The Beach (3)

It was dark and smells like rotting flesh, moans and painful groans echo all around the place. red was extremely cautious, he used his night vision spell to navigate through this hellhole.

Through the cave, red have fought ghouls, zombies and mutants nonstop. mutants were the most dangerous of the bunch, these creatures are the results of human experiments which many people were forced to suffer through, they looked like normal humans but their body parts looked like they didn't belong to them, one arm would be longer or thicker than the other, and the eyes would sometimes have different eye colors. The useful thing about these undead is the loot they provide. with soul stones and mutated flesh, red could feed his own summoned skeletons sol 1 and 2 with them, he found the option while testing to see what uses these items could have, he managed to see it after he appraised it and figured it out. through the process red noticed the physical changes that occurred. weird blue-ish symbols appeared on their bones with a new aura surrounding them. After going inside this place for what seemed to be a long time, Red noticed that the creatures were getting harder and harder to kill. with the resources around getting more and more scarce. usually, red would be able to find plants and items corroded with undead energy but he could only find little.

The zombie, ghouls and mutants were getting bigger and faster, making it more dangerous the more red moved forward. He was on his guard and did everything to not waste his limited resources. The rooms all looked the same, just like a normal cave but the smell made red gag a lot, but he didn't want to back off and kept moving, he slowly got used to it and started to not bother him much.

Lights were ahead at the end of the tunnel, red deactivated his night vision skill and carefully moved to it. the closer he got the stronger the smell was, it was unbearable and suffocating. before getting here red saw a lot of corpses and dead animals everywhere, they looked like they were rooting for weeks which made the smell really bad, but after smelling this smell his nose started burning and his face turned pale, this was not a smell that could exist in this world, red couldn't help but vomit and step back. he looked at the direction of the source, the light was on in that room but he couldn't see anything in there. he stayed quite and used his mana on his ears, this was one of the 'Understanding of mana' skill benefits, he can control the flow to a certain part of his body which enhances it. After listening for a while, red could only hear the sound of someone breathing, it sounded weird like static but from the deep breaths, red could tell the size of the creature in there, he got nervous and a little scared but the 'Steady mind' skill calmed him down.

...

"Will he be ok?" a pretty girl asked a man "He will come out right?"

"I don't know child, all we can do right now is pray for him" the man answered

"We should have stayed, he's just a kid, he won't be able to kill that evil bastard by himself." another man spoke.

"If we stayed we'll only be in his way, all we can do right now is get back at the bastard that left us and get people from the hunters guild to go back with us." said a woman with 2 daggers in her hand.

"Let's hurry."

This group of people ran through a forest. for a while some giant rats and dire wolves would attack them but working together they managed to not get any injuries. Soon a huge wooden wall came to view, it was a village with guard posts and towers guarding it, when the group got closer the two guards at the wall yelled "Stop right there. identify yourselves.".

The reason why the guards are this careful with humans is that bandits and shapeshifters are a huge problem to a village like this, incidents in the past forced the residents to not take any risks.

"HEY, john what are you doing man, don't you recognize me?" a man with blond hair and green eyes spoke from the group, he looked excited and happy to be back.

"What the hell, is that you ariki? we were told you were dead. hurry come" the guard was happy to see his friend and called the group over, he got them inside and started leading them to a giant building at the end of the village, it looked like a small castle. they talked on their way there and ariki explained what happened to them, with every word the guard was getting angrier. After hearing their story he explained what happened during their disappearance.

Kayun was the name of their team member that left them to their deaths, after running away and returning to the village he told a completely different story, from what the guard heard, kayun told everyone about the cave and the undead creatures, he told everyone that when he was fighting, his teammates were trying to run away and that only led them to the necromancers trap, he tried to save everyone but he couldn't do it by himself and barely managed to get out of that place alive, he said that he saw all of you get killed and turned into those vile creatures.

"That bastard ran like a little bitch, but he's claiming to be brave and noble. i swear i'm gonna kill him when i get my hands on him" a man with thick eyebrows spoke.

"He left us to die there and made us look like cowards too. What a disgrace, I knew a noble son can never be a hunter, he's nothing but a show off and a coward." people in the group started cursing and bad mouthing kayun, on their way to the hunters guild, some villagers recognized them and ran to them but didn't say anything after hearing the angry shouts. people understood what happened and started talking to each other, spreading the word around the village. slowly everyone heard about the return of the group and kayun's real character. although some people didn't believe it at first, but after thinking about it they started to question "Didn't kayun say that he saw them die and turn into zombies?, does that mean that he really left them to die there and ran?, what a disgrace to the hunters guild." These questions and realization has made the villagers angry, kayun is the mayor's son and a noble. the empire would assign one noble family at a village to run it, the mayor 'adoy' is an honest and kind man, he's loved and respected by the villagers, he did everything to make their lives better, which is why even with all his son's mischievous actions, the villagers didn't mind and only treated kayun the same way they treated his father and forgave him for a lot of things, but this time he has gone too far, leaving his party to die and lying about what happened, not only that he forbade the guild from sending backup and a rescue team in there, he said it was too late and we don't want to agitate the necromancer or he might curse the village. all they could do was mourn the death of their friends and family.

After entering the guild, the group requested an audience with the guild master and reported everything that happened, kayun's disgusting actions and the meeting with red.

"I knew something wasn't right with kayun's story. there were a lot of holes and i know my hunters are no cowards, if it wasn't for his dad i wouldn't accept such a bastard into my guild." a man in a fancy robe spoke, with a frown on his face a ferocious aura was emitted from him, suppressing the people in the room.

After some silence he calmed down a little and so did the suppressing feeling.

"What should we do now?" the girl asked "We should send some people to help red"

"Red huh" the guild master continued "He appeared out of nowhere so it's a bit concerning, but since he saved my people I'll return the favor and go there myself with some elites, you guys stay here and rest."

"We can help," the girl said. "I'm doing well, plus I'm a druid. I can support from the back and summon some spirits to help."

"Jasmine you should rest, your parents died by the hands of that monster and you need to grief" the guild master said with sadness in his eyes. Jasmin's parents were well known hunters, they were close friends with the guild master and valuable members, the guild master was furious and wanted to avenge them as soon as possible.

"What're we going to do with kayun?" the man with the thick eyebrows asked.

"I know exactly what to do with him, you people don't worry, go rest for now" the guild master stood up and walked out. He looked angry and they didn't know what he's going to do.

...

"Guild master Talo would like to speak to you." a butler bowed respectfully to a handsome man, he wore a red robe with a golden line at the edges.

"Talo is here? let him in" he said with a smile.

The butler bowed again and walked out, a minute later he came in with talon behind him, the mayor looked and smiled at him but after seeing his expression he turned serious. the butler walked out and closed the door, giving them their privacy.

"Why is mr. talo so angry? did something happen?" the butler thought to himself.

...

After 10 minutes, Talo walked out looking calmer than before. the mayor can be seen on the other side of the door thinking about something. the servants didn't know what their conversation was about. After some time, the mayor called for the butler and gave him an order.

...

"Link, Roka, Tina, Nina. get ready, we're going out." Talo ordered the moment he came back to the guild, the people he named didn't understand what the mission was but they didn't ask after seeing talo's expression, they got their gear and waited in front of his office door.

After a bit, Talo came out wearing shiny silver knight armor, he had a shield and a huge sword on his back with his helmet under his armpit "Ok, let's move out. Our mission is a rescue and hunt. A necromancer in the 'nortami cave' has taken residence and the missing citizens and merchants are his doing, he killed Pablo and Isabelle, jasmin's parents. The rescue is for the kid that rescued our hunters, we owe him and we have to pay him back." talo reported to his team.

Everyone heard about what happened inside the cave, and were waiting to avenge their people. Red talked about a lot as well, he came out of nowhere and helped their friends and that had them wanting to meet him and return the favor.

...

SLAM!!

A man held his red left cheek, looking at the floor with embarrassment and fear.

"You disgraceful bastard" The mayor yelled "If you were such a pathetic coward why did you ask to join the guild? You've done nothing but bring me shame, when are you going to grow up and stop acting like an ignorant child?"

The man holding his face was kayun, he didn't respond to his father and kept looking at the floor. After a while he answered "Why should I die for those peasants? i'm a noble, they should sacrifice themselves to me instead, what did i do wrong." he was angry, and his true character started showing. his father just stood there looking at him, he didn't believe the words that he heard.

BAM!

"NOBLE? DIE FOR YOU?" the mayor screamed "I WAS A PEASANT AS WELL, I FOUGHT FOR THE EMPIRE AND EARNED MY POSITION, WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO CALL YOURSELF A NOBLE AND ABOVE THEM? YOU'VE DONE NOTHING BUT PLAY AROUND AND RUIN EVERYTHING, YOU'RE INCOMPETENT AND AN IDIOT, YOU WERE NOT SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR STUDIES NOR IN BEING AN HONORABLE WARRIOR, YOU'RE LESS THAN A PEASANT YOU FUCKING RAT" the mayors veins started showing on his neck and forehead, he was so mad that his face became bright red. he stayed quite for a bit and calmed down, then he spoke again "From now on you are not a child of mine, you've caused a lot of trouble and i had to deal with everything for you, you know nothing about responsibility and true sacrifice. i bought a small house at the low quarters of the village, you will move there and earn for yourself, i convinced talo to not revoke your hunter emblem, and you'll start taking responsibility for once."

kayun looked shocked "What? how can you do this to your own son?" he managed to speak and ask his father.

With a sad expression on his face, the mayor spoke "I've spoiled you too much, if i leave you like this you won't be able to survive by yourself or even fall when i'm gone. you lost the trust of the villagers and the guild, earn it back and when you do, you're welcome to come back." After he finished speaking, the mayor turned around and walked out of the room.