Rakna didn’t bother to run and went down the stairs by free-falling diagonally with Artzpul boosting him. When he reached the end of the passage, he was faced with a wooden door.

He hummed and closed his eyes as he pressed his ear against it. After making sure that there were not any guards right behind it, he opened it with one of his tails and slipped past like a ghost with his Stealth.

The second he saw what was on the other side, he almost froze in surprise. It was a massive cavern inclosing an entire village. If it wasn’t for the two elven guards dozing off a few meters away giving him a sense of urgency, Rakna would have spent a lot more time admiring it.

He quickly dashed to the side and ran up the walls of the underground village with his claws while making sure that no one would notice him. Fortunately for him, most of the residents seemed to be asleep or at the very least, within their houses.

He continued to run on the walls, close enough to the ground so that he would be hidden by the wooden houses and artificial trees that were planted all over. After a while, he landed back on the ground in one of the darkest spots he found.

He then looked up and noticed that this cave appeared to have a sort of magical lighting to keep track of the day-night cycle if the ethereal moon he was seeing was anything to go by.

‘Now…’ Rakna began to think about what to do. ‘First of all, Alexa, do you know why they didn’t seem to know anything about the System?’

[I’m afraid I don’t, Rakna. However, I can tell you that this is not a normal occurrence.]

‘I see. I guess I’ll have to find out by myself,’ he said internally and leaned forward at the edge of the house he was hiding behind to look at the streets and the rest of the village. ‘My instincts are telling me that something’s terribly wrong here.’

“What are you doing, big doggy?”

“I’m observing,” Rakna replied with a hum, unaware that Pronos abruptly stuck his head out with a bewildered look. “Maybe I should follow the scent of those scouts I met. They said they were going to report so they must be heading toward their chief or someone similar.”

“You’re looking for the chief? Daddy said it’s not a good idea to go see him. He’s dangerous.”

“Well, I don’t know if he’s dangerous or not but there’s definitely something weird going on here. No one is on the streets, the silence is heavy, I feel many presences inside the houses but they’re oddly weak. On top of that, everyone I encountered until now was oddly young. Also, why build a village underground?”

“Dunno. Mommy said our grand-grand-grand-parents did it.”

Rakna mused and then blinked repeatedly. ‘Wait… Alexa, was that you talking?’

[…negative.]

He blinked again and turned around to see a little girl, no older than eight, with silver hair, dark skin, and golden eyes cutely watching him with a tilted head. She was wearing an embroidered pajama and hugging a plushy in her arms.

Rakna stared at her for a while before gathering his wits. “Where do you…” He began to ask only to spot one of the houses nearby had a backdoor; which was currently open. “How did you…” His second question was answered as he reflexively cast Appraisal on her.

❮ ◈ ❯

Name: Vivi Silverlight

Age: 8 | Level: 1

Race: Night Elf

Affiliation: Fifth Plateau

Attributes:

Strength: 1 | Endurance: 1

Speed: 2 | Dexterity: 1

Intelligence: 7 | Luck: 6

Sub-Attributes:

Stamina: 6/6 | MP: 70/70

Swiftness: 18 | Agility: 4

Senses: 33 | Atr Cap: 18

Attack: 7.5 | Defense: 4

Magic Attack: 21 | MP Regen: 0.56/min

Proficiencies:

- Cooking (Lv.5)

- Mana Sense (Lv.3)

- Mana Control (Lv.1)

Magic Skills:

- Unawakened.

Cognitive Skills (Passive):

- Nature Perception (Lv. Ex)

Spontaneous Skills (Active):

- Stealth (Lv. Ex)

Unique or Racial Traits:

- Spiritual Sense: An elven ability that allows one to perceive and talk to spirits. Thanks to this, elves possess a large talent when it comes to anything related to mana manipulation. They are also master at tracking spiritual traces and have very high empathy.

- Night Grace: A very rare mutation of the Dark Taint. Elves who possess it are called Night Elves and are gifted with an incredible affinity to concealment. They are often called Blades of the Night for their uncanny talent for assassination. They also have the peculiarity to never truly need rest since their mind gets invigorated at night as if they had slept for an entire day already.

During the nighttime, their presence becomes 200% harder to sense, they receive a 200% increase to their senses and become hypersensitive to all fluctuations in the air. It is said to be impossible to hide from a night elf without at least being incorporeal.

Note: A young child with tremendous untapped potential. She has lived her life sheltered with her parents without contact with the outside world.

❮ ◈ ❯

“Oh…” Rakna uttered awkwardly. That explained how she had managed to get so close without him noticing. “Did you… hear me?”

The little girl nodded with innocent eyes and he growled helplessly. “Say, say, big doggy, do you come from outside?”

He sighed before opening his mouth, “Yes… yes, I do.”

What could he do? Silence her? He wasn’t going to hurt a child. At the very least, it seemed like she wasn’t scared of him nor was she cautious of his presence. That could work in his favor.

“Really?!” Her eyes sparkled. “What does it look like?”

Rakna scowled at her. The note about her sheltered life appeared to be true. “Well… this village is located under a swamp. It has a lot of mud and parasitic plants along with withered trees but there is much more variety as well. Verdant lands with nothing but colorful flowers and greenery, rocky places and oceans, snowy lands with white as far as the eye can see, dense jungles, massive cities of steel, and much more…”

The more he continued, the shinier Vivi’s eyes became. “Do you think I’ll be able to see all of that when I grow up?!” She asked enthusiastically.

“I wouldn’t know why you couldn’t,” Rakna replied and she instantly started imagining herself exploring all those places. After watching her fantasize with an amused frown he spoke up again, “Your name is Vivi, right?”

“Yes!” She nodded vigorously but then tilted her head to the side. “How did you know?”

Rakna snorted. “I have superpowers.”

“That’s awesome!”

“Indeed, it is. Now, Vivi, can I ask you a few things about this village?”

She nodded again.

“Have you ever heard the words ‘Local’, ‘Host’, or perhaps ‘Plateau’ and ‘System’?”

“Hmm,” she cutely put her hand on her chin. “I haven’t... Ah! But you can ask daddy and mommy! They know a lot of things!” She declared and ran to the door of her house before waving at him. “Follow me! They should wake up soon.”

Rakna slowly walked to her. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to go in? Your parents might kick me out or report me, no?”

Vivi’s expression turned sour for a second, something that was very out of place on someone as young as her, but she quickly recovered from it. “It’s fine! Daddy and mommy are very nice. If I tell them you’re a doggy from the outside, I’m sure they’ll be happy! Come on!” She added and entered the house with a quick step.

Rakna shared a look with Pronos before shrugging and followed Vivi inside after making sure to brush his paws on the carpet as to not dirty the floor. He closed the door behind with one tail and walked further inside right when Vivi flipped a light switch.

The interior was surprisingly modern and well-furnished. He almost felt like he was back on Earth for a moment since the lighting resembled electric networks. Though, he knew that it wasn’t since he could sense the mana coming out of it.

“Sweety? Is that you?” A female voice sounded from one of the rooms and Rakna turned toward it.

“Ah, yes!” Vivi skidded over and opened the door. “I’m sorry, mommy. I didn’t want to wake you up,” he heard her say as she entered. “I’m going to make breakfast now, okay?”

A giggle followed, which Rakna obviously assumed was from her mother. “It’s all right. I know it’s hard for you to wait for us to wake up every day. No need to apologize.”

Rakna curiously approached the opened door as they were talking. He peeked inside by sticking his head past the door and inspected the room. A double-sized bed, two nightstands, and a closet; this was the extent of what it contained.

He then focused on the woman sitting up on the bed as Vivi talked to her with a wide smile while tip-toeing. She was naturally a dark elf and she seemed to be the oldest one he had seen from this village yet; perhaps in her mid-twenties.

She was a beautiful woman with long silver hair and golden eyes like her daughter. Her skin was also dark, as expected of her race, but something stuck out to Rakna. She seemed… very pale. Not in the normal way though. Her dark skin seemed to be gradually turning into some sort of dark gray.

He was about to cast Appraisal on her when she coincidentally turned toward him and suddenly tensed as her eyes widened. Her countenance transformed from a gentle mother chatting with her daughter to terror and shock.

“Who-!” She started but before she could voice it completely, Vivi took over.

“Ah, mommy! This big doggy said he was from the outside world!” She said and her mother looked at her with a stunned expression. “He said he wanted to ask you something. Can you answer him, please?”

Vivi’s mother struggled to open her mouth and form a sentence. She glanced at Rakna, who was innocuously sitting at the door, and sighed. She forced a small smile and nodded numbly, “Of course, sweetheart. If he’s your friend, I’ll answer his questions.”

“Yay! You heard that, big doggy?”

Rakna really wanted to tell her to stop calling him that but he just nodded powerlessly. Even he didn’t dare to correct that ingenuous child.

“Now, now, Vivi, could you go make breakfast while I talk to your doggy friend? Go wake up your father too after, okay?”

“Yes!” Vivi acquiesced and jumped down from the bed and ran past Rakna with a wave. “I’ll make a portion for you too, big doggy. Talk to mommy while waiting,” she said and closed the door behind her very softly.

Once Rakna was alone with the elven woman, she took on a cold and serious expression. “Who are you? How did you find this village?”

Rakna frowned at her. “Was I not supposed to?” He retorted dully.

At first, she seemed to be taken aback by the overwhelming confidence in his voice and the almost noble aura he exuded with his two flailing tails combined with the glittering scarf around his neck.

Soon enough, her mien sunk. She looked away from him with another sigh and stared at the sheets she was clenching in her hands.

“I guess… it doesn’t matter,” she whispered with a sad tone. “As long as you do not bring any harm to my daughter, I will not mind. In fact, she looked really happy when she introduced you. I rarely see her so jovial,” she said with a wry smile and turned toward him. “I thank you for that. Vivi said you had questions, right?”

Rakna nodded and she straightened her back with a solemn poise. “Ask what you want, I’ll do my best to answer.”