A Bloody Message

As Morgana went out to the courtyard, she found the kids still playing with the newly nicknamed Shadow while the adventurers were seemingly getting ready to go exploring.

"Lady Morgana, we are still getting ready to leave." said one of the adventurers.

"Ah, take your time. I actually still have some business to take care of in the city." the trickster responded while raising her hand, signaling them to calm down.

At that same time she picked up Selene in her arms, she called the Freebird party members to join her on her errand.

The teenagers were initially confused, asking her what kind of errand they were doing.

Morgana looked at the group with a severe expression. "We are looking for the bastard that cursed Selene, obviously," she muttered, her intimidating aura intensifying.

The little girl had told her story to her mom, and the trickster already had an idea of what type of person it would be.

The curse that was placed on Selene could only be done by an item called a "shaman black doll," which were items that high-level shamans were able to create.

A shaman was another sub-class of the main class "mage," that focused on the elements and nature. However, there were also "dark shamans" who used skills that resembled witchcraft and even "martial shamans" who focused on close combat.

Nevertheless, Morgana was experienced enough to know precisely where the curse had come from, but now she needed to find the shaman that did.

The curse was level 110, meaning that the person who created the doll could be somewhere from that level upwards.

'If it happened to be a max-level dark shaman, that could be troublesome…' the trickster thought, as she was only level 112 at that time.

However, she also knew that the chances of a high-level criminal hiding in Kartan were meager, knowing there were better and more infamous areas for those types of people.

'So, we are most likely dealing with someone who bought the black doll from a shaman…' Morgana deduced, knowing that these dolls could be sold and used by others, although they only had a few charges before they became ordinary straw dolls.

The teenagers followed the trickster with determination, also wanting to protect their new little sister, and made their way to the main street.

Once they were there, Morgana, still holding her daughter in her arms, asked if she remembered where she had lost her vision.

The little girl seemed confused as she looked around, not recognizing any of the buildings on the main street, prompting the group to walk around every road in the city to see if the girl could recall anything.

After an hour of walking, they reached a side street where most of the buildings looked abandoned. However, contrary to their facade, they all had people living inside.

As they passed one of the shabby buildings, the girl recoiled in fear and hid her face in Morgana's chest, gripping her cloak tightly.

"Was it here?" the trickster asked the girl gently.

Selene nodded, her eyes closed with fear and her body trembling.

Morgana commanded Ray to stay with Selene outside while the rest of the party checked out the building.

Ray picked the girl up in his arms and walked toward a destroyed structure a few meters away from them, sitting down with Selene as he tried to console the girl, who seemed shaken by the sight of the building.

The rest of the party stood outside the doors for a moment, and as the teenagers mustered the courage to open the door, Morgana went ahead and did it for them, pushing the door open and making it fall off its frame.

'Yeah, nobody's been here for some time…' she thought.

At that exact moment that the door crashed on the ground, the awful stench of death plagued the party's noses with a smell so potent that it watered their eyes.

Inside, a pile of dead bodies lay on the corner of the shack in what seemed like a completely empty room.

"W-what the hell is this?" Conrad asked between gagging from the disgusting smell.

"Why would someone dump the dead here?" asked Angie while dry heaving.

Morgana covered her nose and squinted, as she wasn't immune to the awful smell, then entered the dark room.

While inspecting the bodies, she noticed that some were adventurers while others looked like normal villagers. All of them had their valuables taken, which was expected considering where they were, and they had all been killed differently.

Some bodies looked burned. Others had been stabbed, beheaded, or simply beaten to death.

At the back of the room, Kaede inspected one of the bodies that were separated from the pile when she noticed a message written on the wall with blood, beckoning Morgana to see it.

The message had two lines, with the one on top reading "Haldor" and the bottom line showing "ascension ritu-."

"Huh? It seems to cut off at the end," said Conrad as the group inspected the bloody message.

However, Morgana's expression shifted as her eyes were filled with anger.

"Sis, do you know what it means?" Kaede asked, noticing the trickster's behavior.

Morgana explained that she wasn't entirely sure, but she could tell that the word "Haldor" was a name, and the bottom line probably meant to say "ascension ritual," making the teenagers turn their heads laterally in confusion.

The "ascension ritual" was an old form of gaining levels and skills by killing other people and offering their deaths to Zaudan. In return, the killer would be given rare skills that could make them stronger.

The ritual was a mechanic that existed back in the days when Aegis was a game, and it encouraged players to participate in open-world PVP and offer their kills to "Zaudan" to get new and improved skills.

PVP was short for Player Vs. Player. It was an activity that most players took part in at least once during their time playing the game.

It could be done in specified arenas for dueling or in dangerous areas in the open world where attacking other players was allowed.

Of course, once Aegis became real to the player base, open-world PVP became heavily frowned upon since it was now considered murder.

The so-called "ascension ritual" was just a mechanic to encourage players to participate, but the real Zaudan didn't have anything to do with it.

Morgana's explanation to the teenagers was that it was an outdated ritual that didn't work anymore, and all that people had died for nothing since she knew that Zaudan didn't have anything to do with it.

"Sis, but… How can you be so sure? He is the God of Death, after all. Wouldn't he be happy if he received more souls?" Conrad asked.

"I spent a century with the guy playing board games. In fact, I think I know him better than anyone in the entire universe. So yeah, I'm certain that this ritual doesn't work." the trickster explained.

Being the God of Death didn't mean he enjoyed killing or watching people die. Zaudan's job was to punish the wicked souls and send the good ones into the rebirth process.