‘Dronil, are you sure there are no other monsters around here?’
‘I’m absolutely sure.’
Ibro didn’t feel at ease. He just now killed the last monster group in the perimeter of the village. In the area made of 30 kilometers around the village, there was no other monster group.
That made Ibro feel strange. Where should he raise his level? Was this one of these game difficulties? Ibro looked around in contemplation. He didn’t want to leave a potential risk nearby.
He also needed to understand this game better. He missed the presence of Sefiera. He looked at Megedy then asked:
“Do you know any info about the game settings around villages?”
Megedy, who was cleaning his sword, looked at Ibro and said with confidence:
“What do you need to know my lord?”
“I want to know if these monsters groups were the only monsters near my village.”
“Absolutely not my lord. Near each village, there must be at least 10 monsters nests. These nests will generate monsters rapidly till a certain threshold is met then they will attack the village.”
Ibro froze in his steps. He turned around to look at Megedy who wasn’t aware of how shocking his words were. Ibro asked to confirm what he understood:
“Do you mean that each village will have more than 10 big monster groups that will attack my village if they were left alone?”
“Yes my lord. That’s right.”
Ibro was feeling mad right now. He didn’t know how stupid Megedy was. Why didn’t he say this critical info before? Ibro controlled his own thoughts and discovered the heart of the problem.
“Do you know where these nests are? Are they outside the area we just cleared?”
“No my lord. These monsters are in the radius of 50 kilometers from the center of the village.”
Ibro looked around in daze and confusion. Dronil didn’t get these monsters’ location.
And now Megedy said with absolute confidence that these monsters were around them. Where were they then?
“I couldn’t see them, Megedy. Where are they?”
“It’s normal for you, my lord, not to see them.”
“Why?! Are they invisible?”
“No, my lord. They are living underground. If you wanted to check them, then you must find the entrance to the underground world of our village.”
Ibro felt ignorant suddenly. Was there an underground world that belonged to his village and he didn’t know anything about it?
“What do you mean? Listen carefully; I want you to tell me all you know about this underground territory of my village.”
Ibro was asking very seriously. He was really serious. He felt fooled by the game. He hated to be a fool. Megedy sensed Ibro’s anger, so he rushed explaining:
“I’m sorry my lord. I didn’t think you would get angry with this knowledge. It’s a well-known knowledge so I thought you knew it.”
“I’m not angry at you. Hurry up and tell me.”
“Every village had three levels of territory: one in the sky, one on the ground and one underground. The main place of any village is that ground territory. There lie the main buildings.
The heart of any village is on this ground level. The sky level is the area above the village. Although every village has this sky area, not every village can unlock this territory.
I really don’t know the conditions to unlock this area. The underground area is considered the red zone area. It’s full of monster herds. There are at least ten types of monsters dens there. If we don’t kill these monsters rapidly, they will attack us.”
“I know that already. Now I need to know where to go. I also want to know if there are any other specific features that I need to know.”
“The entrance to this area usually lies near the hill next to any village. I noticed that my lord was leading us towards it so I felt you already knew about this entry and that area.
What I know is that this area isn’t limited to our village. The theory is that it is connected to every other village. So there is no end to this territory. It also had the most precious resources in any village.
if the village managed to expand its dominance outwards its original domain, then it will obtain better resources than any other village.”
Ibro felt excited at once. He also understood why Dronil couldn’t find any worthy monster.
‘Can you scout this underground zone?’
‘I already tried. There is something that blocked my sensors. I felt like this zone was a totally different zone than here.’
Ibro felt silent for a while. He was eating his regular rations and drank some water. He felt strange about being a normal person again, as he felt hunger and thirst after the last battle. He was afraid to get exhausted rapidly. He still had a long fight to commence.
‘I will go now to enter this area. At the entrance, I want you to check every detail out there. I need you to be ready to use your abilities at any time.’
‘I will be ready. What about these two weaklings? Will you take them with you?’
‘I hate having extra weight, but I need to train them and raise their levels. I also need them there if I want to deliver a message to the village.’
‘You forgot there is no way to cross the river.’
‘You forgot I got you.’
‘You forgot something is shielding my abilities? I can’t use my skills from here to there and vice versa.’
Ibro kept silent, he was trying to tease Dronil but he got himself teased. He then moved towards that hill with his two subordinates. Ibro kept killing a few monsters that he faced to reach the hill.
All the monsters here were level 10 monsters. When he reached the hill, he could locate easily the entrance to that underground territory as it was in the same place where he first appeared here.
That was weird. There was nothing there when he was here last time. Was this large cave related to the village? Ibro wasn’t polite as he entered the cave immediately.
When his foot touched the ground of the cave, he felt a slight change in power around him. He felt as if he passed through transparent barrier. Ibro didn’t stop, as he continues moving forward.
His two subordinates were walking behind him as he heard their footsteps. After ten minutes of walk, he again felt the previous feeling. Once he passed through this barrier, he stopped immediately in his tracks.
In front of him lied an open endless place that made him think of Jognak skull at once. That place had a high ceiling that was pulsating a golden light.
That light was absorbed by the ground, so the ground was pulsating dark gold color. Ibro felt a strange familiarity in this place. The ground was felt with these irregular lines that were forming strange combinations together.
That was really familiar. When the two weaklings reached this place they too froze. Ibro looked at Megedy and asked immediately:
“What’s wrong? Do you know anything about this place?”
Megedy looked at Ibro with fear in his face as he said:
“My lord, each area in the game was designed based on my lord’s previous experience. This area has a gold color. That meant the grade of danger here is gold grade or might be above it.”
Ibro really didn’t understand what he heard, so he asked for more details:
“Can you explain what you just said?”
“My lord must be from outside the game civilization. The game has famous color stratification. The lowest is the white color which can be trash or normal or basic degree. Then there is red, silver, gold, black, purple, diamond and green in color.”
Creator’s Thought
