The tall elf was looking down at a map in his hands, while making his way through a quiet trashland. The trees around them had no leaves and its branches were dead and black. They were poisoned by the disease in the air.

Two female elves followed behind him closely, looking to the sides with their bows ready. Their names were Esta and Elora. Despite their striking resemblance, you could tell them apart if you looked at them closely. Esta had deep green eyes, while Elora had yellow eyes.

“Brother Feno, who was that red haired man?” Elora asked with curiosity in her eyes. 

Feno’s eyebrows furrowed. He continued to walk ahead without responding. 

“I almost didn’t recognize him, but he’s the red eyed demon isn’t he?” Esta responded. 

“The worst student in Acadia during brother Feno’s year?”

”The worst in all the classes except one. The practical sword fighting class.”

Esta looked nervously to the front. She remembered when her brother would come back home every break. He would train everyday in hopes to beat the so-called red eyed demon. The first time she finally saw who that was, was when she joined Acadia and watched her brother lose to him.

”This is it. Esta, come here and place the magic item.”

Esta walked over and took out the magic item from her bag. She stuck it deep into the ground, and clicked the green button until it flashed red.

Once the magic item activated, they could feel the smell and disease around them absorb into the device. 

“Were you close with him?” Elora asked. 

Feno had a strained expression, but sighed when he saw Elora’s innocent eyes. She was always a curious one. 

“No. He was just another tool to make me stronger.”

”Did you beat him in the end?”

”...”

”Elora, that’s eno-“

Just as Esta stepped in to stop her sister, the three elves felt the presence of monsters around them.

”Get ready for battle!”

***

Today I learned for the first time that once you smell something for long enough, it makes you numb to it. 

It’s been a few hours since Kale and I have been walking around the slums, cleaning up the X locations marked on the map. I think we managed to get through 13 of them so far.

At first, the smell was pretty unbearable even with the magic mask.

’Now I can’t tell between a good or bad smell...’

The only positive thing about this was that we were able to move faster than before.

”That’s strange...”

”What’s wrong?”

Kale was looking around while holding the map. 

“I swear last year when I passed by this location, there were residents living in these streets.”

Now that he mentioned it, this was the first time seeing signs of living since entering the slums. There was grass and cardboard gathered in corners, broken bowls and bottles lying around. However there wasn’t a single person in the area.

“Where’d they all go...?”

Kale and I walked through the abandoned streets, but couldn’t find anything helpful. At the end of the street, we reached another location marked with an X. We waited there until the magic item was done cleaning.

”Feno, that guy...”

”?”

”I didn’t know he formed a guild in Sonia. He was from a pretty important house among the elves. For him to give that up and stay here...”

”Were you close?”

”I don’t know if I would describe it as close, but I think we got along okay in the beginning.”

Kale’s expression turned solemn with a sad smile.

”Then I ruined it. At the time I thought I was making the right choice, but now I realize I was young and stupid.”

“Kale.”

”Hm?”

”Look.”

From the other side of the village, we could see a white wolf running towards us.

”Looks like a low level beast monster. I got this.”

Kale stepped up and pulled out his spear. 

As the wolf got closer, 2 more wolves appeared behind it. Then, 4. Then 10. Now we could see 50 running towards us. 

“...”

”..."

”Run!”

Kale and I turned around, and we started running as fast as we could. 

”We can’t outrun them!"

I looked back and saw the wolves getting closer to us with each moment. 

“Can you cast a wide range magic attack?”

“...I can, but I need a few minutes!”

”Ok!”

Kale turned around, and covered his spear in a blazing red aura.

As Kale lifted his spear to attack the first wolf, the wolf jumped into the air and flew over him. 

“You’re not getting past me!”

Kale quickly cut down the wolf from behind.

”Khing!” 

The wolf let out a cry.

As I was casting the spell, I looked into the eyes of the wolf that had fallen. Its eyes were red like blood and there was fear in them. I didn’t know monsters could feel this much fear.

’What are they so afraid of?’

Then I noticed the other wolves were also jumping over Kale. None of them were attacking him head on. 

‘They’re all... running away from something!’

”Kale, stop attacking!”

”?!”

When the two of us stopped moving, all the wolves ran past us. 

“What’s going on?”

“Something else is coming.”

I could feel a dark aura from the same direction. It felt like a monster, but something else was mixed into it. Different monster energies...and life force...?

A black mist started to creep into the abandoned street. Eating up all the light around. From within the mist, I could see a monster walk out on all fours.

“Another wolf...?”

It looked like the same wolf from afar, but when it got closer I could see that this one had a pitch black body of a lion that was three times bigger in size. It also had two more eyeballs to the side of its head, and there was no white. Just black, with red pupils in the middle. From its mouth slithered out a long red tongue like a snake.

“That’s a chimera..."

Kale gripped his spear tighter.

The chimera lunged forward, and covered the distance between us in the blink of an eye. He opened his mouth and revealed two white fangs that shone above Kale’s head.

CLANG!

Kale blocked with his spear, and I could see a clash of red and black energies.

The chimera’s lion tail grew long and the tip turned into a sharp blade as it swerved over to hit Kale from the side. 

‘Barrier!’

CLANG!

The tail recoiled back from the impact, but this time it flew straight towards me. 

‘Magic missile! X3!’

I shot a ball of light towards the tail, and two more at the head.

“KraghH!”

The chimera’s fangs separated from Kale’s spear for a moment, and Kale didn’t miss the opening.

Spear Skill

’Swift Strike!’

His blade shined for a moment as he swung it horizontally, and cut the chimera’s fangs.

“Kiaghh!”

The chimera’s tongue shot out straight towards Kale’s face.

’Stun!’

The chimera froze for a moment, and Kale used another skill.

Speak Skill

’Critical Point!’

He striked through the mouth of the chimera and out through the back. Blood splattered across Kale’s face.

”KRAGGHH!”

The chimera squirmed to get free. It raised its claw and attacked Kale.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

It tried to break through my barrier, but it was too strong. Its claws started to chip away, until it stopped moving.

Kale pulled out his spear from the dead chimera, and swung the blood off the blade.

“This isn’t just any chimera. Any other would have died right after I used ‘Critical Point’.”

Kale looked at the dead chimera with a serious look, when suddenly I heard a faint sound of a flute from afar.

Kale lifted his head and looked towards the sound. 

“It can’t be...”

”What is it?”

Kale shook his head. 

“I have a bad feeling about this. We need to get out of here.” 

“Wait, Kale... There’s something I need to tell you. When I saw that chimera I could feel multiple monster energies from it, but I could also feel something else mixed in. I think it was.. life energy.”

Kale stopped in his tracks, and then he looked around at the abandoned street. This place was once filled with people and children. 

“Ha... Let’s go.”

I nodded and we started walking towards the black mist.