5 Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The smoke and dust settles, revealing a mess of blood and flesh of poor monsters. The members of Red eye gasped. That was understandable. Who could keep calm when witnessing such overwhelming power. Imagine being on battlefield and enemy had such absurd strength. There was only one outcome against such power. That was the scene in front of them.

Suddenly, a fire ball rushed towards Arthas and Malenia but exploded before reaching them. The one who attacked them was Ra. It was alive even after recieving a fatal attack. However, its apperence was extremely ugly. Half of its left body was gone and its face was impossible to recognized. Its chest rose and fell, trying to gulp every bit of air. The trembling legs supported its body. It would self-destruct in a few minutes. Despite its heavy wound, Ra glared at them with hatred. It was like an cornered animal, crazy and fearless.

Ra was very angry. It couldn't understand how things turned out like this. It should have been a regular hunt. They were just weak creatures. It was about to win. But then those two strange things came. Ra thought they were just like those weaklings. It would crush them and turn them into its food. So it was pretty satisfied. However, things were not as it thought. Those strange things were strong beyond its imagination. Subordinates that it worked hard to win over were immediately destroyed. Althought they were foolish, they were still useful for its plan. Everything.... everthing were ruined. Everything it had done over the years had been in vain. Ra felt resentment against those things. Ra thought about running away but the wound told it that it couldn't. Ra wanted to kill them, tear them apart and devour them. However, Ra knew it was ahout to die, and it didn't have strength to kill them. But it wouldn't die alone. Mad anger gave it strength. It threw an enchanced fire ball towards them. Even thought Ra couldn't kill all of them, it would bring one of them with it.

"Oh, you're alive. I have compliment for you." Arthas said. Bowed seeply.

Even thought he reduced the power of that skill, it was still a fatal attack to low-level monsters like these trolls. The fact that it survied the attack proved its strength. Looked at the troll's eyes, he could see its hatred form him. Well, he had killed its fellow-creature and was going to kill it. Of course it hated him. The troll rose its staff, looked like it would attack them again. Unfortunate for it, a red light flew towards it, burning its body to ashes immediately. He turned around and saw Malenia sheathing her katana. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"I'm Kain and these are my teammates. We are Red eye mercenary group. And those are my customers. Thank you very much for saving our life. We really have nothing but thank you from our hearts." Kain, Thoros and the other bowed deeply.

"No need to thank us. It's convenient for both parties" Arthas replied.

"My name is Thoros. And please don't be so humble. If it weren't for you, we would have died." Thoros said.

"I'm telling the truth. If we weren't lost, we would have ignored you." He replied happily.

"Haha...." Thoros smiled awkwardly.

"He's just kidding." Malenia spoke.

Everyone was silent for a while.

"What do you think about going with us tomorrow. Our carriage's wheel has been broken. We have to fix it now". Kain spoke up to break the strange atmosphere.

"Sure. Anyway we don't know the way." He replied.

"Yes, we can go to Thedas city tomorrow together." Lyanna said with the sparkling eyes looking at Arthas.

Malenia snorted.

"My name is Lyanna. I'm an archer." She said and held out her hand.

He shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Arthas. And this is ...."

"Malenia. His partner." She said coldly.

"..... Nice to meet you, Malenia-san." Lyanna said.

Malenia nodded lightly.

"Please forgive her. She is just pretending. But she is actually very happy." He said in a low voice.

"I'm not pretending." She objected.

"Haha, you two seem very close. Oh, let me introduce you to my friends." She said.

"This beautiful lady is Rosalia, our Pries. She is incredibly kind and as you see, she has a very big HEART. "

Rosalia glowered at Lyanna and smiled with Arthas.

"And this lovely druid is Lily. She is very in tune with nature and has a deep connection with the earth."

" N – Nice to meet you." Lily said timidly.

"And finally, those guys are Ned, Scott and Roland. They are pretty useless so you don't have to care about them."

" Hey , hey. What kind of talk was that?" Scott refuted.

"Have I said something wrong? If it hadn't been for you guys, we wouldn't have been attacked by those ugly trolls." She said.

"Ugg .. That.. We didn't want either." Scott replied.

Lyanna responded by sticking her tongue out.

Under the helmet, Arthas had a smile. Even when he was in YGGDRASIL, he had always been a solo player. So the sight of teammates having fun like that was quite new to him.

After The greeting, the whole group started to work. Thoros, Kain, Scott took charge of repairing the carriage while the others would handle the coprses of trolls. They intent to camp here so thay had to tackle them in order for them not to atrract other predators to come near.

"What are they doing?" Malenia querried.

Arthas looked in the direction that she was looking. He saw Ned, Rosalia, Lily and Lyanna were picking something from the mess while Roland was standing beside.

"Let's come closer." He suggested.

The two approached the Read eye members.

"What are you guys doing?" . He asked.

"We're collecting the intact useble parts of the trolls. Their eyes, blood, bones, marrows,.... The alchemists will buy them at a high price. " Rosalia answered.

"Arthas-san and Malenia-san don't do it after killing powerful monsters." Lily asked.

"We do. But not with low level monsters like trolls." Malenia answered.

"That sounds cool. There's no need to care about when you two are that strong." Scott said.

"Where are you guys from? Even a bard like me has never heard a hero who can kill a group of trolls in just one attack." Roland added.

"That's right. If we had taken that..... I can't imagine. And what are those magical beasts. They looks... very hungry." Lyanna said.

"They are not so hungry that would eat a bunch of skin and bones like you." Malenia replied.

Hesitated for a moment, Arthas answered.

"Our homeland is very far from here. We have been exploring together for a very long time. We got losr when we arrived here. Everyone knows the rest." He shrugged. At that moment, Kain approached them.

"Ned, Scott, I think this plain is safe now. Could you guys go find some delicious to treat our saviors?" Ge asked them.

"Sure. Boss." They answered.

" Oh, if you're looking for something that looks delicious, I have an idea." Arthas said. Then he whistled. His Shadow Catcher immediately ran to its owner. It sat down and stuck its tongue out like a dog. He came closer and stroked its fur.

"Buddy, do you remember that golden horn, find one like that and bring it here." He said to it. The Shadow Catcher roared and run away.

"I wish i had one." Kain admired.

As the day drew to the close, the sun began its descent towards the horizon, casting a warm glow on the expansive plain. The Shadow Catcher had come back with its trophy, an golden horn antelope that up to 3 meters long. Everyone was very happy because they would have a full dinner.

Leaning back against the tree, Arthas looked at everyone gathering around the campfire. He watched Kain and Lyanna roasting the antelope together. They looked like the prefessional chefs. The air was filled with scent of burning wood and roasting meat, creating a cozy and inviting atmosphere. The aroma of sizzling meat wafted though air, making everyone's stomach growl in anticipation. The campfire crackled and popped. Lily sat cross-legged, tending to the flame with serene expression. Meanwhile, Roland was entertaining everyone with a song composed by him. He strummed a melodic tune on his lute, his voice rising and falling in harmony with the crackling of the fire. The song was about a warrior who repelled an undead army. Arthas tapped his feet to the music. He turned to Malenia sitting next to him.

"What do you think?" He asked her.

"Think about what?" she asked him.

"The songththe atmosphere, the feeling,...." He answered.

Malenia was silent for a while.

"It's so strange. They are ridiculously weak, but they don't seem to care about it." She replied

"The atmosphere .... is great but the song is like garbage." She said. Her answer made Arthas smiled.

"Come here guys, meat is already cooked." Kain said loudly.

"Come on, girl." Arthas stood up and held out his hand. She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. Then, both of them walked towards everyone.

"You two don't have intention of taking off your helmets?" Lyanna teased them.

"Oh, my apologies." He said and motioned Malenia tk take offf her helmet.

" It turn out that you guys are not human. I should have guessed." Kain said. Arthas smiled as response.

Their appereances were of course identical their game avatars. In YGGDRASIL, their race was call half Aesir. They were about 2 meters tall and looked quite human-like. Their biggest differences lay in their eyes. Instead of eyes with two black and white parts like humans, their eyes were exactly like diamonds. They sparkled and glowed in the darkness.

"Let's stop looking at us and eat" .He said.

"You're right. Sorry for being so rude." Kain apologized.

"You look so handsome Arthas-san, and so is Malenia-san." Lyanna complemented.

"You reacted quite comfortably. I thought everyone would point your swords at us." He said.

"There are many multi-racial cities around here. The same goes for Thedas city we are going to. Rosalia said.

"Have you two never seen a city where humans live other races?" Roland asked.

"Never. The places i know are not friendly with non-humans." He answered.

"Let's not talk about it . Come here and enjoy my cooking skills." Kain changed the subject.

"..... and then, that frog vomited everything inside its stomach onto Roland. I remember he smelled for three days." Ned said teasingly.

"Don't remind me of it. It gives me goosebumps." Roland replied. Everyone laughed loudly. Everyone was recounting the battles that they had experenced.

"Just reminded me, Arthas-san, Malenia-san, please tell us about your journey. You must have some interesting stories." Lyanna asked them.

"Uhmn ....interesting... Let me think about it" Arthas thought.

"I don't know if this story is interesting or not but... " he started relating.

"Once, a friend of mine, rouge, discovered a dungeon contained a lot of powerful item and treasures, but it was the nest of a colony of lycans. He invited me and Malenia to conquer that dungeon. But that was impossible with three of us. So...."

Everyone listened attentively. Arthas continued.

"So invited another party to join us. When the appointment date arrived, there was a suprise. My friend didn't trust them very much so he eavesdropped on their conversation. He found out that they planned to attack us in the dungeon."

"What did you do then?" They asked.

"We made another plan. We continued to enter the dungeon. Whne we got in deep enough and before they could do anything. I used an item called Ancient Moonlight. It was an item that could emit light like moon, enhancing strength of people standing in its range of influence." He said.

"Lycans went crazy and attacked the others. The light from item made them twice as strong. My rouge friend then collected their items. And that was the end of story." Arthas finished.

"Ohhh.. what a fasscinating story." Lily said.

"A fitting end for greedies." Ned added.

Arthas smiled. After that incident, Rouge gave him a lot of divine items and even a World Item, which he gave Malenia later , as thanks.

"It's your turn. Why did you guys name your group Red eye." He asked.

" Oh, so didn't listen to my song." Roland said. Then he continued .

" About 30 to 40 years ago, there was a mysterious that happend. A powerful vampire turned several nations into undead. An yurrinigger army invaded a southern city. Fortunately, a hero called Red eye repelled them." He said.

" Oh an army of yurinigger..?"

" How do you know it was caused by a vampire?" Malenia asked.

"One of nations turned into undead was Inveria, 10 years ago, a very strong mercenary group set off on searching for treasures of that kingdom. They went with 10 members but only their thief came back. He said that he encountered an undead commanded by a vampire. He luckily avoided her magic and escaped. Surrounding countries called that vampire Landfal." Roland said.

'it sounds interesting.' Arthas thought. He couldn't imagin how great the power was to turn several nations into undead. Maybe only world items were capable of doing so. If that story was real, peharps that 'Landfall' was on the same level as World Enemies' in YGGDRADIL.

"Do you know how did she do it?" Arthas.

"I'm sorry but no one knows how could she do it" Roland answered.

"Maybe...." Thoros hesitated.

"If you know something, please tell us." Kain said.

"Oh this old man knows nothing much. I just think that vampire is related to them." He replied.

"Who are they?" Malenia asked Thoros.

"When i was a boy, my father told me about Dragon Lords. "

'Dragon Lords' Arthas thought.

"He said thay are the strongest ones in this world." He said.

"Before Eight Greed Kings had come, Dragon Lords were rulers of this world. Legends said that they lost in the war against Eight Greed Kings. However, they are still factions that no one dares to touch in this world." Kain said.

"Even thought the rumours that dragon lords are related to that undead incident has been around for along time, they are still unreliable. There is no record of their interference in nations of other beings." He added.

...

Looking at the starry sky, Arthas thought about those stories. He had truly arrived another world. Unlike YGGDRASIL, this world had powerful creatures that he knew nothing about them. Even thought it had only been a day, he felt like it had been a long time.

"What are you thinking?" Malenia asked him.

"Some trivial things." He answered.

"This world has many things that we don't know." He said.

"Just like YGGDRASIL." She said.

"And we have nothing but time."She added.

Arthas looked at her eyes.

"Will you come with me? Will we explore this world together?" He asked.

".....You don't have to ask such an evident thing." Malenia answered.

Arthas had a smiled on his face. He patted the space next to him.

"Come here. Lie with me."

Aftwr hesitating for a moment, she walked towards him and lay down next to him. The two lay there without saying a word.