Zach ate breakfast and said goodbye to Lydia.

Together, he and Elmarud were ready to go back to Kosk, but they had to make a stop first. They left Lydia’s apartment and went to the Buforas Church.

He knocked on the door and was admitted by Brother Abel. After a short discussion, he was led to Agatha’s room. Then after asking for privacy, Brother Abel nodded and closed the door, leaving them alone.

Zach looked around the plainly decorated room and cast his gaze on the woman.

“A fragment from a dream, I recognize,” Agatha greeted with a slightly insane expression.

“Yeah.” Suddenly Zach had a bad feeling. “Is everything alright? You seem different from the nightmare dungeon.”

“Knowledge of the future is heavily restricted. The heavens lock most and code the rest. The metal stars are more lenient, especially with their chosen ones, but the restriction still applies. To know the future but not tell anyone. This is the cost of future sight.” Agatha laughed bitterly, a laugh that could make people perceive her as a lunatic.

Zach shook off the discomfort and asked, “Metal stars?”

“That’s postgame content.” Agatha waved a hand. “Now’s not the time. Ask another question.”

“Okay… Then can you tell me about why my friends on Earth had all of these status conditions?” He continued to tell her about what happened.

“The humans of Vera can handle magic. The humans of Earth are simply tragic. Bodily reconstruction is a shortcut to save lives. Thus the unprepared can avoid their quick demise.”

“T-thanks. That’s what I thought. I just wanted to make sure.”

Before he could ask a follow-up question, Agatha said. “The lore pages may tell you more. You can view any material contained in your inventory directly from the ‘books’ section of your system.”

Zach perked up. “Oh?”

He checked his windows from the ‘main menu.’

[Player Data] [Inventory] [World Guide] [Books] [Quests]

He did a quick navigation. Under the [World Guid] category he could find info on flora and fauna, but only stuff he had seen before. Under the [Books] category, which had been empty up until now, he was pleasantly surprised to find the game wiki.

“So I can read anything I have in my inventory directly from this window?”

Agatha nodded.

“Cool!” Zach said happily. “By the way, why didn’t I have a magical awakening?”

“As the player, you obtained those capabilities before the game started.”

Zach continued to talk to Agatha for some time. He cross-checked some information from the game wiki and looked for differences. He also found some useful information not explained in the wiki.

Apparently, abilities, skills, and titles were not called these things by Verans. Instead they were called magical constitutions, magical inclinations, or magical bloodlines. Furthermore, they didn’t gauge strength by their levels. Of course, it made sense that an actual planet wouldn’t refer to their abilities in video-game terms.

Zach was happy he knew the difference. It could’ve created a misunderstanding between him and Lydia in the future.

Unfortunately, the longer he talked to Agatha, the less he understood. He couldn’t tell if she was doing it on purpose or not, but her words turned even more cryptic in addition to increasing in complexity. As he got more exasperated, he asked her an easy question. What was a picante fruit? At that point she started spewing prophecies about mind control and protection against ideas being stolen.

It sounded interesting, but he just couldn’t understand it. After writing her words in his notebook, he finally gave up and left the church.

He nodded to Elmarud. “Okay. Let’s go to Kosk.”

…

After going through the fast-travel rift, Elmarud and Zach made their way toward the city. However, Zach suddenly took a turn, heading towards a gathering of tents on the outside of the wall rather than the gates.

The sound of crying entered their ears. Weeping mothers and wailing children called for each other. Rows and rows of figures lay on top of blankets, squirming and coughing occasionally, clearly sick. Even more rows had figures completely underneath, not moving at all. There was a sense of all-encompassing despair.

A man was passing out food, blankets, and some stuff that looked like medicine. When he saw them, his face lit up.

"Travelers! Come this way, I beg of you! Stay and help us! If you have food and medicine, we will compensate you later!"

"What happened here?" Zach asked, even though he already knew from reading the game wiki.

"Our city was destroyed overnight by chakra users. We are the only survivors left. However, because of the magic they used, most of us caught flame sickness. The riders haven’t come back! We can't even alert the capital because the telegraph room was destroyed. Please!"

"I understand." Zach responded. "Actually, the Histowire sent me here for a different reason, but I'll help you first."

"The Histowire? You are a Messenger?"

"That's right. I'm also an apprentice of magic and have an affinity for the light element."

Shock and joy displayed on the man's face. "You must meet Klerik. He is the temporary leader in this crisis. Please follow me."

After following the man, they found an older gentleman mixing pots of medicine. He was constantly calling out orders.

"I need more shell powder! The next batch is ready! Distribute it!" He saw them approaching. "Who are these two?"

"Sir. This traveler says he was sent by the Histowire. He is a Messenger, just like you!"

Klerik frowned. "You're late. If the Histowire really sent you, tell me what you are here for."

"The Histowire's Sheath." Zach responded.

"Perfect. More hands. One of you, take over…"

Zach translated for Elmarud, who nodded and took over the task of mixing. With his titanic strength, the medicine was mixed more thoroughly.

"I'm assuming the Histowire didn't tell you what is happening?" Klerik asked.

"Not really."

"Typical. The Histowire barely told me anything. I read a full sentence a week ago and knew you would come for that ‘Sheath’ or whatever. I just didn't expect the city to collapse the next day."

"So what happened?"

Klerik sighed. "Someone attacked the city. Probably the rebels from Sumus since we are located along the old border. There hasn't been enough military presence since we conquered both the East and the South. All our boys are off playing peacekeeper while our forces at home are spread thin.

"Our police were all consolidated into the city. Leaving the dungeon tunnels unprotected. All they had to do was send a man underneath and use a forbidden fire technique. The cultivator probably killed himself in the process, but it worked. The city fell into a sinkhole in the opening attack."

Zach gulped. "Incredible. So they sacrificed one of their own to erase a city?"

"Yes. A few days later, the rest of us were afflicted with fire sickness. Only a few of us will survive if we do nothing."

In Zach’s eyes, a new quest had popped up.

He turned and asked, "I have an affinity for the light element. How about I go use my spells to alleviate some patients?"

"Bah! Light magic won't work on the fire sickness. Even this medicine is just a stopgap measure at best. Save your energy."

"Is there anything that will work?"

"Well. Sure.” Klerik thought for a moment. “An extremely potent medicine can be made from the blood of a magical beast living in the forest. With just that, I could cure everyone here. However, it is already a long shot."

"You said the air in the city is poisoned. Will this cure help us withstand that too?"

"Hmm… Actually, yes. It would."

"Then it seems our goals are aligned." Zach pulled out a map. “Where can I find this beast?”

…

Elmarud and Zach rode out into the forest and found the magical beast. It was a sheep-like creature with a golden fleece and golden blood. It’s offensive capabilities were laughable, but it’s regeneration was unbelievably good.

When Elmarud’s wolf claws stabbed into its head and penetrated the brain, the creature kept moving. Elmarud removed the head entirely, but the body tried to flee! Finally, only after both of Elmarud’s claws were lodged inside the head and heart did it show signs of death. If they left it alone, though, the creature would kick and get up again. Zach had to store the carcass directly from Elmarud’s claws so it would be considered dead by his system.

‘This quest was meant for me to take the blood and not be able to kill the creature,’ Zach thought with a shrug. ‘Oh well. Surely this will be more efficient.’

On their way back, Elmarud growled.

“Zach, do you know what is happening to those people? Why are they sick?”

“It’s a kind of sickness that has to do with the properties of magic and magic enhancement.” Zach explained. “For mana, there are six elements. By dipping your fingers into different substances corresponding to that element, you can weaken or strengthen their effects, getting seemingly different elements. This is how the aquamancers change their water spells into ice spells.

“For chakra users, it is slightly different. That type of energy only has three elements: water, ground, and fire. However, depending on the chakra user’s dantian, they can change those into two other elements for each of those, meaning they have access to nine elements in total. One of those elements is the forbidden fire, which has a poisoning effect.”

As for why a fire element would have a poisoning effect, Zach didn’t know yet. He was busy reading through the lore pages while riding Elmarud.

“What are all of the chakra elements?”

“There is the blood element and the wood element which corresponds to water, sand and metal corresponding to ground, and lightning and the forbidden fire coming from fire.”

“So many… Chakra users sound dangerous.” Elmarud snarled.

“Yeah.”

…

Kosk came back into view. Elmarud transformed back into a human and they went to Klerik’s tent.

Zach pretended to pull the carcass out of his backpack and place it on the table. However, unlike before, the creature did not get up again. It was truly dead.

‘Hmm. This could be a useful property,’ Zach thought to himself.

“Y-y-y-you! You got it?!” Klerik sputtered. “I-I-I-I’ll get right to work.”

Klerik obtained about sixteen vials of golden blood. He diluted them into plain water three times, creating 128 bottles of diluted solution. Apparently, it was enough. He started passing the vials around.

“One bottle for one patient,” he ordered his subordinates. “Everyone from the city needs one, even if they don’t appear to have the fire sickness yet. However, prioritize the ones who are bleeding, then the ones who are dizzy, then the ones who are fatigued.”

When the bottles were completely distributed. The area turned silent as people stopped crying and coughing.

Zach wiped the sweat off his brow. Maybe he should have come earlier?

A little kid looked up at him.

“Sir. Was it you that brought back the panacea sheep? Thank you! You saved my mommy.”

Zach smiled awkwardly. “It was Klerik that told me where to find it. Plus, he was the one that made the cure.”

People surrounded Zach and thanked him anyway. His truthful words were taken for humility, thus he was praised even more. He awkwardly smiled while fleeing to Klerik’s tent.

“You did a good job, kid.”

“I didn’t do anything though!” Zach complained more openly. “All I did was go to a place and kill a thing. Plus, I was late!”

“No. You don’t understand,” Klerik explained with a guilty look. “I sent you on a fool’s mission.”

“Huh?”

“The panacea sheep is incredibly rare. It’s a cure-all that has nearly been hunted to extinction, and the last sighting I heard was several years ago. The fact that it took you an hour to find one is a miracle!”

‘Huhhhh?!’

“The Histowire has sent a walking miracle! Hahaha!” Klerik jumped around the tent. “H-here. Come this way. I saved two vials for you and your friend!”

Klerik pushed the vials into Zach’s stupefied hands.

He simultaneously completed the quest, adding another dragon scale to his inventory.

“Before you go into the city,” Klerik said, “please take my shortsword. It’s yours now. I’m too old to use it anymore, but it will surely help you on your journey.”

“Mmm. Thanks.” Zach nodded, wondering how the reward system worked. “I’ll be back after I get the Histowire’s Sheath.”

“Please do. You brought me a panacea sheep.” Klerik smiled mysteriously. “I might have another gift when you get back.”

“O-okay. I look forward to it.”

…

Inside the walls, the landscape was unrecognizable from a normal city. The sun was directly overhead, illuminating the wreckage indiscriminately.

There were some bird carcasses laying on top of the wreckage. Zach used [Observation] and his face paled.

“Elmarud, let’s drink our vials!”

They drank their respective bottles.

"What's wrong? Weren't we going to wait to maximize our time?"

Zach, who was staring intently while spamming a certain skill, sighed in relief after a moment.

“Sorry. I kinda panicked. I just figured out why the forbidden fire element causes poisoning. That's all. Thankfully, we can stay here for another six hours. We should have plenty of time.”

“Oh. Okay.” Elmarud responded.

Zach took another look at the dead bird.

“Let’s go.”

They traversed over the wreckage, descending into a giant crater containing the fresh ruins of the city.

After searching for a few hours, they found the remnants of the church and started picking through the wreckage.

Zach had an idea. He started sending the rubble itself into his inventory. For the pieces that were too big, he and Elmarud chopped and broke apart. Sure… his inventory would become cluttered, but that was a small price to pay. Infinite and weightless storage should be abused whenever possible.

Soon, they had excavated the entirety of the church. At the bottom, Zach found a few objects that behaved differently.

One of them was a piece of paper. When he touched it, it was sucked into his inventory and couldn’t be taken out. However, he was expecting this since that was exactly how it behaved in the game. It was a quest item, the page of the Histowire he was supposed to collect for the next stage of the main quest.

The other was the Histowire’s Sheath. He couldn’t send that to his inventory at all, just like his game console.

The Sheath looked like a plain sword scabbard. It was about as long as his arm and appeared to be made of leather. It was ordinary on the outside and empty on the inside. However, his skill showed something shocking.

[Histowire’s Sheath (Refilling Container), Rarity U. Access: Member]

- {Attribute(s): indestructible. Refills with 1 bottle of nightmare-inducing elixir daily. Refills with 1 bottle of nightmare-suppressing elixir daily.}

Apparently, it was supposed to be some kind of container. Zach ‘desired’ to open it, and a familiar-looking inventory space opened up. There were only two slots. Both of them were filled.

One of the objects was the nightmare-inducing elixir and the other was the nightmare-suppressing one. However, the longer he studied the space, the more exhausted he felt. Both his stamina and mana were being drained.

Just when he thought he couldn’t stay in that space any longer, he noticed another phenomenon.

Elmarud was perfectly still, his body tilted at an impossible angle with one of his feet in the air.

Time had frozen.

Zach’s jaw dropped… At least, it tried to. However, only his eyes could move.

He exited the Histowire’s Sheath and time started flowing again.

“Why are you staring at me?” Elmarud asked after a few minutes.

Zach gawked like a fish.

His new item was incredible!

He continued to play with the Sheath as they worked.

The elixirs were removed and put in his regular inventory. Then he tried storing new things inside. It worked, but what would be the point?

He decided to keep the slots empty just in case the ‘refilling’ property kicked in.

The ‘pause’ function was also interesting, however it gobbled up mana and stamina, so he would have to come up with some creative uses for it.

Then there were the two elixirs… He quickly searched his brain and found the perfect person to give the nightmare-suppressing one to. As for the other one, he would have to think some more.

Before they went back to the camp, Zach and Elmarud visited the wreckage of other important buildings. Zach went on a looting spree like never before.

He first picked through the ruins of a guardhouse. All the armor and weapons went directly to his inventory, including the broken ones. Moving on, he and Elmarud found a sign identifying the alchemy hall. Zach’s face lit up with pure greed as he transferred every stone, stick, and leaf from that place to his inventory too. Finally they visited the library. Zach didn’t hesitate or discriminate there either.

When Elmarud wasn’t looking, Zach found someone’s severed arm. It was just lying on the ground in the open. He sneakily sent it to his inventory and ran away.

Trying to distract himself, Zach looked around for anything else that was interesting… and noticed it.

A strange phenomena happened to their bodies due to the fire sickness and the panacea sheep’s blood. Their outermost layer of skin darkened and peeled while a new layer formed underneath. It was like they were rapidly being sunburned and then cured of it. As a result, their skin became abnormally smooth and beautiful.

“Damn. We look hot!” Zach said unashamedly as they finished looting the city. “Plus I got so much loot! What am I going to do with all this rubble and broken wood beams?”

“Perhaps you could drop it on your enemies?”

Zach was about to say it was a rhetorical question, but was suddenly filled with inspiration and approval, giving Elmarud a thumb’s up instead.

Walking through the tents, the area was much more cheerful now.

Zach was greeted by dozens of people as he made his way back to Klerik’s tent. When he saw what was in the man’s hands, he gasped.

[Black Panacea Fleece, Rarity A]

- {Attribute(s): regenerative durability}

“Wow. It’s so beautiful,” Zach said. “Why is it black? The sheep was gold earlier.”

“When you cut the fleece off of a normal panacea sheep, the fleece turns black. We still need the flesh and bones of the sheep to recover, but this is our gift to you. We will always be in your debt.”

‘This wasn’t a part of the game,’ Zach thought. ‘I went off script and brought the whole carcass because I thought it would be more efficient. Who knew I would get an extra item!’

“Whatever you decide to make out of this wool will have incredible properties,” Klerik explained. “If you give it to a professional clothes maker, you will never have to buy a similar product again.”

“Thank you. I will definitely use it. Is there anything I can do before I go?”

“You’re leaving?” Klerik asked in surprise.

“That’s right. I have business in Caeli tonight, so I have to go back.”

“Tonight?”

"Ah!" Zach realized he should explain a little better. “The Histowire gave me a powerful ability before I came here. It allows me to instantly travel to anywhere I’ve been before.”

“T-that’s incredible!”

“I could be back here tomorrow to help you rebuild.”

“Oh. Ah… no,” Klerik quickly told him. “The fire sickness will linger for a few years. Instead we will have to relocate. Now that we have reached a period of calm, we can sit down and think.

Suddenly, Zach started getting new quests as the man kept talking.

“Let’s see… we have to heal the rest of the injured…”

*ping

“We have to clear out any monsters lurking in the forest so that none of them attack us during the night…”

*ping

“Then there’s the issue of escorting people to Fernsdale and ensuring their safety…”

*ping

“I also need to head to the capital, myself, to report everything to the Emperor and collect some relief money…”

*ping

“...but before I go we should retrace the chakra user’s movements and see if we can find any evidence of a rebel base.”

*ping

“Alright.” Klerik finished. “If you come back tomorrow, I should have a formal list and everyone should be ready to mobilize.”

If Zach could feel pain, he would be having a migraine from all the beeps. Even though he knew it was coming, he still had a lot of work to do.

“I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon.”

[End Chapter 31]