Missing Eyeballs

After some time, the arrow which Marty and Eli were following finally stopped and vanished. It brought them to a cave pocket.

Shining blue crystals protruding on the cracks of the walls illuminated the whole area. At the center sat an old man with a long, flowing white beard. He was cross-legged in a meditative pose. His eyes were closed and he had this white aura surrounding him.

"Is… he the one we're looking for?" asked Marty. He couldn't help but get skeptical. As far as he could remember, the recipe didn't call for an old man. He even had to double check to be sure.

"I think so?"

Even Eli was unsure, but in situations like this, there were only two things they could do. First, either to walk away silently in case the old man was as dangerous as the people they met earlier which ended up with them getting cursed. Or the second, which they ended up doing, bite the bullet and probe.

Marty and Eli nodded to each other and tiptoed towards the old man who was still meditating when he suddenly opened his eyes.

"Goodness freak!" Eli jumped in reflex while clutching his chest. To the place where the old man's eyeballs should have been were just literal holes with live maggots squirming about.

The old man looked at Marty who seemed to have been frozen in shock and said, "Find my eyes. Find my eyes and I shall reward you." His voice sounded hoarse, rough, and strained. As though there was a phlegm stuck in his throat.

Eli shot him a look. 'Your call,' he seemed to be saying with his eyes.

Marty shrugged and inched closer to the old man. "Do you know where to find them, uh… sir?"

The old man weakly lifted his right hand, his fingers trembling, and beckoned for the two of them to come sit with him. The two hesitated at first but after a series of nods, head shakes, and meaningful eye expressions, they ended up sitting across from the old man anyway.

"Will you help me find my eyes?"

Marty elbowed Eli to the side, urging him to go answer this time.

Eli gave him a side eye before answering, "Uh… Ahem! That depends on the reward, sir."

This earned a glare from Marty.

"Yes! Yes, a reward indeed!" The old man then thought for a while, testing their patience. "...river."

"River?" repeated the two.

"Yes! Yes! The river! The river of unending youth! They say if you drink water from this river, you will remain young forever. But that is false. The river has no power. It is the mermaid that lives there that gives people eternal youth."

The old man paused to take a breath before continuing, "I'll bring you to the river if you bring me back my eyes."

"Okay, sir! Please tell us where to find it," Marty spoke ahead of Eli in case he said something foolish. After hearing about the mermaid, he just had to. Sure, Eli could find it no problem with his ability but it has a cool down of 6 hours. They'd rather use it on something else. And he couldn't use his ability yet until after midnight.

"An imp stole it from me. He went that way," said the man, pointing to the narrow opening to his left. He refused to say anything else after that.

***

Near the soldier's camp.

Jasper and Linda were having a conversation. This was after Jasper had recovered enough to stand and walk, and after Linda had coughed out that gelatinous ball of blood which she stored in her inventory along with the venom-coated rock.

"What do you mean other use?" she asked. After she helped Jasper, he insisted on paying her back which she initially refused, but he was stubborn and said he would pay by telling her valuable information instead.

"Exactly like I said. Points have other uses too. Like say, aside from upgrading our stats, we can also use it to buying cheat items. Well, not necessarily a cheat but you get the idea. Like buying maps and information, for example."

Linda was surprised to hear this, and also a bit regretful because she already spent all her points.

"How did you even know all these?"

"My system told me," he answered.

"But mine didn't!"

"Of course it won't. The system wasn't designed to feed us information. In the first place, their sole purpose is to lend us ability and answer us when we ask. Of course, if we upgrade them, then maybe they will be willing to talk to us more but there are still things they couldn't tell us though. Like say, who The Great One really is."

Jasper was inspecting his injury so he didn't see the flash of suspicion in Linda's eyes.

"Hmm… That's odd," she said.

"What's odd?"

"That you know all these already when we came here at the same time."

Taken aback, and feeling that the atmosphere was starting to get awkward, Jasper decided to change the topic.

"Anyway, instead of upgrading my stats, I brought this instead." He then pulled out the map from his inventory and laid it flat on the ground. "I also brought the information about where I can find the ingredients."

"Hmm? Murkwood Peninsula, huh." Linda muttered. She was still suspicious of him but she didn't want to needlessly complicate things so she decided to set aside the idea for now.

"I already caught the stag," said Jasper.

And hearing this, Linda pressed the TAB of her keyboard to display the list of ingredients.

[CELESTIAL STEW]

[INGREDIENTS:]

[1 Mythical Stag Horn]

[1 cup Fairy Dust]

[2 Wyvern Eggs]

[3 Unicorn Hooves]

[4 cups of Celestial Starlight]

[1 Phoenix Feather]

[1 cup of leprechaun gold flakes]

[a pinch of pixie dust]

"Being transported here might be the best situation for us," Jasper added.

"Why do you say that?"

"The information I brought said that we can acquire the wyvern eggs by joining the soldiers. They are hiring magical mercenaries, apparently."

And so with that, the two decided to finally take a rest and apply when the morning comes.