5 To Berglion Village

-Bloemfarm Village outskirts, Paragon Online-

Cyrus waited for Chu Wang to come back from the burial site.

Soon enough, she came back at a slow pace and stopped in front of him.

She was rather tall, as her height reached his forehead.

"We need to get to Berglion Village if it hasn't also been pillaged yet..." She sighed and looked at him.

"Where do we go from here?"

"We'll need to pass through dangerous highlands, then we'll reconnect with the official trade networks to reach the capital," Chu pointed at the northern direction.

To the north, there were many sharp cliffs, mountains, and an overall uneven terrain.

It wasn't an inviting sight to the newbie, Cyrus, but because of a certain genocidal player, the two would have to face more hardship than usual.

"How strong are you? What starting weapon did you choose?" Chu looked at his health bar that was under hers and stared at the text that said 'Level 3'.

Cyrus grimaced and took out his starting weapon.

Calling the magnifying glass in his hand a weapon was a stretch, however.

Chu raised her eyebrows and slowly said, "By any chance, did you...choose the magnifying glass as your starting weapon?"

"I...did..."

Even the shade on her face, which was a result of her cloak, did not conceal her judging stare.

"Take this, I don't need it," With a swish of her fingers, a polished wooden sword appeared in her right hand.

'That's right, she isn't a melee player.'

Cyrus politely accepted the sword and examined the description that appeared.

(One-Handed Sword)

Rank: Mundane

Level: 1

Requirements: None

Description: It's a sword.

Effects: +2 Attack

There wasn't much to say about the sword, so he simply swung it around until he got a rudimentary grasp of it, and caught up to his party member who had already left.

They swiftly exited the unpleasant domain of the Bloemfarm village, and into woodland.

The more they walked, the more they seemed to be hiking instead.

The sharp smell of tree sap permeated their surroundings and only added to the immersion of the game.

As they climbed up, Cyrus tripped on the extended roots of a tree, and almost fell down the steep trail, back into the plateau that was on the outskirts of Bloemfarm.

However, a hand caught up to his shoulders, and thanks to that, he was able to get back on his feet.

"Always be careful of the surroundings, this isn't an ordinary ga-

*ROAR*

When Chu heard this roar, her body jerked, and she instantly laid down on the ground.

She tugged aggressively at Cyrus, who realized that this roar was clearly nothing good, and did the same as her.

Then, the sound of stomping kept creeping closer and closer.

In a flash, an immense creature perpendicular to their passage and disappeared into the sparse raised forest.

For a split second, Cyrus caught a glimpse of its information.

(Brown Bear - Level 9)

*Drip*

A bead of cold sweat fell down his forehead.

'This game even simulates these details perfectly,' Cyrus didn't know whether to focus on his newfound admiration for the developers of the game, or the fear he felt.

The bear that bolted next to them...

If it saw them, they definitely wouldn't escape this place alive.

"Thanks for that, you have great reflexes."

Chu waved her hand and surveyed the surroundings.

"Let's move."

They resumed their hike.

After some time, Cyrus had a strange feeling.

Unlike his time on the plateau, they didn't meet a single monster except for the fearsome brown bear.

He shrugged it off, and carefully crossed over the slippery rocks of a small stream.

Then, they were able to increase their pace as the land got much flatter.

They were officially in the highlands.

"Should I call you Cyrus?" If they ventured into the wilderness together and formed a party, they couldn't keep awkwardly calling each other 'You'.

"Yes, what should I call you, then?"

"Chu, just Chu."

Cyrus nodded and kept that in mind.

"Cyrus, haven't you noticed the strange lack of beasts?" She asked him.

"I've kept that thought in mind for the entire duration of the hike, it is truly strange."

"Let's be sneaky, this game can be unpredictable, even if this area is for rookies."

Cyrus agreed, hence they slowed down their pace.

*ROAR*

This was the very same roar from earlier, so they both reacted at the same time.

Cyrus hid under a small dent in the ground, whereas Chu was able to conceal her entire body behind a thick tree.

The sound of stomping accompanied the roar again, and they only left when it was no more.

They recovered their composure much quicker this time and resumed their traversal of the highland.

"There's a clearing in front of us."

A strange sound of groaning rang out from that place.

Chu halted her steps, and so did Cyrus.

A distance away from their position, there was a patch clear of any trees or tall vegetation.

They crawled towards a thick bush and crouched to observe the place.

When Chu saw the scene, her eyes widened, and she said, "Turn on explicit gore."

Cyrus obliged and when he observed the patch, his eyes similarly widened.

In the center of the clearing, a strange, ritualistic, and bloody inscription was painted on the ground.

Above this symbol, there were...numerous corpses of foxes, birds, squirrels, a horse, and even cats.

One of the foxes was weakly groaning in pain and seemed to be at the brink of death.

Cyrus clenched his fists, but suddenly, Chu grasped his arm, and exclaimed, "Run!"

She ran in the opposite direction, and so did Cyrus.

However, he turned around, and a terrifying scene took place.

The agitated brown bear from earlier held a small fox in between its fangs.

It approached the bloody inscription and placed down the fox above the pile of other animal corpses.

Strangely, a red glow appeared at the scene when it did so and covered all of Cyrus' field of vision.

Above the information of the brown bear, a new line of text appeared.

It shined an ominous red color, and it read (Chieftan).

Then, the bear turned in his direction.

Violent eyes interlocked with Cyrus, and in a swift propelling motion, it charged directly at them.

"Fuck!" Chu cursed out loud.

She could defeat the brown bear, but it would take a great sacrifice.

On her (Statistics), there was a line unique to her.

(Decay: 15%)

(15% reduction in Endurance, and 15% Extra Damage from Holy Attacks)

'Fuck it, here goes nothing!' Chu unexpectedly stopped running.

Cyrus confusingly stared at her.

"Cyrus, we need to get near the animal corpses."