Chapter 73: Big Doggy (1/2)
Rakna didn't bother to run and went down the stairs by free-falling diagonally with Artzpul boosting him. When he reached the end of the passage, he was faced with a wooden door.
He hummed and closed his eyes as he pressed his ear against it. After making sure that there were not any guards right behind it, he opened it with one of his tails and slipped past like a ghost with his Stealth.
The second he saw what was on the other side, he almost froze in surprise. It was a massive cavern inclosing an entire village. If it wasn't for the two elven guards dozing off a few meters away giving him a sense of urgency, Rakna would have spent a lot more time admiring it.
He quickly dashed to the side and ran up the walls of the underground village with his claws while making sure that no one would notice him. Fortunately for him, most of the residents seemed to be asleep or at the very least, within their houses.
He continued to run on the walls, close enough to the ground so that he would be hidden by the wooden houses and artificial trees that were planted all over. After a while, he landed back on the ground in one of the darkest spots he found.
He then looked up and noticed that this cave appeared to have a sort of magical lighting to keep track of the day-night cycle if the ethereal moon he was seeing was anything to go by.
'Now…' Rakna began to think about what to do. 'First of all, Alexa, do you know why they didn't seem to know anything about the System?'
[I'm afraid I don't, Rakna. However, I can tell you that this is not a normal occurrence.]
'I see. I guess I'll have to find out by myself,' he said internally and leaned forward at the edge of the house he was hiding behind to look at the streets and the rest of the village. 'My instincts are telling me that something's terribly wrong here.'
”What are you doing, big doggy?”
”I'm observing,” Rakna replied with a hum, unaware that Pronos abruptly stuck his head out with a bewildered look. ”Maybe I should follow the scent of those scouts I met. They said they were going to report so they must be heading toward their chief or someone similar.”
”You're looking for the chief? Daddy said it's not a good idea to go see him. He's dangerous.”
”Well, I don't know if he's dangerous or not but there's definitely something weird going on here. No one is on the streets, the silence is heavy, I feel many presences inside the houses but they're oddly weak. On top of that, everyone I encountered until now was oddly young. Also, why build a village underground?”
”Dunno. Mommy said our grand-grand-grand-parents did it.”
Rakna mused and then blinked repeatedly. 'Wait… Alexa, was that you talking?'
[…negative.]
He blinked again and turned around to see a little girl, no older than eight, with silver hair, dark skin, and golden eyes cutely watching him with a tilted head. She was wearing an embroidered pajama and hugging a plushy in her arms.
Rakna stared at her for a while before gathering his wits. ”Where do you…” He began to ask only to spot one of the houses nearby had a backdoor; which was currently open. ”How did you…” His second question was answered as he reflexively cast Appraisal on her.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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Name: Vivi Silverlight
Age: 8 | Level: 1
Race: Night Elf
Affiliation: Fifth Plateau
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Attributes:
Strength: 1 | Endurance: 1
Speed: 2 | Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 7 | Luck: 6
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Sub-Attributes:
Stamina: 6/6 | MP: 70/70
Swiftness: 18 | Agility: 4
Senses: 33 | Atr Cap: 18
Attack: 7.5 | Defense: 4
Magic Attack: 21 | MP Regen: 0.56/min
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Proficiencies:
- Cooking (Lv.5)
- Mana Sense (Lv.3)
- Mana Control (Lv.1)
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Magic Skills:
- Unawakened.
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Cognitive Skills (Passive):
- Nature Perception (Lv. Ex)
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Spontaneous Skills (Active):
- Stealth (Lv. Ex)