Find Hert

Lake crossed over a few mountains because he knew he had to stay out here for a while before he could go back with the Dagger and this was a good chance for him to unlock some new jobs. He had been needing to hunt to unlock more jobs that gave perception so out here in the wilderness was the perfect place to look for things to shoot at.

It would probably take a while for most people to find stuff to hunt out here since it seemed completely desolate but with Detector and Mana Vision all he needed to do was look around while running and he would see something eventually and even if he didn't he would be able to find something to hunt on the way back through the holy domain which had a lot more life.

…

For the past few minutes Tiff and the Temple Head had been listening to the Metal Oracles story of the past few days and both of them were stunned speechless even though there were dozens of questions they wanted to ask. There was an obvious first question though. "How were you able to get away and uncurse yourself?"

Tiff couldn't believe someone would be able to get away alive after being shot out of the sky by a Demigod who planned to not only stop you from escaping but wanted to make sure you were dead by using around ten death curses on you. "I travel with more than enough guards to make sure I can get away if something terrible like this happens. This isn't the first time someone tried to kill me while I'm in the middle of nowhere. If all of us had been able to get away after the attack we would have been able to keep moving through the mountains without help."

Tiff was about to ask if the oracle meant they had someone who could have carried them all out of the mountains but the Temple Head finally found what she wanted to ask the oracle first. "You said the God of Metal told you to run in case the Demon Lord was after you but did he tell you where to go or just left that part up to you."

This was important since they were going to be helping the oracle run from the Metal Domain so Tiff understood why the Temple Head wanted to ask this before they got to the carts. "He told me to leave the Metal Domain and that was all so I am fine with going to the Holy domain so I'll be close in case he asks me to come back."

"Good we're going to be working closely with each other once the God of Metal declares war so this will give us a chance to set the groundwork for joint operations." Tiff completely agreed with what the Temple Head just said but surprisingly the next thing out of the oracle's mouth went against it. "I'm not sure if the God of Metal will declare war."

"What do you mean the Demon Lord has destroyed his domain?" Before Tiff knew it she had already said this even though this was more of a discussion between the Temple Head and the Metal Oracle. Thankfully she had kept her tone civil so no real offense had been made. "You'll understand why this could be the case after I explain that what's happening here isn't a solitary event. The God of Metal is pretty sure the demon Lord is using this as a way to show all the gods what he could do to their domains if the God of Light does not stop chasing him."

…

"There's one." Lake had passed over a few more small mountains looking for something to hunt but finally he found something. Changing his direction he started to head towards the core he had sighted so he could figure out what it belonged to. It didn't really matter since he could take any kind of creature living out here but he was hoping it was something his bow could kill without needing to use too many of his skills.

He felt that if he had to use Magic Arrow and Crunch to kill whatever it was it would take away from the fact he had used his bow and make it less likely that he would unlock Hunter. As he got closer he went ahead and activated Mute so whatever it was wouldn't hear him coming until he got close enough to realize he wasn't dealing with an animal.

He decided to not think about the odds of running into another person all the way out here and move on but had to stop when he realized something else about the person he was looking at. He didn't know what it was but he could tell there was something wrong with them and he wanted to know what he was seeing so he would be able to identify it if he ever saw someone's core with similar markings on it.

As he slowly got closer he started to make some guesses on what was happening to them. A curse was the most obvious thing and the color of the markings played into this since they were the color of Unholy mana but this would be the first time he saw a curse like this if that was indeed what it was.

He had met a good number of people who had been cursed by the loyalty curse and he had never seen markings along the surface of their core. Once he was close enough for the person to be in range of Detector he stopped and set it to look for cursed people to see if his theory was right or not.

When they started to glow he took it as he was right and started to move forward again. He really didn't want to get involved but he was curious enough that he felt it was ok to at least get a vague understanding of what was going on and to do that he needed to see the person with his own eyes.

It was probably finance since they seemed to have been cursed by a Demon Worshiper there was a good chance they would be on the same side. Once he was around 100 feet away from the person he saw they were covered by rock and decided this was another sign that they were friendly if they had used Earth magic to protect themselves.

It also made the likelihood they were related to the group he had just run into very high since they were attacked while flying through the air it was possible this person had fallen here away from the others. If they ended up being one of the other oracle's guards that had been split from the others he guessed he wouldn't mind bringing them back to the others on his way out of the mountains if they were healthy enough to move.

Deactivating Mute Lake said. "Hello." This was the easiest way to get someone's attention and Lake wanted to see if they were still alive enough to be awake and able to speak. "Who's out there?" Lake was about to say he was a friend but had to instead dodge a spike of earth that shot from below him all of a sudden.

It seemed the person hiding didn't think for even a second a person who found him here would be friendly for whatever reason but Lake decided to just forget them trying to kill him and call out like he had originally planned. "I'm a friend. How are you doing in there?"

"A friend, that's too vague, how did you find me?" Lake felt he wasn't supposed to hear the first part of that sentence because it had been whispered but he was sure he would question what he had just said like this if their roles were reversed so he just answered the man's question to give more information. "I was just walking along and sensed someone nearby."

Lake felt this statement was unbelievable and it seemed the guy inside the rocks felt the same because he instantly said. "Who would be walking around out here. I've traveled these mountains dozens of times and never seen a person a single time. Stop lying and tell me who you really are."

It took Lake a while to think of what he should say next because he felt this first meeting had already fallen apart and it was unsalvageable but not ready to give up just yet he said. "My name is Lake. I'm from the Temple of Light. I'm after someone who stole something from us, that's why I'm out here."

"Do you have anything that can prove you're from the Temple of Light?" Lake instantly looked at the ring on his finger and said. "Yeah my ring. Do you want to see it?" He wasn't sure how he was supposed to make that happen but a few seconds later the guy called out. "Place it on the ground."

Understanding they were probably going to use Earth magic to get a good look at his ring he took it off of his finger and placed it down on the ground. As soon as he had placed it down the ground shifted slightly and swallowed his ring. "Ok I trust you. Get in here and help me out."

After the man inside the stone said that Lake saw all of the rocks covering him disappear and what was left was a small cave he could just crawl into. The situation inside the cave wasn't great either with the person who turned out to be one of the guards after all looking completely dead covered in blood and three of four limbs going the wrong directions.

Lake wasn't sure what to say but this was fine because the guy on the ground started talking as soon as he got close enough. "Here's your ring." as the guy said this a small dirt platform held his ring up to his face so he could take it. "Thank you." Putting his ring back onto his finger he looked down at the guy and got right to the point. "Are you going to live?"

It was kind of rude to say this probably but the guards appearance was bad enough that Lake didn't think he could beat around the bush. "That depends, do you know anything about curses?" Lake decided his scarce and sporadic knowledge from the book he tried to read wasn't good enough to say yes to this question so he answered by saying. "No."

"Then No I will not be living unless you can find the rest of the group I was with within the next few hours and get them here to disperse the curse that is currently fighting its way into my core to kill me." Trying to think if this was possible Lake decided it was if he only had to bring one person so he quickly asked. "Do you only need one person from the group or all of them?"

"One if a man named Hert is alive and you can get him here in time." Lake quickly set Detector to look for a man named Hert and started to crawl out of the cave while saying. "I'll try to be back before you die." As he ran away he remembered the potions on his belt and wondered if they could have made the man live longer but decided to keep going because he didn't want to waste a potion if a curse was going to kill them anyway.