Jay and Anya waited in the garden at the centre of the seven hamlet houses. The garden was filled with different kinds of wildflowers, and Jay noticed a small wooden toy sword lying amongst the flowers. It was lost and forgotten, part of it covered in black wood rot.

“The kid probably got a better sword.” thought Jay.

Anya was looking at the various flowers while they waited, bending down closer every now and then to get a better look. These kinds of flowers didn’t appear near Losla so she was observing all of them, even the weeds were different.

“Kel and Mark are taking far too long, I wonder if they’re in trouble…” Jay even expected them to be waiting for him and Anya, so he decided to go find them.

“Let’s move,” Jay gestured to Anya, “we can’t just look at flowers all day.” He said, walking towards the house that Kel and Mark went into.

Walking into the front door, the house had the same architecture as the previous one: a hallway with four rooms on each of the levels.

“Hmm… I bet Mark is having a hard time with his massive sword in these small houses.” Jay thought as he walked past the first two rooms, briefly looking in.

Kel and Mark didn’t think to shut the doors, so Jay began to shut them as he moved further into the building.

The next two doors were open too; one of the rooms had its window smashed inwards by something, pieces of glass all over the floor, but nothing else was in the room other than the broken glass, a smashed vase, and a lounge chair.

Jay made sure the remaining doors were shut before he made his way upstairs. He wouldn’t risk something jumping out of a hastily-searched room and ambushing them from behind.

Kel walked quietly out of a room on the upper level. Noticing Jay coming up the stairs, she flashed a smile at him before making a gesture into the room, signalling Mark who coming out after her.

Jay knew how Mark was, that he would probably say ‘Hey Jay!’ when seeing him, so Jay immediately put a finger onto his own lips – signalling Mark to be quiet.

“I’ll take a moment to analyse them, to see what was taking them so long.” thought Jay, leaning on a wall beside Kel and Mark. He slowly reached behind mark, closing the door behind him. It made Jay look awkward but he didn’t care. The other looked confused for a moment, but understood what he was doing as he closed the door.

The four of them were crowded into the hallway now.

“How many rooms are left to search?” Jay whispered._.

Kel held out her hand with three fingers up. Mark was looking at Jay’s shield, nodding in approval he seemed to say “Nice” with his expression, distracted from the question by Jay’s shield gazing at him.

Jay had a confused look on his face, as he was trying to hide his annoyance.

“We’ve already searched a house, a roof and even a vegetable patch and they’re only this far…” he was a little frustrated at their speed, but he realised rushing them wouldn’t help so he remained quiet and helped them.

Jay pointed to the next door with his sword out, gesturing to Mark.

Mark responded with a nod, holding his massive sword sloping downwards, he intended to do a sword lunge at the first sign of danger.

“His sword is definitely not ideal…” he thought.

Jay wanted to lend Mark one of his swords, but remembered that he told Mark that he found it in a dungeon; his story wouldn’t add up if he now had two of them.

Besides, Mark would be able to read the stats and see that it’s crafted from silt-wolf bone, and requires essence to maintain its form.

“…Damn, Mark will just have to use his big sword.” Jay thought.

Mark pushed the door open as he held his sword with one hand. The sword had a slight glow as he held it, the mana he was channelling through it made it as light as a dagger.

Pausing for a moment, Mark peered into the room before slowly walking into it. It was another bedroom.

Mark checked behind the door and under the bed, while Jay nodded in approval.

Kel followed next, while Jay and Anya waited in the hallway as they watched the other two.

After the room was secured, Mark nodded to Kel.

Kel went around to a few objects, reversing time on them – but so far she found no useful information. Time would only reverse on objects inside the orb, so if something wasn’t in it when she started, it wouldn’t appear afterwards.

“So that’s why they’re taking so long…Mark must be patient.” Jay realised they had been waiting for Kel to use her time magic this whole time. It was a particularly slow process as Kel was quite thorough in her investigation.

Jay decided to clear the last two rooms on the top floor by himself, starting with the right room first.

A double bed was inside, with a large cabinet and another hinged window.

Jay did the usual checks – under the bed and behind the door before moving to the cabinet.

Suddenly, Jay’s shield squeezed his arm as he held it in front of the cabinet.

He breathed in a little, but was otherwise calm and ready for whatever was inside the cabinet.

Jay glanced at Anya as he gripped his sword, pointing it at the cabinet with his shield still raised.

First, he kicked the cabinet, causing it to move back a small amount. He hoped to get a reaction from whatever was inside, making it burst out of the cabinet to attack him – yet nothing happened.

“Fine. Have it your way” he thought.

With a sigh, Jay stepped forward to open it, bracing himself for the pain of whatever attack was coming as he stepped forward and opened the door – yet what greeted him melted his heart.

A small girl was shivering in the dark cabinet, clutching a half-filled water bladder with a smiley face on it. She was too scared to yell, all she could do was shiver out of fear as well as from the cold. Along with her brunette hair, tears were now running down her cheeks as she cried silently. Her brown eyes looked up at him, full of fear.

Since Jay wasn’t sure what monsters they were after, he still had his shield and sword raised as he analysed her.

[Naria]

[HP 100%]

Jay immediately put his shield and sword away, realising it was a little girl and not some shape-shifting monster, he took a step back.

Since she had no level it meant she didn’t have a class, meaning she was too young to get a class – another sign she wasn’t a monster.

“Naria,” Jay whispered, “We’re here to save you.”

Jay held out his hand but she hugged her water bladder closer, burying her face into it while leaning against the back wall of the cold cabinet. Naria was scared of Jay.

Her eyes were still watery since he did just have his sword and shield aimed at her. The shield by itself would be enough to scare her, it even made Anya feel uncomfortable.

Jay only looked at Anya, his eyes begging for help as he was definitely out of his element.

Anya walked over and crouched down in front of the cabinet “I’m Anya, are you hungry? You look hungry. Here.” She held out some jerky.

The little girl cautiously reached out and grabbed it before slowly eating it.

“There we go, good girl.” Anya patted her head.

“I’ll go secure the last room,” Jay whispered, “then I’ll find her a warm coat.”

Anya nodded, still patting the girl.

The last room had a small single bed. It was the girls bedroom. A straw doll was on the pillow. Jay did the usual checks behind the door and under the bed, but found nothing again.

There was a small table in the corner with some shoes underneath and a coat lying across the top. It had a small drawer full of tiny clothes – some small dresses, hair clips, socks, etc.

Next to it was a small toy box with various wooden designs in it.

“Naria’s quite well raised” Jay thought to himself, since none of the toys were laid across the floor. The room was quite tidy.

He put all the tiny clothes from the drawer into his inventory, planning to give them to Anya later so she could help her change.

Picking up the coat and the shoes, he went to exit the room.

“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot the most important thing.”

Turning back to the bed, he grabbed the doll too. He then decided that he might as well grab the pillow and blanket too.

“If we have to take her back to Losla, this will help her acclimate better.” he had a stern expression as he did this, thinking that her parents were probably dead already.

Most of her possessions were with him now, excluding the toy’s from the toy box.

Returning back to Anya and the girl, he gave Anya the doll so she could give it to the girl.

“Come here.” Anya held her arms out. The little girl hopped out of the closet and into her arms. “You’re cold, here, put your coat on.”

Anya grabbed the coat off Jay as she held the little girl put it on, along with her shoes.

“She’s not talking.” she said to Jay as she was dressing Naria. Anya had tried to get any information out of Naria but she would only stare back. It was obvious to anyone she had been mentally damaged by whatever happened here.

“I see…” Jay said with a frown.

“We’ll need to keep her safe while we exterminate… Can we leave her with Kel?”

“Yeah, send Kel in.” Jay left the room and sent Kel in, informing her of who they found, how the little girl wasn’t talking and how she would need to keep her safe while he and Anya went to exterminate the monsters.

“Phew, glad I’m not doing this alone.” Jay was actually glad that he had the others with him, perhaps for the first time since he got his class.

Kel entered the room, introducing herself. It wasn’t long before she got a hug from the little girl. Soon enough, the little girl was bouncing between Anya and Kel getting hugs and pats.

Anya stood up, whispering to Jay as she watched the girl.

“I asked her where the monsters came from, she pointed out the window towards a valley. I’m betting whatever it is, it’s living down there.”

“Okay. Let’s get Mark to protect Kel and Naria while we head out.”

“Sure.”

As Jay and Anya left the room, they informed Mark.

Mark was a little disappointed he wouldn’t get to do any monster slaying, but he accepted his duty with a nod.

Mark peeked in the room with the girl in it, giving her a wave and a smile as he waited in the hallway. This way, he could monitor the hallway as well as the room.

“Ready?” Jay asked.

Anya nodded back. She seemed more vigilant and serious after seeing the girl.

“Does she want revenge?” Jay wondered to himself as they made their way out of the hamlet, slipping between the houses. They started walking down the hill, weapons ready for anything that could happen.