunts at the Man-Eating Forest. Hence, trading them for lighter weighted coins along with restocking his nearly empty food supplies and having a place to rest are his topmost priorities.
An annoying downside of having huge digits on both Health and Mana points is that without aids provided by proper resting establishments like inns and houses and/or resting items like portable tents, filling them back to 100% even with the usage of several pots, food, and recovery skills would still take an excruciating period of time to achieve.
Anyway, going back to his desired destination, his choice of route is leading him towards the village of Droom, a medium sized community located between two Class C Hunting Grounds, the Poison Toad Swamp and the Requiem Grass Field. And to reach it, Grimm needs to advance through the ‘Troll Road’ and then cross the Poison Toad Swamp, one of the earlier mentioned Class C Hunting Ground.
Troll Road is a just Class D area, so even with his Health and Mana being below 30%, crossing it and the Poison Toad Swamp poses no threat on him. He entered, he advance, easily defeated all the monsters that dares to attack him, and exited both areas nearly unscathed. Then following a straight pathway, he reached and entered the village of Droom by dusk.
“Any room for one sir?” Grimm inquired to the inn keeper named Polo.
But when Mr. Polo saw him, he instantly flinched and widened his eyes at him like he’d seen a ghost.
“Uhm, is something wrong?”
“No-nothing, nothing,” Mr. Polo shook his head nervously and then proceed onto booking him. “Excuse me…but, are you an adventurer?”
He asked after handing him his room key.
“Not really,” Grimm replied while shaking his head. “I’m more of a wanderer.”
He then nodded, asking no further question before telling him to enjoy his stay. But that initial reaction and that degree of anxiousness displayed through their entire conversation lingered an unpleasant feeling on Grimm.
Something is quite off and it bothers him. But for now, he checked in into his room, absorbed Specter back to his soul realm, and rested his avatar. He logged out from his capsule afterwards. It’s nighttime too in the real and a few minutes before midnight, time to go to bed.
Returning the next day to look around the village, searching for an appropriate shop where he could sell his loots, he felt several pairs of eyes gazing at him from all directions. And though they weren’t hostile, signifying that he is somehow not unwelcome, they are still uncomfortable and making him wonder more what’s the real catch in this village.
When he left the inn earlier, he noticed that aside from his, all the other rooms are vacant. And in the hour that he’d walked throughout the village, he hasn’t seen a single user and all the people he’d encountered seems to be all village locals.
“Pandora!”
Suspicions rose from Grimm. And to confirm them, he summoned his Grimoire and flips it to the Terrain Section.
______________________________
Village Name: Droom
Inhabitant: Humans
Kingdom: Reyner
# of Residents: 218
# of Guests: 2
Major Establishments: *Town Hall, *Normeck’s Workshop, *Blue Flower Tool Store, *Wilna’s Potion Shop, *Three Cane Weapon and Armor Shop, *Droom Inn [Current Savepoint]
______________________________
‘Seriously!?’ And there he got the answer he was looking for.
The village only has two outsiders and one of them is surely him.
‘What the hell?’ Grimm thought.
The village of Droom is located at the center of two mid-tier hunting grounds suitable for users between Level 75 to 200 so the place is supposed to be bustling with users, adventuring NPCs and likes but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Absorbing those details, Grimm closed his Grimoire and resume exploring the village. Now he finally grasped an understanding on the peculiarities that he’d encountered ever since his arrival, from the reaction of the inn keeper Mr. Polo to the stares of the villagers.
‘Something odd is going on in this village and I’m gonna find it out.’
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
Thanks to the details given by his Grimoire, Grimm locates the Blue Flower Tool Store.
“You have a lot of valuable items here,” the Shopkeeper, a beautiful young woman with long red hair whom Grimm identified through his eyes as Pearl said as she appraised the loots that Grimm wishes to sell. “Especially the monster parts and the ores, unfortunately, I don’t have enough money to buy them all.”
“That’s fine,” Grimm replied. “Just make me an offer.”
She nodded. “I’ll take half of them, the monster parts and the ores to be exact. They’re the easier to trade, so they’re the ones I’m taking.”
Grimm agreed and received 20 gold coins for them. It’s 30% less than the amount that he could have received if he were to sell them in a Capital city. But being able to convert them now into money instead of needing to have them thrown in the future due to lack of bag space is a way better deal.
“As for the others especially the herbs and magic stones, you can try selling them to Mabel at the Potion Store. Though don’t expect too much from her too. We rarely get any customers here, so the flow of business isn’t that good.”
“Uhm, speaking of that, it seems that Droom doesn’t have that many visitors.”
“Eh? You didn’t know?” Pearl said in a manner that tells Grimm that he’s being oblivious onto something which is a common knowledge.
Grimm shook his head.
“Wait a minute, are you an Outlander?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“Are you from Reyner?”
“Nope, I came from the Northern Kingdom.”
“Hmmm, let me guess, you’re also a Newborn.”
______________________________
Note: Newborn is the term used by the Avelonians for the Outlanders that are less than a year old
______________________________
“That is true,” Grimm admitted.
“May I know how long since you’ve descended?”
“Almost three months now.”
“So young,” she said. “No wonder you didn’t know.”
“Exactly. That’s why I’m in need for some enlightenment.”
Pearl then sighed and replied. “It’s a shame. You’re the first visitor that we had after so long but it appears that I’m about to give you a reason to leave.”
Grimm tilted his head to the side, confused.
“Alright then, I’ll tell you. The reason why Droom is in such a state is because…”
But before Pearl could finish her sentence, they were startled when someone burst the store’s door open and shouted.
“Pearl! Pearl! Come with me quick!”
“Leroy? Why? What’s wrong?”
“It’s your sister.”
“M-my sister? What happened to my sister?”
“She’d been inflicted.”
Pearl’s face turned white and terrified.
‘Inflicted?’ Grimm thought and wonders, trailing behind Pearl and Leroy as they exit the store with great haste.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
After receiving words from the man called Leroy, Pearl urgently left her store and follows his lead. But unknown to the two, Grimm had run after them. Pearl was in the middle of telling him of what he wanted to know and though interrupted, Grimm has a hunch that Pearl along with Leroy will still answer his questions by going where they’re going.
The two headed and entered an establishment that looks like a store. And looking up at the signboard, it’s the Wilna’s Potion Store which turns out to also function as Droom’s clinic.
“Remy!”
Pearl ran to the bed where a girl around nine years old is being tended by a middle aged woman. The girl, who is the miniature version of her sister, is barely awake and fighting with all her might to resist the drowse.
“Sis…Sis…Is that you?” The little girl wheezed.
“Remy, I’m here! I’m here! Sis is here! Please, please, stay awake! Stay awake!”
“Hah, I’d seen Sis…*wheezed…I can close my eyes now.”
“No, no no no no! Remy, no!” Pearl cried and howled at Remy’s words. And at the same time, the little girl completely closed her dropping eyelids and entered a deep sleep. Pearl continued to howl and beg for her sister to return but to no avail.
Then, Grimm had a thought and his heart was filled with fury. An older sibling failing to save the little sister. He had seen it! No, he had experienced it. This scene unfolding before his eyes was just like when Grimm held his little sister and did everything in his power to save her. But in the end, even his sacrifice had hurt her.
He blamed his powerlessness but more than that, he blames those who let such tragedy to happen. People like his Father and those hypocrites that surround him, if the likes of them never existed in the first place, Mia and even his Mom, they wouldn’t have suffered the way they did!
And now, he’s witnessing it all over again, innocent people suffering because of such lowlives.
______________________________
Name: Remy
Level: 1
Race: Human
Max Health: 50
Status: Cursed [Sleep]
______________________________
This little girl Remy, she’s inflicted with a sleeping curse. And the way that the three adults are reacting on the matter, it’s obvious that it’s not the first case. The lack of outsiders, the absence of adventurers despite the rich hunting areas, and the village’s dwindling state and small population, it all makes sense now. A purple bruise-like shadow, Pearl, Remy, Leroy, Mr. Polo, and the rest of Droom, all of them have it underneath their eyes. Consequences of lack of sleep…nope, not lack, to be more precise, they are afraid to fall asleep. They are afraid because they might never wake up.
‘Unforgivable!’ Grimm’s fists and teeth clenched as his furious heart came close to exploding. Curses, as far as Grimm knows, with the exception of equipping cursed weapons and armors, it can only be inflicted to one living being by another living being. In other words, someone, an unknown entity is hiding somewhere in the shadows and toying with these peoples’ lives, causing them to suffer.
And comprehending that, rage instantly filled Grimm. ‘UNFORGIVABLE!’
- Writer
