“We should be near the first village, but I don’t see any traces of humans anywhere nearby” Maggie said, approaching the rest of the party from her position as the forward scout. Upon hearing her, Lucas immediately flared his Perception, expanding all of his senses outwards, searching for any potential threats. He only heard noises he was used to hear, chatter of wildlife that was so common when away from human civilization, animals hunting and killing each other in a bid to get stronger and to survive, System ingraining that instinct deep into their subconsciousness .

“Is it possible that the beast attacked them?” Chen asked.

“Maybe, but there are no tracks and the wilderness here is mostly undisturbed. Either the map is wrong or we are dealing with something more sinister” Maggie explained, Lucas instinctively drawing his falchion while scanning his surroundings. Without further ado, the rest of the party had their weapons drawn, Chen doubling the number of them with his illusions, hopeful to draw any surprise attacks into them as they proceeded to the place where map indicated a village should be.

As they edged towards the village, Lucas could see the cliff further ahead. Of course, Maggie had already spotted it and by the time he directed his party towards it, Maggie was already on it, map in her hands as she studied and oriented herself. She gestured them to hold and she slowly crept back to them, map still in hand.

“We have arrived, but this cliff isn’t on the map. Anyways, there are some buildings down there, but the whole place looks strangely abandoned” Maggie reported, making Lucas uncomfortable for reasons he still couldn’t parse. Even if there was some trouble down there, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last.

“Let’s get moving, sooner we find what’s going on the sooner we can move on” Lucas said as they reshuffled into their standard battle formation, Ted taking the point, while Maggie moved to the back. Luckily, the cliff wasn’t tall, its height more resembling a ledge, allowing the party to easy scale it, and more importantly, remain relatively silent as they moved further and further into the village. Crossing the first buildings, Lucas felt some strange power awash him, pressuring his senses. Fighting the sensation, Lucas managed to notice changes in his surroundings, notable more light and even some blurred movement, which put him at high alert. Without thinking, he released his aura, feeling immediate relief as the power from his own body started combating the power that assaulted them. His senses returned, he spotted the normal looking buildings all around him, and even worse, he spotted the people in them rallying for the attack.

“Wait, we don’t mean harm” Lucas yelled as his aura spread further and further, gaining ground against the power that tried to dim their senses. His yell, combined with the fact he was now fully aware, gave the armed people a short pause, enough for Lucas to project even more power, straining to remove the sensory overload the rest of his party experienced.

“If you don’t mean us harm, why are you fighting?” the man in front of the mob asked, Lucas just now noticing the exertion of his body, probably fighting with Lucas’s aura to keep their senses overloaded.

“If I stop, will you remove your power?” Lucas asked, dimming the power of his aura a bit as a sign of goodwill “I would rather avoid unnecessary bloodshed” he said, hoping the tone of his voice would be enough to make the threat intimidating enough. To his credit, the man also dialed his sensory overload back, allowing for the rest of Lucas’s party to regain some of their senses.

“Why are you here, stranger?” the familiar voice asked, Lucas not fully able to deduce from where it came from, now that his aura was no longer actively fighting to bring him his senses back.

“We are here on behalf of Camp Hearth” Lucas simply said, trying to get the reactions from the man that certainly looked like a leader of the village here.

“And what would Camp Hearth want of us?” the voice responded, Lucas feeling like the man adopted the same strategy as him, making this into a blinking game.

“I’m afraid I cannot say any more to hostiles. But I could be wrong, you may not be hostiles” Lucas said, turning the power of his aura a bit, trying to send a message. There was a silence on the other side of the conversation, but soon the sensory overload power was lifted, immediately clearing Lucas’s eyesight, revealing the man he was just talking in the middle of ordering the mob to put their weapons down.

“You drive a hard bargain, mister Camp Hearth” the man said as he managed to get his people under control.

“Please, just Lucas” Lucas said, deeply uncomfortable with being called a mister, the word carrying such a slimy meaning in his head.

“As you say, Lucas. As I was saying, you drive a hard bargain, but be aware. We would rather go down fighting then allow you to harm us in any way” the man said, warning in his tone clear. Lucas only nodded in understanding, content with the fighting spirit of the villagers, but not intimidated in the slightest, auras of the people gathered around revealing to him that he could kill them all if he just wished it or if they become a threat to his or the life of his friends. The man gestured to Lucas to follow him, Lucas gladly obliging, hoping to get a bit of information.

They entered the biggest house in the village, a fairly impressive room greeting Lucas as he entered. The man quickly seated himself behind his desk and cast a look at Lucas, indicating Lucas should start the conversation. Holding back a sigh, Lucas quickly explained his mission, leaving the parts about himself and his personal mission, making it seem like it was pure diplomatic mission from the still fairly new leadership of the settlement.

“And if we refuse?” the man asked, watching Lucas with uncanny amount of attention.

“Well, you are free to do that, but I fail to see why would you do that?” Lucas asked, frustrated.

“For once, why should we serve someone we don’t know or who cares so little he didn’t even came in person to offer his terms” the man said.

Lucas took a moment before responding, quickly trying to decipher the meaning behind the man’s words. Remembering the faces in the crowd, he quickly came to some kind of conclusion.

“If I may ask, the majority here were alive before the System came?” Lucas asked, looking the man carefully, gauging his reaction.

“Why do you care?” the man asked.

“Because things have changed, fundamentally so, when the System came, at least from what I can see. For example, I could massacre every last person in this village” Lucas said, raising his hand when the man opposite of him tried to respond to his statement “I already said I wouldn’t do that, this is just a fact. From where I standing, your defenses are solid, but not unbreakable” he finished, waiting for his words to sink with the village leader.

“From what I’m seeing, if someone with my strength comes around, you are finished. On the other hand, if you accept the offer and become part of the Camp Hearth, I can promise you nobody would stand in the way of you living your life however you want to, with the caveat of following a few rules that are mostly in place to stop anybody from interfering with another’s life” Lucas said, his voice more passionate then he intended. The man watched him, thinking about his words as Lucas’s speech finished, while Lucas himself felt slightly ashamed of his outburst, especially in front of strangers. He turned around, finding his party as stunned as he was from what had just happened, but Margaret reeled enough to show him quick thumbs – up, indicating Lucas had done something right.

“You gave me a lot to think about, that is certain. I would have to speak with my people, but while we wait, I was wondering would you do us a quick favor?” the village leader spoke, clearly under effect of Lucas’s speech.

Lucas nodded, prompting the man to explain the recent happenings in the villages surrounding the dungeon. As the man explained, those villages were standing in some sort of loose alliance until three months ago when the leader of the biggest village, the one closest to the dungeon, suddenly died. The new village leader stepped out of the alliance and promptly isolated the village, followed by another two, one of them immediately starting being aggressive towards other villages. All of that tension culminated during a feast that two remaining allied villages had two weeks ago, when some unknown force attacked them and wiped out the village that was neighbor of the one they currently were in, taking a lot of villagers captive.

“And two of our people that we have sent to investigate still haven’t returned, so we pooled some of our resources, preparing a trip towards your settlement to post a quest there. But, since you are here, we might just offer it to you” the village leader said and a moment later the System notification showed up, confirming his words.

New quest: People say that villages and wilderness are peaceful, but they couldn’t be further from the truth, as pettiness and politics are universal to humanity as a whole. You are tasked by the sympathetic village leader to investigate attacks of his former allies.

Rewards:

+500 EXP

+100 Credits

Potential hidden awards

Accept quest (Y/N)

Lucas didn’t even blink before accepting the quest, the rewards secondary to the benefit of persuading these people they should follow him and quickly wrapping up the business in the villages surrounding the dungeons, allowing him to enter the dungeon proper quicker.