On the back of the carriage, Zane enjoyed the green scenery as he headed to Pughton, the town closest to the Valley of Shade. It had been five days since he had been staying here in the fantasy world, and it was the longest trip when compared to his previous ones.

Most of the seats around him were empty except at the corner end of the carriage, a person cloaked from top to bottom, hiding his or her visage. Zane had the urge to take a peek. But held himself back, remembering that advice from Langdon. Irking a potential mage-madman wouldn’t be good to his current objective.

Looking away, Zane glanced at the quest parchment he took from the Adventurer’s Union. His first quest as an adventurer and the only one that he could find that involved the Valley of Shade. A herb-picking quest that rewarded quite a lot of rios considering it was just a simple task. But Zane knew well not to underestimate a place like the Valley of Shade. As they always said, behind every reward, there would always be a catch.

He reached Pughton, a shambled-looking town. A stark difference when compared to the bright and warm nature of Hailyfield Town. The houses and buildings were built on piles of stones and old wooden boards, the roads leading up to them were only mere dirt with few puddles here and there. There was only one street in this town, a straight one from the entrance to the back. Well, there wasn’t much of a town, seeing there wasn’t even a proper fence around it.

Zane disembarked and felt the muddy soil on his Nike Air Max. A dash of brown over his white and golden sneakers. He would have flipped off if he was the old Zane, but now he cared less about the sneakers unless they had an effect on them.

He walked around and found a tavern. Intending to fill up his stomach first before going out to do his quest. But he was quick to make a U-turn after seeing what the tavern’s patrons were eating. I’m definitely not going to eat cooked innards, Zane thought. He was a picky eater and realizing he had a modern life to go back to really made him feel grateful about this life of his.

Zane didn’t even bother getting a room at the only inn of Pughton as seeing the outside was enough of a red flag to him. The inn sign was broken in half and the many holes in the walls deterred him from even coming closer.

In the end, he set off for his journey to the valley. Traveling on foot, entering the mountain path. The slow walk turned to a sprint and to his surprise, the whole trek was rather uneventful, and it was quite odd considering where he was. He was expecting an attack or an ambush from any creatures or beasts that lurked around this mountainous range, but there wasn’t any. Like the whole mountain range was devoid of any sign life, and come to think of it, it was awfully silent.

He stopped. Looking left and right as the realization gave him the creep over the whole situation. Let’s not chicken out now, Zane, he gave himself a pep-talk and moved along the uneven dusty path. Another hour passed, and he stood before a giant boulder that blocked the entrance of the valley. Calling it giant was an understatement as the boulder was more or less a steep hill that could even be called a wall.

“I’m here,” Zane said. Taking another look at the map, finding the symbol that depicted a rock which was called Keeper of the Dead. Zane climbed up to the side of the narrow path and found himself a stable footing to reach the giant boulder. In time, he made a small hop and landed on top of the Keeper of the Dead. Then he looked up. Seeing it for the first time the vast valley that had never received the warmth of the sunlight. The thick clouds hovered above the valley, showing no sign of moving away. It was a weird phenomenon, but what could he say? The whole place was a fantasy world and his logic might as well be thrown out of the window. Yet the biggest question that came to mind was, what happened to this fallen kingdom that now lay in ruins? The only thing that made sense to Zane was that the whole valley might be cursed.

Looking around, Zane made an anchor point near the side of the hill and tied a rope around it. Slowly he descended down to the other side of the giant boulder, the Valley of Shade. Once close enough to the ground, he jumped and landed on his two feet. His eyes wandered as he crouched to the ground, searching for potential enemies.

“Ah, shit, I forgot,” he just remembered something. His forgetful nature was hard to discard, and like always he climbed back up the rope and stood on top of the giant boulder. He made a warp point exactly on top of the Keeper of the Dead, replacing Hailyfield Town.

He descended back down and cast his sense spell the moment he touched the ground. A wave of mana erupted and much to his disappointment, he didn’t detect any monsters lurking around.

He made his way to the closest ruin he saw, vigilant for any potential danger. Zane scoured through the plains, approaching a cluster of ruins at the far end.

Zane walked among the ruins. Broken and abandoned buildings, walls crumbling and windows were broken. A faint wind blew through the air and ruffled his hair as Zane frowned, smelling a strange scent which he couldn’t put a word to it.

I’m expecting to see some of them, but I guess they’re probably closer to the castle ruins, Zane thought. Shrugging his shoulders, he shifted his intention to do his quest. He took another look on the quest parchment, burning the image of Bludroot in his mind, searching them near the base of trees.

Maecy told him about the Bludroot as he paid a visit to her before departing. He just wished that bit of information would help him in his searching, and not just another outdated information from a small library in Hailyfield Town.

Is that it? He asked himself. Using Hi-Analysis, seeing the detail of the dull red plant.

[Bludroot][Flora][Ingredient]

[A dull crimson plant normally found near the base of trees. A mature bludroot will glow in radiant red light, giving a heavy scent of blood that could rile any creature to a state of bloodlust. Grow even faster if there’s a dead body under it. Good ingredient for alchemy and potion-making. Terrible ingredient for cooking.]

Wait, what? Zane had a second take over the bludroot description. And he did not read it wrong, the description did tell that the plant would grow faster if there was a dead body under it. Zane felt goosebumps crawling over his skin, and glancing at the soil under his feet made him imagine there was a dead man buried there.

Nah, probably not. He shook his head. Denying the possibility of a dead man resting under his feet. It did say it will grow faster so since it isn’t mature yet, I’m assuming there’s no dead body under it.

A roundabout way of tricking one’s mind, and since Zane believed it, it might work after all.

He picked the bludroot off the ground with its roots still attached. Moving along, he continued uprooting these bludroots and in no time filled up half of his bag. Without realizing it, Zane started humming while bending his back, harvesting these herbs.

Straightening his back, he let out a groan like an old man in his fifty doing gardening work. Then his eyes met another set of eyes. He yelped and jumped in surprise as if he saw a ghost. His heart beat wildly as he felt a rush of sudden coldness that hit him right at the core. Someone was staring at him from behind the tree, and the dead gray eyes told him it was far from being alive.

[Shambler Zombie][Lv.10]

[The walking dead. A slow corpse reanimated to the living world. Yet their souls are no longer there, losing any shred of humanity and purely driven by the instinct to feed, craving the flesh of the living. Those who are bitten may or may not be inflicted by the Curse of the Dead.]

A pair of hands reached out for Zane, groaning a guttural noise that reminded of Zane those zombies flicks he used to watch. Zane backed away. His lips were in motion while his eyes scattered around his surroundings. In between the trees, he saw several silhouettes approaching closer to where he was. He cursed on the inside as he was surrounded. His herb-hunting made him careless and now here he was.

“Fireball,” Zane uttered. A bright ball of flame sent hurling at the nearest shambler. The flame made contact, and the fire went ablaze. Spreading every inch of the deadman, burning those rotten fleshes into charcoal and ashes.

Zane didn’t stop. Fireballs went whistling through the air, turning these zombies into walking bonfires. He ran and dodged. Making sure he was at a safe distance from these mindless corpses. Their slow movements made them easy targets as his fireballs never missed, igniting them to their second death.

Shit, they’re too many, Zane thought. Fleeing away from the zombies as he went back to the ruins.

But he stopped. Frowning at the ruins as zombies were everywhere. “Where the fuck did they come from?” he asked. Throwing another fireball and ran through the gaps in between the zombies. Their cold hard hands swayed towards Zane, but none of them managed to touch him.

He pushed every ounce of his energy to his legs, and Zane leaped. Landing on top of the roof of the most intact building among these ruins as he sought safety. Zane turned and stood closer to the edge of the roof as he witnessed the gathering of these shamblers. More of them came out from the woods near the ruins as they slowly headed towards Zane as if drawn by the growing crowd near the base of the ruin.

“I stand corrected. This is pretty unnerving.”