Lore/Story For The Wynn (15)

Spoiler: Submerged Structures

Hearolie slid off the bed that he was sleeping on with a loud thud. He looked up to see the whole room upside down instead of the ceiling. He quickly righted himself and got up.


‘I hate them…’ He murmured under his breath, vaguely remembering what his dream was.


Skywalker was at the stairs, looking excited. ‘Waken up? Time to go. We have a passage to explore.’ Skywalker smiled cheerfully. ‘Can’t wait to see what’s inside. Oh, hey Reygina.’ He greeted the mage who yawned.


‘Oh, hey…’ She spaced out a bit. ‘Localcolt just left. I’m going to sleep…’


‘Well, I’m going out then.’ Skywalker waved and was going to walk away before Reygina stopped him.


‘Out? Out where?’ Reygina snapped her eyes open and blocked the exit with her new wand like a bar. ‘You’re going to the hospital.’


‘Aww, but I’m fine…’ He tried to convince her otherwise. ‘See? I’m all fired up to kill monsters.’


‘Tell her that.’ The mage smiled as Krisstal walked down while rubbing her eyes. The archer smirked while looking at the warrior’s descent from the upper level. ‘This is going to be juicy.’ He thought to himself as if watching a play at a theatre.


‘Morning Krisstal.’ Skywalker smiled sweetly, secretly trying to leave. ‘Had a nice night?’


Krisstal remained silent and glared at him. ‘How did he get hurt now?’


‘What makes you think that?’ The ninja smiled innocently, hoping to make a run for the stairs. Reygina knew what he was thinking and blocked his escape path. Skywalker gave her a look of disappointment, but the mage acted guiltlessly.


‘He fell off a tower from top to the second floor. Passed out for hours.’ Hearolie replied, shaking his head.


‘It’s only a few…’ Skywalker countered but one dirty look from Krisstal made him shut up.


‘Why was he doing that?’


Skywalker grabbed the mage’s arm, motioning her not to speak any further. Reygina let out a sigh. ‘We aren’t sure, either someone’s self-made bludgeon or something like the steel sword.’


Krisstal couldn’t believe that Skywalker was still trying to hide secrets from her. What’s not to tell? Aren’t they friends? She didn’t feel like talking or seeing him for the rest of the day unless something important. He made her angry and upset, reminding her what happened a few nights ago.


‘Skywalker, if you aren’t going to have a check-up, we won’t be talking, for a long time.’ She gave him an ultimatum. Skywalker shuddered, he knows why he keeps secrets from her but seeing her getting hurt because of it at the same time, made him evermore unsure what’s the right thing to do. Hearolie and Reygina looked at the mage and ninja in confusion, unaware of the argument that had transpired between the two.


‘I’ll go.’ The ninja agreed, ‘will you want to go with me?’


Krisstal simply walked past him and headed downstairs, not saying a word to him. Skywalker looked confused, unsure what she meant by that.


Hearolie rolled his eyes and Reygina gave him a slight nudge, both simultaneously looked at him. ‘Go!’


Skywalker quickly rushed downstairs to catch up with her.


‘You know anything happened between them?’ Reygina asked the archer who was taking out some of the leftover unidentified items and putting them into Reygina’s backpack.


‘Don’t know, don’t care.’ Hearolie said. ‘Get some rest, I’ll wake you up when I’m done.’


‘Where are you going?’ Reygina hid her yawn as best as she could.


‘Isn’t it obvious?’ The archer smirked. ‘I want to have my own backpack.’ An idea came to mind. ‘Maybe I can buy one at the stores downstairs?’


‘On second thought…’ Something clicked in her mind and she told him about Krisstal’s situation. She told him what she had in mind and how it would make Krisstal happy, perhaps even ease up the tension between her and Skywalker.


‘Brilliant as always.’ Hearolie praised, making Reygina blushed. ‘I’ll get the necessary materials then.’ He walked down the stairs with the unidentified items. ‘Now get some rest.’

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‘Krisstal? Krisstal!’ Skywalker tried to get the warrior’s attention. She simply hmphed and left him in the dust.


‘I didn’t want you to worry me...’ Skywalker said, placing his hand on her shoulder. ‘I'm sorry if…’


‘Upset? Oh no, I’m perfectly fine.’ Krisstal grabbed his hand and merely knocked it away, almost causing him to hit several citizens next to them. ‘Totally not upset that you still hide things from me at all.’


Skywalker felt beyond horrible upon hearing this, he knew why she’s fuming. All this felt like Déjà vu, and like that night, he tried to grab her arm which she intentionally dodged his flimsy attempt to touch her, not even bothering to utter a word. Every movement she made was tense and nerve-racking, as if she were a ticking time bomb ready to explode. The whole trip to the hospital was uneasy and distant for the poor ninja, it was simply unbearable.


‘I should have told the truth… I shouldn’t have lied…’ He murmured under his breath before he even realised he had reached their destination.

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‘So how is he?’ Krisstal lowered her voice as much as possible, trying to hide her uneasiness.


‘He’s fine. He can go home.’


‘Really?’ She couldn’t believe it at first. ‘You sure?’


‘Absolutely.’ The doctor said with absolute confidence. There was no doubt in his tone. ‘Though I can give some regeneration potions if the patient wishes so. He does have a few nasty scars, especially his chest.’


Before Krisstal could accept the offer, Skywalker had paid for the check-up at the reception. ‘Thank you, doctor. Let’s not bother him any longer.’ The doctor reminded him to be careful and how lucky he was to not have any injuries.


‘Wait…’ Skywalker dragged Krisstal out of the hospital, despite her protest and her useless attempts to stop him.


She yanked her wrist free from the ninja’s gasp and shrieked. ‘Don’t touch me!’


‘My bad…’ He quickly apologised. ‘But… well… you heard the doctor, I’m fine. Just like I told you.’


Krisstal rolled her eyes, unable to comprehend how oblivious he is. ‘You shouldn’t touch any more of those strange weapons. Something is just abnormal here and I’m certain it’s caused by them.’


‘But I wasn’t corrupted or anything, or else the doc and you guys would have noticed...’ Skywalker defended. ‘I promised that…’


‘Argh…’ She gritted her teeth. ‘That’s the point! It might be something else we don’t know about! Why don’t you get it?’ She screamed, attracting the attention of everyone in the city square. She felt her face red with anger and felt eyes looking at them. ‘Let’s just go back…’


Skywalker was flummoxed. He wanted to say something, but no words came out of his mouth. When he finally tried to say something to her, the words came out nothing more than inaudible whispers. He sighed, feeling guilt building up in him and followed her without objection.


‘Hey, Kris… stal.’ Hearolie greeted her, having just returned from the bank and blacksmith. He had identified everything they would need and sold or put his old gear away. He greeted Krisstal but she just simply walked past him and hurried upstairs.


He stopped Skywalker at the stairs and patted his shoulder, letting out a pitiful groan. ‘Why did you this time…’


Skywalker didn’t answer, he simply glared at Hearolie hinting now is not a good time to tease him. ‘Whatever, not my problem anyways… Plus, I doubt I can do anything. It’s between you two.’


‘I don’t… I just don’t get it…’ They heard Krisstal said upstairs alongside Reygina’s comforting voice. Without a word, Hearolie walked up the stairs and said something to the girls. Skywalker wasn’t sure whether he should go up or not but before he could decide between the two options, Reygina had already snapped him back to reality.


‘Let’s go for a walk. Anything new you want to show me?’ Skywalker wanted to ask what they had planned but Reygina just shushed him.


‘Don’t mind that.’ She smiled and pulled Skywalker down the stairs. ‘Everything will be alright. Now let’s go outside.’


‘Well… There is something called the Cow Passage that me, Hearolie and Localcolt heard of.’ Skywalker replied as he led the way towards the West Gate. ‘Some robbers name-dropped it during our chase.’


‘What happened?’ Reygina’s eyes widen with curiosity.


‘They stole some farmer’s cows. We gave chase but when we caught one of them, he said his head hurts and needs his medicine...’


‘Sounds suspicious…’ Reygina pointed out, occasionally practising her teleport spell by moving around with the wand instead of walking.


‘Oh? I thought you would sympathise with him.’ Skywalker teased. She’s always the one apologising when she felt she let someone down or hurt someone by accident, even when at times she wasn't the cause of it.


‘Being kind doesn’t mean being gullible.’ She playfully punched his arm. ‘I don’t trust people that easily. You know that!’


‘Yes…’ Skywalker giggled. ‘Yes, I do.’ He finally felt himself relax a bit, despite the thoughts about his ordeal with Krisstal still lingered inside his head.


Instead of heading towards the gate, however, he had taken her to a Tool Merchant’s shop. He led the mage inside and greeted the tool smith and tool merchant. ‘Good day sir, I would like some pickaxes and axes, two of each.’


The villager looked at one another before speaking their language. ‘We only have a few of the wooden ones currently, but they have the lowest durability which makes them susceptible to tool wear. Matter of fact, these poor-quality tools take a lot of time to mine or chop anything.’


‘Really? What happened to the other tools…’ Skywalker asked. ‘Will the wooden ones be good enough to mine stone?’


‘Unfortunately, the rest of the tools were stolen in the raid, so we are trying our best to mend and restock them.’ The tool merchant replied.


‘Stone… Hmm, it’s manageable I’d say.’ The tool smith replied. ‘I’ll specially modify yours just this once with better wood, it should be able to mine stone better and longer.’


‘That’s alright, thank you so much. It’s… important.’ Skywalker said. The two employees nodded and gave them the tools. Once the purchase was done, he motioned her to follow as they walked inside the Ragni-Detlas Tunnel.


‘Why do we need these?’ Reygina asked as they walked deeper into the tunnel, the sunlight no longer shining upon them.


‘We are going on an excavation.’ Skywalker simply responded. ‘For a moment there, I thought you were going to bargain.’


‘Well… They suffered enough; I even noticed their shop still had a damaged roof.’ The mage answered. ‘I only bargain when they were obviously trying to scam us.’

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‘No wonder people would rather take the V.S.S Landskipper.’ Reygina thought to herself. The trapped air and poor ventilation were making her uncomfortable. She could feel her whole body heating up, wanting to get cool off. Drinking water didn’t help much since the whole environment didn’t change. In fact, the torches lit inside the tunnel were taking away the already reduced levels of oxygen bit by bit. She felt fatigued, her need to stop and rest getting more and more frequent. ‘How come he still looks fine? He’s inhuman...’ Reygina joked while walking behind the ninja.


Skywalker meanwhile was as if immune to the effects of the atmosphere. He kept walking on and on forever without rest.


‘Can we stop for a bit please?’ The mage asked.


‘Again? But we stopped ten minutes ago.’ Skywalker looked back, seeing how the mage is panting a bit. She was leaning on her wand as she sat on the floor, she found a large rock to sit on and she finished her water bottle.


‘Aren’t you tired? We’ve been walking for hours.’ She looked disappointed when she found her water bottle was empty. ‘The air is so stale…’


‘Only my legs.’ Skywalker said, he sat on the ground next to her.


‘Where are we now?’ Reygina asked, the tunnel just feels endless to her. Truth to be told, it is long, from what she had read about the tunnel. The tunnel takes only half a day to reach from Detlas to Ragni, since it’s just a straight line and not the twists and turns, not to mention mobs that the caravan needs to avoid, let alone walking all the way.


Skywalker could hear the faint hiss made from the forest spiders in Nivla Forest, which means one thing. ‘We’re close, can you hear the hiss of the spiders?’ Skywalker asked. ‘The Cow Passage is long, located between Detlas Suburb and Katoa Ranch.’ He remembered what Drale had said before his escape.


‘Yeah… We are near Nivla Woods.’ Reygina responded. She was handed an axe and pickaxe by the ninja.


‘Dig around with the pickaxe, I’ll dig North, you dig South.’ Skywalker said, he began chipping away the first chunks of rock. ‘A mystery awaits us.’


‘I’m so tired…’ Reygina frowned as she began mining the rocks on her side. Even the excitement of discovering new history and lore couldn’t motivate her as much as she hoped. The wooden pickaxes didn’t help much at all, just as the tool smith and tool merchant told them. They not only wear easily, as Reygina could begin to see wooden chips splintering after mining for some time, but the whole environment was also making her uneasy. ‘I hope we find this quickly, I just want to relax and read a good book to spend the day...’

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‘Do you want to talk about it?’ Hearolie asked. The warrior laid on her bed without a sound, her face buried in the pillow. She simply felt upset.


‘I don’t get it.’ She finally spoke a few words.


‘Yeah, you said that… For the millionth time.’ Hearolie replied bluntly. ‘Why does she have to make things so difficult.’


‘I don’t get it. Why does he keep secrets from me...’ The pillow muffled her voice.


‘Yeah, well… He’s not the smartest human being around here. I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt you…’ He was running out of things to say to her. He already said that for… he lost count.


Krisstal meanwhile was still sulking. ‘Hearolie, you are so bad at cheering people up…’ She let out a sigh and got up, drying her tear-stained face.


‘See? All better! I have something for you.’ Hearolie patted her back. ‘Finally, she isn’t stuck to the bed.’


‘You mean you and Reygina or just you?’ Krisstal teased. She always felt Hearolie is a giant compared to her. Even while standing up, her head only reached slightly below his shoulders.


Hearolie rolled his eyes, ‘doesn’t matter. We need your expertise.’


He showed her some of the materials and ingredients that he had bought from the stores. There were cloth, leather and a few hooks. A full sewing kit set was pressing on the ingredients, so they won’t be blown away.


‘Huh? What…’ Krisstal heard a whistle and caught Reygina’s bag that Hearolie threw at her.


‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Hearolie smirked. ‘You’re about to help someone, that’s us.’


Krisstal smiled and hugged the archer. ‘Thanks. I’ll give it a try.’


‘Do or do not, there is no try…’ Hearolie laughed. ‘When you’re ready, come downstairs. I’ll tell you what new gear we got while you work on them.’


‘I will, thanks!’ She quickly walked over to gather the items needed.

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‘Reygina, I found something!’ Skywalker called out to the mage who was lying on the ground to rest. Her whole face was flustered from the heat and just couldn’t do any more mining. Skywalker mined several meters into the tunnel before he came across a wooden wall. ‘I found it!’


‘Huh? Oh...’ Reygina opened her eyes and looked at the stone that Skywalker mined out. She had helped move the stones away as much as she could before she couldn’t take it anymore. The air is too stale for her to handle, and she could barely keep herself from yawning periodically.


Skywalker threw away the two broken pickaxes and held an axe in each hand. He hacked away the wood as fast as he could, sawdust flew everywhere as he began to remove more and more of the wooden wall.


‘Creak! Crack!’ The axes managed to cut through the wooden wall and exposed a bit of the interior. It was large enough for Skywalker to take a peek at what’s inside. There were bodies inside, some crushed by fallen rocks, others were stabbed.


‘Guess Drale wasn’t a total liar…’ Skywalker thought to himself. Reygina felt a breeze of noxious air slowly coming from within. Skywalker was about to take one of the torches to have a better look when Reygina quickly stopped him, almost burning herself.


‘What?’


‘Stop, you go any closer with that flame, it might cause a flash fire and we will become Fire Zombies.’


‘Why?’


‘Flash fire. Your torch will ignite the mixture of air and a dispersed flammable substance, those dead bodies usually let out flammable gases due to decay. With the air inside being trapped for so long, it must be quite concentrated.’ Reygina quickly used her wand to blast the nearby torches, putting out any flames close to the vicinity.


‘Now what?’ Skywalker asked as he put out a few more torches just in case.


‘Give some time to let the air inside flow out, then we can get inside safely with a torch.’ Reygina told him, dragging him away from the mouldy air.


‘So… Did you see Localcolt when he left? He… Never mind.’ Skywalker remembered Localcolt left at dawn. Reygina probably hadn’t woken up then.


‘I did, saw him. He was kind enough to identify our stuff before he leaves.’


‘Awesome of him. Did he teach you anything new about potions? You were so eager to learn more about that.’ He playfully hit the mage’s shoulder in retaliation of her doing so earlier.


‘No… Fact is, we didn’t talk a lot.’ Reygina shook her head. She sniffed the air a bit and was glad to know the aroma is a bit tolerable now.


‘You just don’t like to talk to people you aren’t familiar with, that’s all. Except when they show you something you’re interested in.’ The ninja snorted.


‘Well, you know why…’ Reygina kicked a pebble, watching it fly across the tunnel.


‘Yup.’ Skywalker laughed as he coughed, accidentally inhaling the revolting gas. Reygina walked towards the crack and checked one more time, the air inside seemed much easier and slightly more pleasant to breathe in without too much discomfort.


‘I think we can go inside now…’ The two chopped away the remaining wood until it’s big enough for them to walk inside. Rats and bats scurried off when they heard footsteps approaching, avoiding the light by hiding inside the small holes they have called home.


Skywalker entered first with a candle in his hand. Taking a quick look around before signalling the mage to follow. The flickering candle flame showed the interior of the abandoned and mostly forgotten Cow Passage to the two soldiers. It was an entire passage surrounded by dirt.


‘No wonder it collapsed so easily…’ Skywalker thought to himself as they slowly walked down the tunnel. He found the ground also uneven to walk on, sometimes he felt his feet sink into the ground. He could hear a strange noise somewhere underneath him.


‘Hear that? Beneath us…’ The ninja pointed to the ground.


Reygina nodded. ‘Running water, meaning there may be an underground stream. There must be a cave below us.’ She grasped his hand tightly. ‘We have to be very careful then. If we make any sudden movements, it might cause a vibration strong enough to cause any cavity to collapse, meaning we’ll be falling to our deaths by sinkholes.’


‘How could we be near a water source, when the whole tunnel is dry?’ He asked, looking around the area for any sinking pits they will want to avoid.


‘Perhaps a river is near us if I have to guess, or a natural water-drainage vein. I don’t know, since I don’t know exactly where we are.’ Reygina shrugged. ‘Are you sure we are at the right place?’ She looked around nervously and caught sight of a family of mice scurried away when eye contact was made. The sounds of unknown creatures frightened her a bit, with shaky arms she grabbed ahold of the ninja’s shirt for some reassurance. She could have sworn one of the bodies’ limbs had moved a bit, but when she looked again, there was no movement at all. ‘Stop scaring yourself, Reygina. Stop scaring yourself.’


‘Pretty darn sure.’ Skywalker answered. Their voices echoed across the abandoned passage. More human and villager Bovemist bodies laid lifeless in front of them, all still in their cow suits. Wooden supports have fallen and laid splintered, making it hazardous for people who made one wrong step. The remaining wooden supports made from oak fences or oak wood walls have moulded and crackled, giving the two an eerie feeling that the whole thing is going to collapse at any second. There were crawl marks and scratches near them.


‘They must have tried to escape by crawling out of the rubble but died anyways…’ Reygina commented, pointing at one of the bodies whose fingers were in the earth.


The mage and ninja trod on the dirt path with extreme caution. Skywalker stopped, causing Reygina to bump into him. ‘Why are we stopping?’


‘Dead cows ahead…’ Skywalker pointed out; he moved the torch in front of them so Reygina could see what’s ahead better. ‘We’re close.’


‘These are… cow carcasses.’ Reygina gasped in shock. ‘At least a dozen of them.’ Her eyes caught sight of cows covered with dirt chunks attached with their dried blood. The two of them coughed a bit from the revolting stench, Skywalker couldn’t believe he would prefer to drink Localcolt’s loot bonus potion than smelling this. Reygina was barely keeping herself together, she sunk her head into the ninja's shoulder, attempting to block off the stench as much as possible from entering her nostrils. Some soldiers and cows were crushed by rubble, one of the bodies was even split in two by a large boulder.


‘This is scary…’ The mage huddled close to Skywalker; the wand shook in sync with her trembling hand. Reygina hadn't seen so many bodies in her life, she was terrified beyond her wildest imaginations. She wondered if she would even be able to sleep for the next few days.


Skywalker meanwhile felt a bit strange, he sensed something. Not sure how or why, but… He looked around and saw what Reygina saw. Bodies and rubble.


‘Where could it be… Where’s the scimitar…’ Skywalker thought to himself, scanning around to see where the weapon may be. Then he suddenly saw something, a scimitar in front of him. He reached his hand out to grab it, but it vanished.


‘It was just a vision…’ Skywalker disappointedly thought to himself. ‘Have we come all this way for nothing?’


‘You alright? You spaced out for a moment there.’ Reygina asked. ‘Let’s just get out of here, the passage ahead is blocked off by rubble completely.’


‘Give me a moment...’ Trying his hardest to look for something out of the ordinary, the ninja dragged a horrified Reygina behind him, taking a closer look at the bodies one by one. A scimitar flashed before his eyes again, he blinked and yet again saw nothing. ‘Am I getting closer to it?’ He felt as if something was calling out to him, guiding him. He came across to one of the dead cattle where its head was crushed completely by a fallen wooden pillar. The same vision once again appeared in front of him for a brief moment. ‘This... This must be it.’


He was about to move the body when Reygina grabbed his arm. ‘Don’t touch it. It might be contagious, might still have active bacteria or virus.’


Hearing her advice, he grabbed one of the rather cleaner pillars and knocked the cow to the ground. With a thud, it shook the dirt a bit and revealed something that was buried under the earth since the Cow Passage was abandoned. The same scimitar he had seen in his visions moments ago.


‘This… This is it.’ He picked the scimitar off the ground. The blade reflected some of the candle’s light at them, despite it being under the ground for years.



‘It’s a scimitar.’ Reygina pointed out. She huddled closer to take a closer look.


Skywalker, scimitar still in his hand, moved the weapon around so she could have a good look at it from all angles. He was drawn in by the scimitar, admiring every detail about it, from its brown wooden handle to the grey basket guard that complements it. The blade is a different hue of metallic grey like the steel sword.


Reygina had seen enough, unlike Skywalker who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the scimitar. Reygina noticed this and patted him, which caused him to snap back to reality. ‘Yeah, sor...’ Skywalker replied but was cut off with the mage’s piercing scream. ‘What? What’s wrong?’ He looked at the trembling mage.


‘I... I saw that Bovemist corpse moved a bit.’ Reygina screamed, almost having a heart attack. ‘It’s corruption! They have been reanimated!’


‘Don’t jinx… it.’ True to what the mage had said, the bodies began to move bit by bit despite being dead for so long. Some of the buried bodies crawled out of the ground while others struggled to break free from whatever object was pinning them to the ground. Their decomposing bodies wobbled towards the humans, all crooked and wonky. Some of the monsters even got ahold of nearby stones and wood as weapons, ready to smash the recruits into pancakes.


Skywalker held the scimitar tightly. ‘Now is a good time to use this.’ Reygina backed up a bit, holding her wand in front of them. Skywalker jumped ahead and sliced a revived Bovemist that had an entire wooden plank protruding from his chest. The scimitar effortlessly cut the zombies down one after another.


‘Don’t get too close!’ Reygina reminded the reckless ninja, knowing how prone he is to get injured.


‘Thank you for the sound advice.’ Skywalker leapt up and sliced another zombie down, feeling the effects of Reygina’s heal spell. He felt his feet sink into the ground when he landed, catching him by surprise.


‘Be cautious!’ Reygina shouted, firing at one of the resurrected Rebel Cows, scaring it away before charging back at her like a raging bull. ‘The ground has weakened from all the activity.’


‘Sure. Woah!’ Skywalker caught an armoured cow charging right at him. He lifted the blade in time to block the cow's advance. The blade strained against its cow armour, possibly forged by the Bovemists. He jumped out of the way before remembering to land much more gently whereas the cow finally managed to stop and right itself. The cow stopped and glared at him, its menacing and bony face lowered, with its horns aiming at the ninja like a pair of daggers. Its four legs which were nothing but bones, kicked the dirt a bit before rushing towards Skywalker with a burst of acceleration despite its armour that should have weighed it down. Skywalker braced for impact and prepared to counterattack at the right moment.


‘You look funny for a cow…’ Reygina commented out loud as if talking to a person. The ‘person’ is a cow with a unique colour palette compared to the undead Rebels Cows and Armoured Rebel Cows. Apart from the legs and face being white, the other parts were black, as if it were wearing a tuxedo. Reygina found its appearance amusing and asked politely. ‘Were you a Bouncer Cow? You’re doing a good job as a security.’ The monster ignored her kind compliment and merely stampeded through the loose ground. She teleported out of the way before realising what a bad move that was. The monstrous Bouncer Cow crashed into the Armored Rebel Cow that Skywalker had knocked back with his spell. Both monsters were unable to stop themselves in time and rammed into a wooden support pillar and the wall behind it, the force was strong enough to completely demolish any wood in their path. The wall cracked and collapsed onto a reanimated Bovemist. It however, caused the already unstable dirt tunnel to collapse. First bits of dirt, then pebbles, and then the mountains of dirt began to collapse all over the place.


‘We have to go!’ Reygina shouted over the now collapsing wooden supports. ‘The wall’s collapse caused compromise to the roof’s integrity!’


She almost fell from the ground when the earth next to her cracked open, revealing an underground cave of flowing water tens of meters below them, washing away the debris and loosened aquifer.


‘The fault lines have awakened!’ Reygina shouted as her hand was grabbed by Skywalker. ‘The vibrations and previous collapse in addition to structural compromise have loosened up the dirt and caused all nearby cavities to collapse.’


The ninja dragged the mage out of harm's way as she continued her explanation. The fissure followed right behind him. The bodies and chests that once belonged to the Bovemist have fallen underneath, either washed away by the current or sunk to the muddy water below. The undead wasn’t fast enough to escape and fell along with the tumbling rocks.


‘Quick, through that cre… vice...’ Skywalker yelled to Reygina but skidded to a halt. What was once their only chance to escape became buried by dirt.


‘We won’t have time to dig through that.’ Reygina screamed. ‘We’ll be buried alive unless...’


Skywalker took out his Detlas Teleportation Scroll and handed it to Reygina. ‘Use it now! Save yourself! It’s my fault… All my fault you got into this.’


‘Oh! You have one?’ Reygina took out the same scroll as his. ‘Then luckily Hearolie gave his to me before our...’


‘Stop talking! Use it!’ Skywalker screamed his lungs out. The two soldiers opened the scroll and read the city’s name. They instantaneously vanished, just in time as the fissure caught up to them and swallowed up the ground where they were standing.

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‘Alright... Your names?’


‘I’m Krisstal and he’s Hearolie, Sir.’ The warrior replied cheerfully.


She felt a lot better after some arts and crafts time, it gave her mind something to think of other than her concerns and worries. Having had enough of arts and crafts for the day after a few hours, she came across a help wanted poster on the notice board near the bank, thinking it would be a nice way to earn some emeralds. She decided to find the archer in the barracks and break the news. When she arrived, the archer is trying to hone his accuracy. He was jumping around to simulate moving targets, practising on controlling his breathing.



‘Hey!’ The archer turned around to see no one behind him. He felt a punch at his chest and looked down to see Krisstal. ‘Oh. Hi there, sorry I can’t see anyone below my eye level at first glance.’


‘You…’ She punched him again. The archer grabbed her hands and hoisted her up above ground. Her feet helplessly dangling above the ground. ‘Hey! Let go… It hurts! You win! You win!’


‘Always.’ He sneered and let go of her. ‘What’s up?’


They headed towards where the poster told them to go if they were interested, which is a house with blue banners and a cooking station right outside of it. They saw only one girl who told her name to the ones in charge, a man with a cowboy hat and a woman with black round glasses.


‘Alright!’ A senior wynnic archaeologist clapped his hands together, getting all of their attention. ‘Thank you all for joining in our expedition today. I am Professor Jules and I will be the one leading this expedition.’



‘And I am his assistant, Professor Vossil, Caren Von Vossil to be exact. Should you help complete our exhibition, we will award you with thirty-two emerald blocks. Thanks to our sponsor, WynnExcavation for funding our operations.’



‘WynnExcavation?’ Krisstal's eyes widened, she had heard this name before, but where? ‘Skywalker… He told me about it when he was in the sewers with… Waront and Ooni! But if they help fund these legit archaeologists, then they must be good!’


‘Do you know?’ Professor Jules talked with much euthanasia as if he were a kid in a candy store. ‘The modern city of Detlas was built with the help of villagers after their arrival in Wynn, but these ruins might hold the secrets of what lied before.’


‘We have already excavated and explored a part of the whole ruins before.’ He showed off some items that were found from the ruins to spike the crowds’ interest. ‘We just prefer to finish exploring one area completely before moving to the next one. That way, we know we won’t miss anything.’


‘Making a more thorough search means reducing the damage to the area. Fewer trips mean less disturbance to the site.’ Professor Vossil fixed her glasses to prevent them from slipping off her nose. Both professors wore a simple brown sleeveless shirt and a pair of khaki pants. ‘Any questions?’ The whole room was silent. ‘Then without further ado, let us begin. And remember, be careful. These artefacts are very valuable. Follow us to the site.’


The two professors lead the three recruits to a room at the ground floor which leads to the basement. A site with blue flags at all four corners marked the entrance to the ruins. All five of them climbed down the ladder that led them down towards their destination. Professor Jules lit up a torch while Professor Vossil lit up her lantern with her colleague’s torch.


‘We have excavated what seemed to be a passageway that leads to the main village on previous journeys, which were rather short due to lack of funds. We have already finished clearing this section but didn’t go ahead very far ahead…’



‘Which will be where you three start.’ Professor Vossil handed each of them a shovel, a pickaxe and an axe.


‘Why would people build the modern town over the old one?’ The female archer that accompanied them asked. She had white hair and wore glasses that seemed a bit too big for her. She even has a hairpin with a feather to tie her hair.


‘Ancient documents gave evidence that it is mainly the farms and shops that were constructed above ground, quite reasonable if your main economy is driven by trading.’ Professor Jules replied in great detail. ‘But due to the many undead roaming above ground, most recreational buildings and houses were actually built underground. Because of that, passages such as the one we are in right now were built at this level, connecting different parts of the underground city.’


‘We believe this passage leads to an area of houses where the poorer people live in, that is according to old town schematics.’ Professor Vossil added, showing them a very simple layout of the underground village. ‘Don’t worry, the old village isn’t very big. We had already explored the path behind us, which is where we found the artifacts that we have shown you just now. It leads to where the richer people live, the mayor’s office and a small community storage.’


‘Building above the ground seems logical at that time, and with the combined effort of the villages and humans, the modern city of Detlas was built, slowly replacing the old structures by building new and improved ones with better materials.’ The professor took out one of his books with some old drawings of a villager shaking hands with a human. The villager held a brick whereas the human had an emerald in his hand. ‘Imagine how inconvenient or silly it would be to have a trading city this massive underground at this age, it’s not effective nor efficient.’


The five of them followed the passage, with the professors in the lead. They lit the candles that were on the sides to give them some more light, whereas the three recruits tried to absorb as much of the environment as possible. It was clear the modern town’s architecture was based on or inspired by these passages. The type of stone bricks, the way the bricks were placed, even to the smallest details such as the shade of grey were absolutely spot on. They walked down a set of stone stairs, where they saw several pots, boxes and many other damaged household items scattered everywhere.


‘Oh, we must take them back for study. Professor, help me with the bags.’ Professor Jules enthusiastically picked up one of the pots and examined it. ‘This pot… must be at least nine hundred years old! These carving shows…’ He went on and on.


‘Hi there. What’s your name?’ The white-haired girl asked Hearolie.


‘Hearolie, your turn.’ The archer crossed his arms and looked at her without moving his head.


‘I’m Ryia. So, you’re an archer as well.’


‘Yes, I’m a better archer than Bob. At this point in my time here, I shot over a hundred thousand monsters!’ He cast his boastful smile at her.


‘Right… How about you, fellow warrior.’ The female archer laughed it off and turned to the Krisstal.


‘Krisstal, nice to meet you Ryia.’ The two girls shook hands.


‘You good with your bow?’ Hearolie asked.


‘I’m okay… I guess?’ She said confidently. ‘I…’


‘You want to have a competition? You got one!’ Hearolie challenged her. ‘Let’s meet at the barracks after we’re done here. We’ll see who’s the better archer!’


‘I have…’ Ryia was trying her best to correct him but she never had the chance the say anything.


‘Time for it! Great!’ The tall archer shook her hand before her mind could process what he’s doing. She shot her hand back after the archer let go. ‘I can tell you that I’m very good and strong, I even carried my friend for hours while fighting monsters, it’s hard to use a bow with one hand but I managed…’ He babbled on and on.


Krisstal knew full well to some extent what he said it’s true. However, the way and tone he used made it sound like it was all made up; that and the fact he kept changing his story, it made her question when he told them about their looting run, how much of it was actually true.


Ryia rolled her eyes in annoyance and simply walked further away. She didn’t expect to encounter such a chatter mouth while on her day off, she felt like ripping her ears out.


‘... in fact, I’m so good. Let me give you a brief demonstration!’ He aimed his bow and an arrow appeared. Ryia thought he was crazy, and the professors stopped him from shooting an ancient vase.


‘Is he always this vainglorious? Do you know him?’ Ryia whispered to the warrior who had been relatively quiet. The professors meanwhile reminded the archer of the value of these ruins.


‘Oh no!’ She let out a sarcastic laugh. ‘I don’t know him at all.’ She whispered something to Ryia when Hearolie went ahead to help the professors with bagging some of the nearby artifacts. ‘He’s always like this… Sorry.’


‘May one of you help us to carry these bags back to the surface?’ Professor Fossil pleaded as Professor Jules finished taking out some relics. ‘It’s quite heavy, so we need a strong…’


‘Look no further, I shall help with these.’ Hearolie stopped her, secretly trying to show off and prove to Ryia about his power. ‘Where do I put them?’


‘Are you sure...’


‘Yes, he’s perfect!’ Ryia and Krisstal nodded in unison.


‘The best.’ One of the girls added


‘Totally.’ The other concurred.


‘Follow us then.’ Professor Jules gave him a bag, with the female professor implored over and over again to be heedful. ‘You girls, please help us collect as many objects with archaeological interest, take one of the torches for light. We’ll be back shortly.’


Ryia and Krisstal explored the rest of the passage, careful with where they’re stepping on. They entered a small room with a set of L-shaped stone brick stairs which lead to a more open area ahead of them.


‘What do you think is considered valuable…’ Ryia squatted closely to some crates that were stacked neatly on the wall. The wood was rotten and she couldn’t make any words out of it.


‘I dunno…’ Krisstal stopped her and pointed something in front of them. ‘But I think that must mean something, right?’


After walking down the flight of stairs, the two girls gazed upon an old, stone water fountain at the centre of the next room. It was a very large one, able to fit small children to play with its water. Damp stains left their mark on the withered and barren fountain with spots and streaks, for which the water had dried away for ages.


‘The whole room was relatively empty for its size.’ Ryia scanned across the vast space, looking for anything out of the ordinary.


‘Then there must be some sort of hidden passage.’ Krisstal nodded in agreement. She touched the mossy stone bricks, wondering if there is a hidden switch or trigger.


‘Nothing.’ Ryia sighed in defeat. Krisstal had pressed against every brick she could reach, she even prodded some of the higher ones with her spear.


The two girls sat at the fountain base, wondering if they had hit a dead end, although Krisstal opted to look around again. Borrowing the torch Ryia was holding, she got up, it was then something inside the fountain caught her eye.


‘Huh… I think there’s something inside the fountain.’ The light made its way through some cracked base and revealed something underneath the fountain’s base. She put the torch closer to the cracks to have a better look and gasped.


‘Wow, this fountain didn’t exactly have a stone base. It’s just wood painted grey! The cracks formed a perfect square, meaning this could only be…’ Krisstal opened the hatch with her spear as a lever, forcing the ‘stone’ hatch to open. With a loud thud, it revealed what appears to be some ladders reaching to a lower level. A rat the size of a book rushed out, fearing the light that was admitted by the torch. Ryia clawed at the warrior’s arm, her screams pierced through the silence.


‘Are there any more rats down there?’ Ryia wailed. ‘I hate rats…’


‘I don’t think so,’ Krisstal called back, staring into the dark abyss. ‘But I do see some mossy ladders.’ She began to climb down the vines and ladders, careful not to let the torch burn her hair or the greenery.


They landed down with a thud, with the warm light illuminating the dark ruins. Their shadows loomed across the dark pathway which they were standing on. ‘Woah. We hit the motherlode.’ Krisstal’s jaw dropped. Fragments of cobble and smooth rocks splintered and cracked that form the aged structures, mixing with the dirt that seemed to have caved in and buried some of the houses. Thick green foliage had grown all over the place, appearing even from the tiniest cracks.


They turned to see a room full of kitchen utensils. Cups were overturned and taps were left turned on, although no water was pouring from it. Krisstal however, found something that she thought was a napkin. She picked it up and called Ryia to look at what she found. They used the torch to try to read the faint words.


‘A person finally came into town today for trade. Finally! Trading means food! The undead are always such a burden and problem for us. But if we don’t farm and grow crops, we won’t have food and we’ll be hungry! Who knows? Maybe this'll all blow over soon. Oh, I forgot to harvest the sugar cane.’ Ryia finished reading the piece of paper and let Krisstal take a look. ‘The entry stops there.’


‘What did you find?’ Professor Vossil asked. Her sudden appearance caused Krisstal to gasp in shock, she felt her heart thumping against her ribs; Ryia shook like a leaf blown in the wind.


‘Ah… Looks like a page from a worn journal. Seems like a kid wrote this.’ Professor Jules cut in. ‘Quickly! We must find out if there are more.’


The professors took out a lantern and walked ahead. Their footsteps reverberated across the ancient village.


‘You okay? Those bags looked very heavy.’ Krisstal playfully punched the archer again.


‘It was easy, no sweat.’ Hearolie waved his wand as if it were nothing.


Krisstal teased and asked him. ‘If it were easy, why are you sweating so heavily? Tough guy.’


‘You’re imagining things. It’s just the… air that is making me like this.’ Hearolie scornfully dismissed her mockery.


‘Right… The air.’ Krisstal stifled a giggle. A small pebble was thrown at her by the archer, who had enough and decided to leave her. ‘Ah… I’m sorry. Don’t be mad.’



The two walked past Ryia who was exploring an abandoned bedroom, the house she was in was buried in rubble, one of the corners of the bedroom was destroyed, which is how they were able to see inside the house. Ryia had found a piece of torn paper on one of the bookshelves next to a red bed, its red mattress was missing an entire corner. They could hear her reading out the words from the page vaguely from the distance. ‘The attacks from the undead are growing more and more common, even larger in scale compared to what my parents told me when they were my age. I heard from a traveller that this is happening all over Wynn… I’m scared. Will we be safe? Salted will keep us safe, right?’


Meanwhile, Professor Jules and Vossil were inside a two-floored house. Both sides of the building were entombed by dirt, its overhangs were so low it almost blocked the only way to enter the house. Not the front door, but rather a hole where the window was. Some cobwebs were at the far wall and several shredded purple carpets were left on the wooden floorboard.


‘Professor! Professor! I found something.’ Professor Vossil cried, carefully holding onto the piece of paper as if it were a baby.


‘Well, read it. We must find more about this strange journal.’ Professor Jules shouted from the upper level.


Professor Vossil read out the page she found. ‘I’m happy it seems we have some safer days, it makes me more relaxed when I help my uncles and dad to harvest the crops, although they tell me to never leave my wooden sword behind. Someone said it’s unusually quiet for Detlas though, but I want it to be this quiet, I like it. Isn’t that a good thing?’


Almost immediately, the other professor found the rest of the page. ‘This has some dried ink covering on the edges…’ He grunted, frustratingly trying to make out the word by squinting as hard as he could. ‘They say it’s a monster that’s leading these monsters. Why? Why would he do this? Why can’t they leave us alone? I can hear the monsters’ groan when they were roaming around above the ground at night, I felt like they would attack us soon… My father said I need to stay underground alongside the other children, because it’s no longer safe outside.’

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The two were walking ahead to see what they could find for the professors. They skipped over some pits in the ground before they found stone arches overhead. Krisstal passed through easily while Hearolie had to stoop down to get across.



‘Being shorter has its advantages.’ Krisstal smirked, to which the archer fired back. ‘Oh? Who’s talking? I don’t see anyone here.’


Krisstal frowned and kicked the archer. Hearolie acted surprised. ‘Oh, hey there little girl, I couldn’t hear you all the way up here, were you saying something?’


‘Zip it!’ Krisstal decided to drop the subject. On their right was a small study, and a piece of the journal was held in place by one of the books left on the table. She was about to read it when she motioned Hearolie to look ahead. A small garden, where all but a yellow flower with five petals still blossomed despite the lack of light, engulfed by the complete darkness. Were it not for their light source, they might never have discovered it.


‘It’s… beautiful…’ Krisstal admired in awe. Somehow, she felt like the flower will live on no matter the conditions. She felt silly to think so but it felt like the flower was… glowing in the dark. ‘Let’s just leave it there, in its glorious place.’


‘Hey! I found a page on the other side of the wall!’ Hearolie called out as the warrior was still focused on that unique flower. He skipped across the floating platforms, trying not to embarrass himself by falling into the pool of water below him.



‘No way…’ Ryia anxiously rushed to their side, her eyes widened with both shock and excitement. ‘That’s a yellow Bauhinia blakeana! It's a rare, endangered compared to its other more common colours, mainly red, blue and pink. Despite some of the most renowned botanists’ efforts, they can't get these yellow ones to grow domestically yet, so you are never able to buy it. This specific colour can only survive in complete darkness. All we can hope is this type will be strong enough to prosper, on its own, with all its glory. Maybe one day, we can finally grow it in our homes.’


‘Hey Krisstal, what did your diary piece say?’ Hearolie yelled, picking his page up from the ground. He was glad it wasn’t soaked or anything, otherwise, it will be annoying to read.


‘Huh? Oh.’ She snapped back into reality. She tenderly moved the book away and read. ‘Sam died today, eaten alive by one of the zombies. He was my big brother… I’m sorry Sam. I’m sorry I didn’t do anything, I was too scared, I was too frightened. And now… I’m so sorry. Please forgive me, please Sam?’ She felt her heart sink. ‘Poor kid.’


Her archer friend then read his paper next. ‘Dad and uncle are arguing. Dad said we should not abandon our home, but uncle said he’s joining some people who decided to leave the village and head to Ragni or Troms, and wanted us to leave with him as well. I don’t really want to leave home, but there’s not much food left if we stay here...’ He said. ‘It is dated 78 AP (After Portal). That means… the village is at least nine hundred and twenty-two years old.’


‘Excellent find you three. These diary entries are most invaluable, you will all be rewarded accordingly.’ The professors carefully slipped all six pages into an item frame and sealed it shut.


‘I think that’s all for today. Follow us and get your well-deserved reward.’ He led the whole group back to the surface. Krisstal gave the yellow flower one final look before leaving the ruins of Detlas. To her astonishment, it seemed to glow a bit in response when she looked back.
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‘I can’t wait to share these to the other archaeologists… And maybe some botanists too?’ Professor Jules said ecstatically. They climbed up the ladder and exited the site. They opened the door and were going to the conference room when they heard a man talking to them.


‘Wha, whozit? Oh geez, I should lay off tha old Nemract Whiskey. I'm startin' to see things.’ A stranger hiccuped and spoke which caught all of their attention. He hiccuped again and pointed a bottle at them.


‘Burglar! Get the guards!’ Professor Vossil screamed for help as the three soldiers drew their weapons and aimed at the intruder.


‘Wha, yer real?’ The villager asked, tripping on his own feet. He let out another hiccup and let out a breath full of alcohol. ‘Wha're ya doin' in mah house then?’


‘You picked the wrong house fool.’ Hearolie said. His bow and arrow aimed lethally at his head.


‘Oh? Zis not ma house? I ave been… in mai basement...’ He took another sip of the whiskey and fell on the floor; the whiskey drenched the nearby carpets.


Professor Jules immediately cleared his research out of the way while the three recruits tackled the drunk basement dweller. Professor Vossil returned with a Detlas guard and he dragged the troublemaker out of the house.


‘Ahh!’ Professor Jules ran his fingers through his hair. ‘We better check if we lost anything, but...’ He handed each of them the thirty-two emerald blocks as promised. ‘Feel free to join us in our expeditions next time! Thank you all. Now if you will excuse us, we must triple check our inventory.’


The three soldiers waved goodbye to the professors. ‘I still couldn’t believe we get to see such a rare flower; I’m going to…’ Ryia’s face glowed.


‘Have a competition to see how the better archer.’ Hearolie butted in. Krisstal patted the Ryia’s back but decided to just get over with it.


‘Argh… Fine.’ She felt her happy mood immediately ruined, but Hearolie didn’t care. All he could think of is how superior he would be.

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‘And that’s the last round.’ Hearolie announced. Him and Ryia put down the bows and tally up their respective scores.


‘Alright, I won! As I expected from myself.’ Hearolie crossed his arms and smiled with pride.


‘Yay. Congrats.’ Ryia was glad it was finally over. ‘Well, I got to go. See you.’ She left the barracks and met up with a female soldier.


‘Let’s be on our way then. Skywalker and Reygina must be back by now.’ Hearolie saw the warrior leaving the barracks. He had won the competition, but he didn’t feel as proud nor overjoyed as he should be.


‘Just by a few marks…’ He murmured to himself. Instinctively, he threw his bow to the ground.


‘She was so close to beating me…’ He could feel his peers looking down on him, his brother pitying him. He couldn’t exactly remember any of their appearances, but he could feel him, all of them staring down at him. He may forget how they looked, but he would never forget how they made him feel a weakling, a mistake... a loser.


‘Loser…’ He gritted his teeth and looked at the target practice again. He now didn’t see himself winning, he saw himself about to lose. ‘I will be the best. I was, I am, I will.’

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He remembered how his stomach felt like twisted up in knots after using these scrolls the first time. This is no exception. Reygina was still shaking like a leaf, her face drained of colour. The two soldiers appeared in front of a tall and grand building in the bustling city. Despite their sudden appearance, the nearby people weren’t concerned or surprised at all. In fact, they were all intentionally staying out of their vicinity. Skywalker looked down and saw both he and Reygina were stepping on an emblem with the unmistakable flag of Detlas. It reminded him of the Ragni emblem placed in front of the castle. ‘That’s probably where I appear when I use teleportation scrolls to Ragni.’ He thought to himself.


Reygina calmed down and they went to the bank to put down the broken tools and scimitar. They caught a glimpse of Krisstal and a sulking Hearolie walking outside as they turned around to leave. Seeing their saviour, they rushed towards him like fans of a pop star.


‘You saved us!’ The ninja patted his back and shook his hand aggressively, but immediately let go realising how embarrassing that was.


‘Our hero!’ Reygina chirped giving him a much needed hug of approval. Her eyes lit with a gleam.


‘Of course I am!’ Instantly, he felt much better, Hearolie beamed with pride, hugging them before projecting a confused look at Krisstal, who shrugged and looked just as bewildered. ‘What did I do?’


Reygina gave Krisstal the one emerald she owed her for losing the bet earlier and they all shared their activities for the day. ‘Oh, and I made a bag for Hearolie and myself.’ The warrior winked and the mage hugged her as a means of congratulating for her achievement.


‘What about me… Oh.’ He shut up when he caught her glaring at him. He knew she still holding a grudge against him, she hadn’t forgotten how dreadful her morning was because of him. He changed the subject.


‘Well, since you were so lucky at the notice board, let’s see if there’s anything else to do.’ Skywalker said to the archer and warrior.


They approached the notice board and scanned through the different sections until they came across something they agreed on. ‘I am conducting a study about elements, and I want you, yes you, to help me. Rewards include emeralds, a bracelet of my handiwork and a Vibrant Augment. Signed by Professor Ragon of Grookwarts.’


‘Vibrant Augment? That’s one of the materials I used for making my good luck charm.’ Krisstal thought and looked at her craft on her wrist.


‘That’s settled then, but we would take at least a day to reach the forest’s edge on foot.’ Reygina said, mentally making some calculations. ‘Not to mention, the tunnel only lets us go to Detlas or Ragni, nothing else in between.’


‘Hey, maybe we can hop on a caravan? They can take us there.’ Krisstal said, slightly keeping her distance from the ninja. She was ready to forgive him though, believing he did learn his lesson and he was sorry for it. ‘Just… not now.’ She thought to herself, stealing a glance at Skywalker.


When they reached the stables, they found people lining up and entering a caravan. ‘Last call to Ragni.’ The driver called out. His caravan assistant has fed the horses with hay before patting their heads. The black and white horse neighed in chorus, ready to clop at full speed.



‘Excuse me Sir, you mind if we get off when we reach the edge of Nivla Woods?’ Reygina smiled sweetly.


‘Yes, you may get off wherever you like as long as it’s within the road we’re on.’ The driver replied. ‘However, you will still need to pay the full fare. The captain’s rules.’


‘That’s okay. Thanks.’ Krisstal paid the fee with her recently earned emeralds. The four of them climbed up the caravan and sat down, trying to make themselves comfortable despite the crowded space. The drivers got onto the front and slowly but surely, they pulled away from the stable and left the city through the Western Gate.

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‘You were saying there was a robbery here.’ A man arrived at the archaeologists’ house at their request. He took a look at the crime scene and wrote down some notes.



‘Yes, Detective Gadget.’ Professor Jules said. ‘Whoever it is, he stole something, a weapon.’


‘What kind of weapon?’ The inspector looked at the box where the sword was kept. It was obvious that someone came in and forced the wooden crate open by something strong, maybe a knife or a dagger.


‘A shortsword.’ Professor Vossil added. ‘Unlike anything we have ever seen before. We don’t know of its origins yet, since it was stolen before we could even investigate it.’


‘Please!’ Professor Jules begged. ‘Detective Gadget. You must help us; the sword is so priceless. It might hold powers or secrets we never knew, who knows what will happen if it falls into the wrong hands.’


The detective looked around and found nothing else was touched. Whoever the thief is, he came here only for the shortsword.


‘I’ll try my best! I’ll start my investigation and find out what happened.’ He reassured them, heading for the door. ‘In the meantime, come to the barracks and tell us anything you could think of that may help us.’ His hand still on the door handle. ‘No clue is too unimportant.’

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Another chapter which focuses on discovering old structures and finding discoveries, as the title suggests. If you have noticed, I made my own version of the journals for the ruins of Detlas, so it would be refreshing for those who knew the discovery, but also letting new readers know the tone and some history of the ruins, from a certain someone's point of view. It is when I quickly scan through the chapters, I realise how little the dynamics of Skywalker and Reygina/Krisstal and Hearolie pairings were shown, and I do not like the imbalance, since all four are friends. The professors were being robbed of a shortsword, wonder what could that be? How will Krisstal and Sywalker make up? Stay tuned! Now onto the credits, Ryia is based on wynncraft forums user Reyko’s work: Wynnstory (2016) ::: Chapters 1 - 12 (discontinued). A few of these skins I used are thanks to the following people: Professor Vossil’s skin is taken from Girl Archaeologist edited by GiannaChiocca; Professor Jules’s skin is taken from PaulsoaresJr by MigratorMan and Detective Gadget’s skin is taken from Inspector Gadget by BlackRaptorMoses.


Thank you to every officer, admin, builder and others who created and developed Wynncraft. Do share important information about Wynncraft, such as easter eggs and timelines or even 'wynn'consistencies. As the information will help me improve my story greatly. Thank you once again for reading until the end. I do not own anything except this story. If you are interested, I could add your player characters as characters in my story, just send me your name and a screenshot of your character (with or without gear) in wynncraft, preferably your front, side and back. It would be a bonus if you can list out the names of your gear and mount. Feel free to talk to me about things not related to Wynncraft as well, I would never mind changing topic anyways. Thank you all and may the force be with you. This is an unofficial story made only by myself and everything here is based on either what's currently in the game or my interpretation of what's currently in the game. Hypixel weapons belong to Hypixel. I only own the main characters and this story only.


Other sources:

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/699806539-for-the-wynn-king's-recruit-part-1

Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12951945/1/For-The-Wynn

Archives of our own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14778395/chapters/42299039

 

Thanks so much for writing another chapter!

 

Yay also I went through and read everything so im caught up.

 

Bump10char