[Llenor’s POV]

My dreams are interrupted by wild shaking. Blinding light enters my view, and my eyes slowly adjust to the excited face of my fiancee, Mela.

“Llenor! Guess what!”

“What?” I yawn out, my grogginess evident. I look around and find myself half off the bed. Ah, I must have passed out immediately after working all night. No wonder it looks to be late morning through the window.

“You remember those ancient ruins that were found? The C-rank party assigned to it got called to an emergency quest!”

“Emergency quest?” Agh, my eyes are still adjusting. I slowly rub them as I sit up and yawn, my body stretching outwards as my consciousness slowly returns to its fullest.

“There was a huge wave of Goblins in the Rotting Forest!”

She’s practically jumping up and down.

“Why is that a good thing?”

“They gave the exploration quest to us!”

As the realization hits me, my jaw quickly drops and changes to a wide smile. “Really?”

“Really!” she says as she jumps lightly, her smile just as wide as mine.

“I have to let the others know! Oh, what about the baby?” I look to the room next to ours, where our newborn sleeps calmly. She was just born a week ago…

“Remember my friend in the party we met on the quest two days ago? She said she’d look over her for us.”

“Then we need to let the others know as soon as possible! If we get our equipment now and head over, we should be able to explore most of it before the sun rises!”

I quickly get out of bed, preparing myself as fast as I can. I instinctively grab my bow, but then shake my head and grab my short sword. Since we’re going to ancient ruins, there won’t be much use for a bow. It’s better to take a shorter sword that won’t get in the way.

Mela’s friend comes just as we’re almost ready to leave. She says her greeting and the two hug like they were best friends. Mela tells her where our baby is and she says she’ll take good care of her while we’re gone.

Mela and I make our way first over to Malos' house, who’s the closest, and tell him the great news. He’s just as excited as us. There’s always good treasure to be found at ancient ruins.

He lets his wife know and he hurriedly gets his equipment together.

“Mela and I are going to be getting some tools and rations. Could you get Kenir and let him know the news?”

“Of course!”

Kenir’s father’s inn is on the other side of town, and though the shops are on the way over there, we don’t want to waste too much time.

After an attack on the Elvish village in the forest by monsters, these Humans kindly let us stay in the town. Since we’re far away from the Grenier Empire, prejudice is few and far between. Kenir, Malos, Mela, and I are some of the few Elves here, which was something we quickly bonded over. Eventually, after some time, we made an adventurer party. The name is Alfa 4, Alfa being the name of the elder who sacrificed himself so the rest of us could escape the monsters.

Mela and I first head over to the butcher, his stall being a half-circle cutout of his shop. As we approach, we see different types of meat hanging from spikes hammered into wood shelves near the ceiling. It was a mix between livestock and wild animals, as well as some select monsters that adventurers had killed and sold to him.

As we walk up, the butcher hears us and turns around. “Ah, Mela! Llenor! How’s the baby?”

“She’s doing great Peter, thanks for asking! She’s probably sleeping soundly right now. My friend from another party is watching over her.” Mela chuckles slightly to Peter.

Peter was one of the Humans that helped us get settled into the town after the monsters' attack. He’s a great friend of ours and was one of the main reasons we were able to feed ourselves after coming here with no money.

“Do you by chance have any salted meat? We’re going to the ancient ruins!” I say, my pitch rising slightly by the end as the excitement overcomes me.

“Oh really! Isn’t that great. I have some dried and salted meat right here.”

Peter pulls out a small basket with salted meat. He takes out enough for four people, wraps them in a large Lera leaf, and hands them over to us. Lera leaves are one of the few things we Elves brought to this town. They grow easily, and their leaves are large and last a long time. They also give off a slight cooling effect to anything wrapped in them. It’s great for storing rations, and other food in general. “If you find any of those cooling crystals, bring ‘em here! I could always use another! It’s just amazing for storing meat!”

Cooling crystals, as some call them, are often found in ancient ruins. They sell extremely well and are always in high demand as they’re incredibly difficult to find and mine. They’re found in the coldest regions, masking the only way to consistently find them: the constant cold they emanate. If I can find one, we might be able to get Kenir an alchemy shop! He’s always been interested in alchemy, and was at one point taught by the local alchemist before he passed away. Potions are a necessity for adventurers, and Kenir is always gathering materials for them on our quests.

We hand over some coins to Peter, and he wishes us well.

“Thank you Peter! You’re our favorite butcher.” I happily say as I give a short wave goodbye.

We then go to the guild to buy some rope, torches, and other miscellaneous tools we may need, as well as notifying the staff that we’re heading out to the quest.

Since Kenir is an alchemist, albeit rather inexperienced, we have plenty of potions and don’t need to purchase any.

We meet with Malos and Kenir at the western border of the town. The two look as excited as can be. Malos is in his robed gambeson and Kenir is in a light robe, with a pack around his right hip for any materials he finds, and a smaller one on his left for his potions. Since Kenir is still quite young, he usually carries the equipment pack. Though he can fight as well, somebody has to carry it, and he offered himself since his fighting skills are quite a bit weaker than the rest of us. Though Mela isn’t a fighter, she can use healing Magica, and has to be able to quickly run to a party member and away from monsters.

Malos is a bit below an average C-class mage, while Kenir uses a short sword, and I use some earth and air Magica as well as the bow. Though, since there are almost never monsters in ancient ruins, there shouldn’t be any danger. Nothing in an ancient ruin has awoken in nearly half a century. Hopefully this quest will be the one that pushes us to C-rank.

I hand him the pack with our equipment, and in one motion, he swings it around his arms and adjusts it slightly.

We make our way to the ancient ruins, found in a small opening in the forest. Its entrance was only uncovered due to stray Magica from a battle between a group of adventurers and an enraged shield bear.

On the way, Kenir stops a few times to gather some materials for potion making. We had already accounted for this, so there was plenty of time. We took these moments to relax and rest. Sometimes, we would pluck some berries from nearby bushes. Malos would talk often about his wife, and how they’re expecting a child soon. His wife is the daughter of the Human that gave him a place to stay after the attack. The two quickly fell in love, and her father accepted it, even putting in some money to help the two buy a home.

“That’s great, Malos! Congratulations!” Mela says excitedly.

Malos has a smile from ear to ear. “I had meant to tell everyone two days ago during our last quest, but we weren’t absolutely sure yet. After we met with the priest yesterday, we now know for sure.”

“Is it a boy or girl?” Mela and I question practically in unison, looking at one another then laughing.

“The priest thinks it’s a boy. We’re so excited!”

Kenir walks back to us through the brush. “I think I’ve gotten everything I need. If we need emergency potions, I should have plenty. Also, congratulations Malos.” Kenir says with a warm smile.

Malos is almost like a second father to Kenir, and they were close even before the attack. Malos is constantly protecting Kenir and Kenir is almost always over at his house.

As we approach the opening where the entrance lies, our excitement grows further and further.

I’m first into the entrance, making sure there aren’t any traps. Traps are quite rare in ancient ruins, but they are sometimes there, and the few that exist are usually broken due to age. The area seems clear, so I call out to the others. Malos helps Kenir down the hole, as the pack can be quite heavy. Although the collapsed roof acts almost like a staircase, and the adventurers that discovered it even took the time to make a path with earth Magica, it’s still quite uneven.

Kenir pulls out two torches, one for me, and the other for him. We light the torches with some flint and a small metal rod. We decide on a direction, and move down the hallway. Malos begins mapping the area as we move.

We enter a few rooms, finding a few various trinkets created by the Ancients and put them in pack.

As we come up to a door, I feel a very faint chill through it.

“There’s a cooling crystal in here!” I excitedly yell to the others.

The three look at one another with huge grins, especially Kenir. He can finally get the alchemist shop he’s always wanted!

We open the door, a rush of coldness hitting us, and sure enough, behind a glass container is a cooling crystal. Though the contents of this room have long since deteriorated, it looks to be a freezer of some kind. Sadly, most of the other magical tools can’t be brought out. Most of them are built straight into the wall and impossible to remove, while the others simply don’t work without an excessive amount of Mana, so they’re deemed worthless.

I unsheathe my sword, and shatter the glass after a few strikes with its hilt. Since these are much too dangerous to handle with bare hands, I grab a pair of thick gloves from Kenir’s pack after sheathing my sword. As I do so, I see Mela, shivering as she rubs her upper arms. She looks over at me with a slight pouting face.

“Hurry up already! I’m freezing!”

The rest of us chuckle, Malos teasing her slightly about it as I put on the gloves. Kenir takes off the pack and temporarily pulls out about half of the equipment before finding a small box near the bottom of the bag. The box contains a metal which can seal the world’s natural flow of Mana. Though the use of these are limited, it’s incredibly useful for storing and transporting magical items that rely on that flow.

Kenir puts on some gloves himself as he holds up the box. I carefully place the crystal inside, being absolutely sure not to drop it as they shatter easily when active. I then close and lock the lid. With a sigh of relief after concentrating, Kenir and I take off our gloves and put the crystal at the bottom of the bag. They’re pretty tough when they’re inactive, so there shouldn’t be any chance for it to break.

We step back out to the hallway, talking about what else we might find and what we’re going to do with it all.

Then, we hear it.

A loud CLUNK.

We stop in our tracks.

“W-What was that?” Kenir cries out, his voice shaking.

I look over to Mela, who also seems terrified.

“Let’s stay quiet. It might be a monster, but it also might be a small part of the ruins collapsing.” I whisper to the others.

I look to the roof. Though it doesn’t look like it’ll collapse soon, other parts of the ruins may be weakened more.

“If it is a monster, let’s stay around this corner. It’ll be attracted to the light. Then, Malos and I can strike it from the side.”

The others nod in acceptance to my suggestion. Kenir carefully puts down the bag a bit out of the way and out of sight, just in case we need to run. He manages to not make a sound, then carefully puts down his torch while I hand mine to Malos. Kenir and I then put both hands on our swords.

Clunk, clunk, clang rings out several times. I can’t think of what could possibly make this noise. I begin to fear that it might not be something we can fight…

Kerrrrchu, kerrrrchu.

The sound stops for a moment, then there’s a loud CLANK!

The four of us look to one another. Malos steps to my side and looks determined, while Mela and Kenir are further back. They look terrified.

The tensions are high, but the sound stops. I can feel the two behind me loosen up slightly, but Malos and I are focused.

Then, a face.

It looks almost like a Human. It has a dirty white robe with a bright blue trim and highlights, as well as short, dark-brown hair. This thing, however… is not Human.

In a fluid and direct motion, its head turns to us, then its eyes.

Its soulless, emotionless, purple eyes. Those eyes that glow through the light of the torch in front of it.

They look like they’re staring straight into the depths of my soul.