“Damn! My back hurts.”, Shiv groaned as he stretched his body a little. “For a game, they sure have taken into account such unnecessary details”, complaining to himself, Shiv walked out of his new home.

He could see the villagers were all busy with different tasks and were running around. Men and women together were trying their best to rebuild the village. Walking around, Shiv began observing the situation.

The houses were steadily being repaired with stones. Two to three people were designated for one house. The hunting party under Lylda was able to secure meat and some berried and so Bella along with other were preparing breakfast. Even Kate was trying be useful to Bella.

Ames was instructing others as he supervised the construction. Walking around, Ames inspected the houses, and would give suggestions or advices. As Shiv approached Ames, the Ames walked towards him and greeted with a smile.

“Good morning chief. How does it feel to sleep on the floor?”, grinned the man.

“I won’t even ask why you know that”, Shiv replied a little dejected. “My back hurts, it’s like I was beaten to death or something. That aside, how are things progressing? Everything seems great”, looking around, Shiv asked.

“For now things are fine. But it is going to take a while. After all the houses were almost completely destroyed. But what worries is me is not the matter about the houses”. Shiv could see that Agon had something that worried him deeply.

“Food huh? I am guessing Lylda could not gather much?”

“Ah, well that woman is not at fault. This forest originally had abundant resources, but ever since the goblins came”

“I see! The majority of the animals were hunt down by the goblins for food and so she could not find many, is what you mean, right? Well, I was expecting a food shortage. But things are far worse than I calculated”, with a hand to his chin, Shiv contemplated calmly. “What about the procurement from other villages?”

“The nearest village is a few hours journey from here. But it seems like, they are ready to trade with us, but”

“But we have nothing to offer in exchange. Hm! What about stones or wood? Won’t that suffice?”

“Wood is out of question. After all they too are surrounded by forest. But, stones might be enough. The problem is we can’t depend on Bella and others to transport the stones. Also the men are too busy and tired. If I were to reduce the number of men, then the houses will take couple of days more to finish.”

“In that case, let me do the transportation. After all there is nothing else I can do to help. So, if it’s just transporting goods, then I guess I am plenty enough. Ah, but I will need somebody to guide me though”

“Eh? Is it fine? I mean, for the chief to do such things is a little…”, Ames with a look of worry and uncertainty was not sure what to say to Shiv.

“Don’t worry Ames, I am yet to become the chief. Besides, even if I became one, I would still do it, after all it’s my job to look after you guys.”

“I see. You really are a nice guy. In that case, I will make the necessary arrangement. Take Agon with you. The boy knows the way and can also help you in negotiating. He is a smart kid”

“Then please do so. Sent for me once the preparation is complete.”

---***---

“We have been walking for three hours now, Agon. How long is it going to take?”, a little annoyed. Shiv asked the young hunter boy beside him.

“We are almost there, nii-san”, with a smile Agon replied to Shiv. For the boy, the long walk appeared to be nothing more than a leisurely troll but for Shiv who had to pull a cart loaded with stones, the journey was nothing close to fun.

And so, the two arrived at the village after another fifteen or so minutes. An exhausted Shiv and an energetic Agon were then subjected to the wary eyes of many. The new village was not so different from theirs. The houses were made of either wood or mud. There were no proper roads, nor were there any shops. The people too wore clothes similar to that of their village.

“Nii-san, the village chief’s house is that way. We have to meet him and let him see the stones. Bella-nee said that he will then provide us with food of equal worth”, pointing to the right, Agon began talking.

Shiv titled his neck to the direction Agon pointed and what came to his view was a house similar to all the other houses in the vicinity, except for the fact that, the was slightly larger. Nodding towards Agon, Shiv paced himself towards the chief’s house as he pulled the cart filled with stones.

Even though, the villagers were curious, nobody came forward with any questions. Once the two were in front of the house, Shiv knocked on the door a couple of times and called out loud.

“Hello, is the chief inside? We are from the neighboring village, here to trade some stones for food”, Shiv was not sure how he was to speak with a village head but still he called out. A few moments later, the door opened and the two were greeted by a male in his twenties.

The man had a serious expression, but there was no discontent or malice in his eyes. His dark blue eyes and silvery hair surprised Shiv a little but the fact that the man was an NPC helped Shiv calm down. With keen eyes Shiv observed this man that had opened the door. He was slightly taller than Shiv and appeared really well built. The silvery hair was long enough to fall on his shoulder but suited him well. His slightly dark skin tone synced perfectly well with the silver hair, thus making the person nothing short of a hunk.

“Please come in. My name is Dian, the son of the chief. Father will meet you inside.”, with a deep voice that matched his profile, Dian welcomed the two inside.

“Thank you, Dian”, Shiv replied calmly and walked inside but Agon on the other side was slightly nervous but still walked together with Shiv. The two were then taken to a room on the next floor. The room had a small table and a few chairs on either side of the table, a window which ensured that the room was well lit and a second door which appeared locked.

Dian motioned the two visitors to take a seat and then proceeded to the second door, opened it and disappeared. Shiv and Agon sat on the chair for some time before they were greeted by the chief.

Dian had returned with the chief after he took almost a good twenty minutes. The door once again opened and a man in his late fifties walked into the room first, followed by Dian.

“It seems, I have made you wait for that I deeply apologize. My name is Stein, the chief of this village.”, the elderly man greeted Shiv with a smile. To Shiv, the man appeared a little carefree and the friendly type. Similar to Dian, the man too had blue eyes and silver hair. The two also shared the characteristic dark skin and good physique. But in contrast to the serious Dian, Stein had a big smile on his face all the time. From the moment, he walked in, till he sat down, the man kept smiling without break.

“Ah, hello! my name is Shiv and this here is Agon, we come from ….”, Shiv paused for a moment and then continued, “the village to the south.”.

“Ah, the village from the south, I see. You are here about the food. The young girl was really energetic, I wish she could come to my house as my son’s wife. Dian here has taken quite the liking to her. Guhahahaha”, the chief then suddenly burst into laughter, Dian on the other hand became stiff to the point that he turned into stone. Shiv and Agon who heard these words became quite surprised and glanced at each other, bewildered

“You don’t have to be so stiff. That was just this old man’s selfish wish. Now shall we get down to business? To tell you the truth, there isn’t much we can help you with. The food situation in this village too is a little bad. But since winter is nowhere near and since I liked the girl, I decided to agree to the offer”

‘This man, just how much has taken a liking to Bella?’, Shiv thought to himself, ‘That aside, why is the food situation bad here too? The goblins couldn’t have reached this far and there doesn’t seem any problem on the surface. Just what is causing the food to go scarce?’

“Chief Stein, we only have stones to offer, since stones are the only thing we have extra as compared to this village. Currently I am in possession of a little less than thousand blocks of stones. The mason from my village have made sure that the stone blocks can be made use as soon as possible, for construction that is.”

“Stein is fine, no need to be so formal. A thousand blocks of stones eh! Hmm! What do you expect in return?”, with a hand to his chin, the chief asked Shiv.

“My village consists of almost 80 members. You might have heard about the recent goblin attack on us. So the fields have all deteriorated. It seems the farmers would need at the least two weeks or so to harvest something edible. And as for hunting, there are hardly any animals to prey on, once again due to the goblins. So, I wanted to acquire food for at least a week. But seeing that the situation here is not as favorable, I am not sure what to ask for”

Seeing Shiv in dilemma, the chief thought for a while and spoke, “I understand. To be honest, we are not in need of stones. It is true that stones are something we don’t produce. But since it’s something we don’t produce, we have learnt to live without them. But the fact remains that, houses of stones are much better that those made of wood. And so, we shall accept the stones. Then again, we don’t have enough supplies to trade for a thousand blocks. This villages produces potatoes and tomatoes the most. So how about one bag of potato or tomato for 10 blocks of stones? By the way, a bag roughly contains 100 potato or tomato.”

‘One bag of potato per 10 blocks of stones? I am not sure if that’s a good amount or not. Also, Agon seems to fine with the proposition. I know that just potato or tomato isn’t much as food, but right now there is no other option.’.

“That seems fine to me, Stein.”, Shiv nodded after he made some thought. The two then shook hands as a sign of acceptance. Stein then instructed his son to take care of things. He instructed Dian to give Shiv an amount of food equivalent to 300 hundred stones. And so, Shiv was able to procure 15 bags of potato and 15 bags of tomato.

“You have my gratitude Stein, for helping us out even when your village was facing trouble”, Shiv spoke with gratitude and bowed gently to the man.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. But I was surprised, for that village to ask for a trade. Of all the villages in this great forest, that village has been the only one that was completely shut off. But I am glad. Guhahaha” and again the chief went on laughing like a mad man.

“Thing happened and we had no other option. That aside, there is something I wish to ask to you Stein. Why is the food situation bad here as well? I don’t think see anything wrong with the village or its people. And I am sure that the goblins did not come anywhere close to this village. So why did you say the village is short on supplies?”

“To be honest, we don’t know it ourselves. For the last two months, the food situation suddenly got bad. Some of the crops withered, some hardly grew, I don’t even know what the problem is. It’s like the very soil has been poisoned or something. It’s not like the entire field is facing the problem, just some patches of lands here and there. The farmers told me that, these patches are slowly but without doubt increasing in size. I tried asking around, with other villages. And it seems all of them seem to face the same problem. It’s like the forest is rejecting us”, the chief replied dejected. After all, the idea of forest rejecting the village was truly a nightmare for these people who were born in the forest.

Shiv on the other hand felt hope, hope for a new quest. He contemplated that the quest if solved would provide him with vast profits, though the risk was equally high.

“Stein, was this the first village with the dead soil problem?”, Shiv inquired calmly.

“I don’t think so. The forest acts as a base for another 6 villages excluding yours and mine. I did talk about this problem with chiefs of all the six villages and from what I understood, the first village to experience the problem was the one that is three days to the east of this village. I believe they had to deal with the problem for more than three months. To be exact, that village lies almost at the middle of the village. In other words, all the other villages can be travelled to from there. The other villages are hardly a day’s journey from there.”

“Hm? A day’s journey, connection to all the other village. Center of the forest. Hey, Agon, did anybody mention about soil problem back at home?”, Shiv asked Agon who was keenly listening to the conversation.

“No, I don’t think so, nii-san. Though our field were destroyed during the goblin attack, there seems to be no particular problem with the fields.”,

‘As I thought, the cause of this problem is that village in the center. No, not the village but something or someone in the village is the source. Even if a quest doesn’t appear, I will have to look into it. We have already made contact with this village twice. So the chances that our village might be affected is not zero. Right now, I lack information to make a clear decision’

While Shiv was deep in thought, Stein suddenly began speaking, “To me, it seems like, you have some thoughts about the matter. And I am pretty sure that you share the same idea as me. For starters, you seem to think that the cause lies in that village in the center. Please don’t blame us for not speaking about it sooner. We don’t know the root of the problem or how it spreads. It might be through humans or might be through something else, we truly don’t know. If it’s through humans, then there are chances that the problem has already spread to your land as well. We just did not have any way to inform your village.”

“Please don’t worry about that. I have no intention of blaming anyone. It’s as you said, the chances of the soil problem spreading to our village is not zero. But right now, I think it’s necessary we gather more information. There are many questions in my mind which needs to be answered. And for the sake of finding a solution, I think it’s best if I visit this said village. And I plan to do so as soon as possible.”

“Such a reliable young man. In that case, please take Dian with you. He is smart and strong. I am sure that he can be of some use. At the least he can act as your guide”

‘trrrng’

QUEST: THE PLAGUE OF THE FOREST

With a plague that affects the soil spreading throughout the forest, the villages in the forest are suffering gravely. Stein, the village chief has decided to trust you with finding a solution for this problem. He has decided to let his son, Dian to assist you in the search for the truth.

Difficulty : G

Rewards

Unknown?????