"Are you guys heading back to Orchomenus?" Merlin asked Zankoku, to which he received a nod in return. "Do you mind helping me with getting the group of people back to town?"
"We might as well." Zankoku answered. "When do you think we'll be leaving?"
Merlin and Zankoku both looked over to the woman who was still sobbing, then Merlin scanned the faces of everyone nearby until his eyes fell on an older looking woman with a sympathetic look on her face.
The woman seemed to have noticed Merlin's gaze and understood his intentions. She gave him a brief nod before approaching the woman who was crying, she began consoling her. After a few minutes, the woman calmed down, and Merlin took the opportunity to speak up.
"We'll start making our way back to Orchomenus now, preferably as a group." Merlin announced, "We'll protect you from any threats on the way. For those of you who wish to travel to Caphyae instead, I'd advise against it. We don't know what sort of condition your bodies are in and we don't have any torches to spare, plus it wouldn't be safe to travel alone at night."
He received a nod of approval from everyone, it didn't seem like anybody even considered moving away from the group, even though quite a few of the NPCs could cast light.
Before the group left, Merlin scanned around and located the envoy of the oracle, he approached the envoy to explain the situation to him. Merlin told the envoy that he would be guiding him back to Macedonia, but he would have to follow him into Orchomenus first while he got the rest of the people to safety.
The group started slowly moving through the forest, their first goal being the road. It didn't take long to traverse through the forest following Merlin's guidance, even the more elderly got through without much issue. Merlin was going to carry the corpse at first, but a friendly looking man with a much larger build offered to take his place.
Eventually the group had made it to the road, making everyone feel considerably safer. The group began their travels along the road on their way to Orchomenus.
"So why did you grab the paper?" Alvira asked Merlin in a hushed voice. "I thought you read those already."
"Couldn't help myself, I've got sticky fingers." Merlin replied in a joking manner at first, but he decided to humour her. "Well, I didn't understand all of it, I'm hoping I can get someone to translate the rest for me."
"What else is there to understand?" She asked.
"There's a large pile of records involving tests, they're full of jargon and words I don't understand. Quite a few of these seem to involve some kind of alchemy, and there were the vials we found on the same desk." Merlin explained, "Since the vampire couldn't use his powers to convert things in this world the normal way, there's probably information in here involving poisons that can create ghouls and vampire kin."
"You've put way too much thought into this." Alvira stared at Merlin like he said something strange. "Wait, but you killed the vampire already, so the rest of this is pointless, isn't it?"
"Probably, but I might get something out of it." Merlin shrugged. "At the very least there's a chance I'll get more story, if not anything else."
"Just story, no guarantee for anything else, no power ups?" She asked, "What's the point then?"
"What? It's more story, that's more interesting than just an extra stat point." Merlin asked. "Don't you read any of the books you find in games, or any of the dialogue?"
"Nope, I just skip it all. I only click on books if they give me bonuses, but I never read them." Alvira replied. "It's more fun to just get back into killing stuff."
"What is the fun in just fighting endlessly?" Merlin shook his head. "A lot of time and effort goes into crafting those worlds and stories, usually more than the combat system."
"So you play games like an old man." Alvira retorted, causing Merlin to awkwardly cough.
"An old man..." Merlin felt her words stab at his pride, "Really, you don't feel any sense of mystery and excitement in this world?"
"Well, it's fun running around the forest and dungeons. But I don't want to spend my time reading when I could be fighting." She explained before running off, it seemed Merlin had bored her.
"And old man." Merlin muttered under his breath.
As the group continued down the road, the light from the lantern on the northern gate could be seen in the distance. Fortunately it didn't seem like anything in the forest was going to bother attacking such a large group.
The guards standing at the door seemed a little taken back when they saw such a large group approach. Merlin pulled his quest document out of his inventory before he walked up the guards. He explained that they were all victims of the rumoured kidnappings, and that the issue had been resolved. When he mentioned vampires the guards had a concerned look on their faces, and their eyes were especially focused on the woman's dead sister.
One of the guards called a handful of other guards over to assist them. The guards asked that all the victims should undergo a medical checkup and leave a report if they were up for it. Everyone but Merlin's party and the envoy followed the guards to their barracks. Once everyone had entered the town, Merlin received a notification.
「You have completed the quest, "The Caphyae Kidnappings.", visit the mercenary guild to receive your rewards.」
"Well, they should be fine now." Merlin said as he turned back to the roleplayer's party. "Thanks for the help guys."
"Not a problem." Zankoku gave him a thumbs up, "It was fun, besides the whole getting destroyed by a vampire part."
"Thanks for the advice." Alvira spoke up, it seemed she wasn't really bothered by the fact he was an alpha tester anymore. Probably because she was now more concerned with how he played the game in the first place.
"It's fine, you guys are pretty good. If you focused on levelling up instead of trying to farm souls, you'd catch up with Snow and Ty easily." Merlin said as he left the party, everyone's green names turned white. "Anywho, I've got to get this guy home for another quest, and turn in the one for the rest, so I'll see you guys later."
"See ya, old plant guy!" Alvira yelled out louder than the rest of the party's goodbyes, Merlin just sighed at the addition to his nickname.
Merlin and the envoy made their way to the mercenary guild. Merlin entered the building and the envoy waddled behind, it seemed he wasn't fond of such places. Merlin walked towards the bartender with the quest form in hand.
"I guess you were successful, that was fast." The bartender said with a grin on his face. He started counting out twenty silver coins before Merlin even handed him the quest form. "I heard a large group of people wandered into the city through the northern gate, they were paraded through town on their way to the barracks."
"Another heroic feat added to the legacy of the ghost." The bartender chuckled as he placed the stack of silver coins on the counter. "If your friend back there doesn't mind, I'd love to hear what the cause was."
Merlin signalled for the envoy to take a seat before turning back to the bartender. He briefly covered his findings, he mentioned the vampire and the ghouls, the cages and the experiments. The bartender had a grim expression plastered on his face as he listened in.
"If it ain't one monster it's another." The bartender spoke, in-between a slew of vulgar swears. "What the hell is happening to this world. The dead shouldn't be walking."
The bartender shook his head and poured himself a drink before speaking with Merlin once more. "These are scary times we live in. Make sure you don't get yourself killed out there."
Merlin nodded his head and insisted he'd be careful. The bartender gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder before indulging in his drink. Merlin and the envoy stood up and left the building.
"I've got one more stop to make, and then we'll head over to Macedonia, tell me if you need anything." Merlin said, the envoy just nodded his head silently and followed along.
Merlin went to the market area, and after a few minutes of browsing, he picked up a strong leather backpack for a ten silver coins, and picked up a ten meter ball of twine for two copper pieces. Leaving him with thirty-eight silver and one hundred nineteen copper.
Merlin tied the rolled up sheets of paper up using some of the twine before throwing it in the backpack. Although Merlin could put the backpack in his inventory, if there were any items in it that couldn't be stored away, they'd just fall out. So due to the documents not being considered items by the system, he had to carry them around the old fashioned way.
Merlin put the backpack on before he and the envoy made their way to the western gate. The guards gave them a friendly nod as they walked out into the darkness of the night.
"Well, just stick close and I'll get you there safely." Merlin reassured the quiet envoy as they continued down the dark road, their path was illuminated by nothing but Merlin's light source.
