Commotion in Berglion

Cyrus reviewed the information on the quest, and declared to the bartender, "I'm going!"

(Quest Accepted!)

Cyrus swiftly left the bar, asked a few locals about directions, and made his way outside of the city.

On his way, he saw a group of armed young men and women.

'Those are starting weapons,' Cyrus thought to himself, and sneakily glanced at the group.

They were probably players.

As he passed next to them, one of them exclaimed, "Oh! Have you all heard that there is already someone who formed a guild?!"

A young woman replied with confusion, "Already? We've only just started the game..."

Cyrus slowed down his pace slightly, as the conversation intrigued him somewhat.

"Well, it's nothing too shocking, as it's the second highest-leveled player in the whole game..."

"Oh yeah...I found information about it on the top forum post."

Cyrus coughed and accelerated again.

Then, he opened up the forum and checked out this post.

(First guild in Cape Immergroen, Republic of Savoy, Paragon Online.)

(VittoriaGames: A player by the username Odin has received legislative approval for a guild from the Prime Minister of the Republic, marking him as the very first player to form his own guild, audaciously named 'Asura's Dawn'.)

Below the post, there were many replies.

(StasiaLovesVR: Odin?! The player who is already Level 13?!)

(VittoriaGames: None other than him ;) )

(ImIntoFeet: Odin, I'm your son from that woman you met in the casino, if you see this, please help me level up, or....)

(InsertWellThought-Username: I'm pretty sure you'd be at a higher level if you didn't spend so much time on the forum, ImIntoFeet, I've seen you on EVERY single post.)

Cyrus chuckled and logged off of the forum.

'Odin? Level 13 in one week....' This was extremely impressive.

He thought that Chu Wang was incredible, but she was only Level 7.

As he entertained himself, Cyrus didn't even notice as plots of sunkissed beige wheat strands replaced the greenery.

There was a single cottage and a farmhouse around here.

Before speaking to the farmers, he navigated through the plantations himself to see if there were any monsters around.

Carefully moving around as not to ruin the beautiful crops, Cyrus examined the landscape.

Strangely, there was not a single monster or even cattle in the surroundings.

This was just a peaceful plantation.

Suddenly, his body shivered involuntarily.

Cyrus frowned and re-examined this location.

However, there were no dangerous creatures around.

Despite that, Cyrus continued getting these unusual shivers, and an alert really bewildered him.

(-1 HP)

'What?' He was now thoroughly confused.

Looking down, there was no slime on his feet or any monster for that matter.

Yet, he was losing Health Points at a steady rate.

(-1 HP)

(-1 HP)

'What's that?' Cyrus was frustrated and agitated by this phenomenon and evaluated every single entity in his immediate surroundings.

On the seeds of an inconspicuous wheat strand, there was a...

'Beetle? No...' Cyrus looked at the beetle-like insect on the seed.

It looked like a beetle, but it was much smaller than a normal one, and he wouldn't even have been able to see it if he didn't get unreasonably close to the strand of wheat.

'Don't I actually have something for this kind of situation....?' Cyrus grimaced at his sluggish thinking.

He opened his inventory, and from it, a magnifying glass appeared in his hand.

He put up the convex lens in front of the insect and looked through it.

Surprisingly, a few lines of text now emerged on top of the insect.

(Glycophilic Parasitic Beetle - Level 3)

Description: A beetle that siphons the health of unsuspecting mortals and adores crops such as wheat and oatmeal.

'Who would have thought?' Cyrus was once again stupefied by the surprises this game gave him.

'The poor farmers thought monsters and ghosts caused their anguish, but it turned out to be a little devil.'

Cyrus immediately left the plantations and instead made his way towards the cottage.

This was a humble home, and as he walked towards the front porch, he knocked a few times on the wooden door.

Then, a person opened the door.

Cyrus stepped back in fear.

The person beyond the door was an elderly man.

His skin was peeling off, and his hair was thin and sparse.

From the insides, groans of pain could be heard.

"A-are you the v...village docto-

The elderly man leaned forward and began puking.

Cyrus dodged, and a frown appeared on his face when he saw the interior.

A dozen or so people, each in the same predicament, screamed in anguish and pain.

"I'm not, but...do you need a doctor?"

The elderly man put his weight up against a wooden pillar, and weakly said, "Pleeaaasee...."

(Quest Updated!)

Cyrus opened up the quest interface.

(Quest Chain: Salvage the situation of the western farmland.)

Recommended Level: 5

Quest Chain Rank: Fair

Quest Rewards: Experience Points, Gilders(Depending on performance), Item(s).

Quest Failure Penalty: Loss of reputation amongst Berglion villagers, prices of all services are significantly higher.

Description: The shortage of wheat in Berglion is, in reality, caused by microscopic parasites that hurt the villagers.

An elderly farmer requests that you, Paragon Cyrus, bring a doctor from the village.

The elderly ill man took out a few brass coins from his pockets and gave them to him.

"Please don't steal the coins, please pay the doctor with them...."

'I'm not a monster...' Cyrus comforted the elderly man and left for Berglion.

He soon reached the city, and strangely, a commotion had caused a gathering of the villagers around the windmill.

"A cursed Truscan has taken over an empire, we are near the end of times!"

"The cursed people will spread their curse through the rest of the Orient!"

A few lunatics were spouting off incomprehensible statements.

The wind was strong, and as Cyrus wondered what was going on, a piece of paper flew onto his face due to the strong winds.

Cyrus removed the paper, and as it turned out, it was a newspaper article.

Over the strange language, the game provided a translation.

(Immergroen Times: The beginning of the end..?)

(Yesterday, in his sleep, Atmian Emperor, Agameon, was sneakily assassinated. In the morning, Truscan General, Yul Kizar, led a siege to the capital of the Empire, Deluos, and took over it, crowning himself as a successor to the ancient and cursed 'Imperator' of Truscany.

The Prime Minister of our great republic, Ursula Van Kanselier, is making her way to the Iron Godsnake, to depart towards the Atmian Empire, and give her congratulations to the Imperator.)

'Have I stumbled upon lore?' Cyrus did not understand the context of the article.

However, it sounded exciting.