Today the hamlet was finally within running distance. They all packed up their sleeping gear as they prepared to leave.

Anya gave a quick briefing before they started the last section of the journey.

“We’re getting close now. We’ll be in two teams – me and Jay, Kel and Mark. Me and Jay will be focused on search and destroy, while you two” she pointed at Kel and Mark

“will be on defence and security of the hamlet. The association knows what monsters they are, but they didn’t tell us so that we’d have to figure it out, getting some real-world experience. Since they sent us, this means we’re capable enough to handle this. If you have any problems, don’t hesitate to retreat and call us for backup… oh, that reminds me. Here.”

Anya pulled a crystal out of her inventory, handing it to Mark. It was similar to the one Michael used for announcements at the adventurer association, but smaller.

Anya began to explain it to Mark.

“It’s a communication crystal that’s linked to mine.” she pulled out another, waving it in her hand.

“Just channel some mana into it and I’ll hear your voice. You’ll also hear my voice, even if you have it in your inventory… as long as you’re in range anyway. These are smaller ones so the distance should be about one kilometre (0.6 Miles). It also has a function to make your voice louder as well, similar to what the guard captain did at the adventurer association… I was only given two of these, so only me and you will get one.”

Jay squinted at the crystal, wanting to analyse it as she handed it to Mark.

“I should definitely get one of those,” he thought. “… wait, who would I use it with?” he tilted his head to the side, remembering he had mostly been a loner, and with his skeletons he didn’t really need anyone else.

“Let’s move.” Jay said, taking the lead once more._.

The party had to stop one final time for Anya to rest before arriving at the village.

As they walked up the forested hill, the path became more apparent as it had been used more frequently since they were getting closer to the hamlet.

“Okay, let’s form our parties.” Anya said.

Jay received a notification to form a party with her and he promptly accepted it.

“Huh, she’s level five now. Not bad at all.” Jay thought to himself as he looked towards her. Most adventurers were only level three at this point, while more hard-working ones would be level four. She was level five due to her work ethic combined with being the daughter of Sullivan, she knew the best dungeons to spend her time in.

In the meantime, Anya was shocked, her jaw unhinged as she tried to hide her expression from the others. She thought she had caught up to Jay and was even satisfied, but now she felt a little empty inside.

A proud smirk appeared on Jay’s face which seemed to say to Anya “Yep, level eight. Take it in. The numbers don’t lie.”

He shrugged, still smirking as they continued onwards to the village.

– – –

“…Where the hell is Jay?” Trenly was sitting alone in the Snakeraven inn, he had waited for 30 minutes already. Getting hungry, he decided to have lunch.

“I wonder if something happened to him… I hope he’s alright. Dammit. Maybe he’s just an asshole, making empty promises… there’s no way to be sure. I guess I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, I will just have to wait… hmm.” he drank another sip of his beer as he watched his food being brought over by Tamara.

There weren’t many people in the pub at this time of day, so she personally brought the plate over to his table.

“Maybe she knows him,” thought Trenly. “It was Jay who suggested meeting at this place.”

The food service came with a smile “Here you are.” Tamara said as she placed the plate down.

“Thanks,” Trenly smiled back. “Hey, do you know someone called Jay?”

“Jay? Doesn’t ring a bell… can you describe him?”

“He has a dark-green cloak… and dark hair… an-”

“Oh, him. He always comes in here smelling so bad…” Tamara’s nose visibly twinged as she thought of him.

– – –

Suddenly, Jay paused. The others behind almost bumped into him as they stepped to the side, trying to see why he stopped.

The path was clear, so they looked at Jay curiously.

Mark was confused as he looked at the path, then back to Jay as he thought “Did he shit himself or something?”

Jay crouched down as he examined the ground.

“The path here is weird… it’s covered in something.”

“What? I don’t see anything?” Mark said as he squinted at the road, letting out an unrelated sigh of relief.

Jay had sharpened his senses since the silk woods dungeon, the ambush’s and invisible spider webs had made him more alert than ever. Jay pulled out his shield and sword as a precaution.

“No, I see it too…” Anya said, throwing a rock onto the path before turning to meet the gaze of Jay’s shield.

This was the first time Anya saw Jay’s new shield. She paused for a moment as she felt the shield looking at her, staring into her soul.

She scowled back at the shield in response.

“…I don’t like your shield.” she said coldly, before ignoring it and looking back to see the rock she just threw, wondering why it didn’t make a sound when it hit the ground.

The rock didn’t bounce, but froze in mid-air before slowly floating to the ground.

Grabbing a stick from nearby, Jay waved it on the path ahead. A clear gooey substance coated the stick.

“It’s like slime or something?” The road was covered in a crystal clear slime.

The purpose of the slime wasn’t apparent – it didn’t appear to be a trap or have any poisonous or magical properties.

Since it appeared harmless, they pushed on, walking through the slime as they continued up the path to the small grove of houses. It seemed to get slightly thicker as they walked closer. It wasn’t viscous enough to slow their steps, but still coated their shoes.

The novice adventurers had expected a greeting, but there was no one around. The only sound was a light breeze travelling through the hamlet.

The hamlet consisted of wooden houses arranged in a circle, all facing inwards towards a small flower garden at the centre. It looked quite beautiful, though it didn’t take long to realise some of the flowers had been crushed, trampled over. It seemed like a mass panic had happened.

Something felt wrong as they walked closer to the garden in the centre of the houses, it was eerily quiet. They realised the slime running down the hill had come from the hamlet, it practically formed a slow-moving stream out of it.

Most of the houses had open doors and broken windows, all of them two-story and similar-looking. Slime was periodically dripping from one of the doorsteps of a larger house, creating a slapping sound as it gooped down.

“Hello! Anyone there?” Anya called out. Her voice seemed to almost echo back since it was so quiet.

“Where the hell is everyone…” Jay wondered as he had his skeletons draw closer and scout some of the forest.

“Search the houses” Jay said “Groups of two.” he whispered.

Entering the first house with his shield facing forward, Jay had hope that the shield would spot something, but it didn’t see anything.

It was mid-day, though the houses were all dark – the curtains and the remaining windows were closed on most of them. This created some very dark rooms with creeping, shadowed corners. They were dim at best, if not completely dark.

Since the hamlet was filled with families of woodsmen, they all had two story wooden houses with multiple rooms; they had built everything themselves. It really gave an impression of complete independence.

The entry of the first house opened into a long hallway with a staircase at the end. There were four rooms coming off the hallway.

He walked to the first room quietly, Anya behind him with her crossbow pointed forward, making even less noise as she was aiming over Jay’s shoulder, ready to fire.

Jay peeked into the first room on the right. He was trying to be stealthy, but the floorboards betrayed him as they loudly creaked.

Shaking his head with a sigh, Jay knew his stealth tactics had failed, “Even Mark and Kel in the next house over would’ve heard that.” he thought to himself as he poked his head around the doorway and peered into the room.