A difficult fight ahead...

When the teary man heard his words, he raised his head, and a ray of sunlight illuminated his disheveled appearance.

Messy strands of hair coiled on his forehead, which was covered in dried-out blood.

Two curved lines stained his face, and a white-ish powder crystallized around that spot.

Cyrus's heart ached at this sight.

The man had clearly cried so much that the minerals in his tears showed up on his face.

Wrinkles around his dark under-eye circles folded together when he saw the approaching young man, and seeing the latter come out of the World Bank, a trace of hope emerged inside of him.

"May I...be of service?" Cyrus crouched and asked the man.

The latter looked at him for a few seconds, and after a moment of silence, a flood of emotion erupted from within him.

"D...id I offend a..ny gods, young man...?" Tears and snot muffled the man's voice.

Cyrus did not know how to reply at all, but there was one thing he could assure this man.

He had not offended any gods, as the world of Paragon Online, as real as it was, was ultimately a collection of data managed by a variety of algorithms.

Cyrus placed his right hand on his chest, slightly bowed down, and declared, "I can promise that you didn't."

"I'm relieved to hear that, but if it's not the god's wrath, then why do I have to lose my children?" The man's wrist was trembling as he wiped away the tears.

"Can you tell me about it from the beginning?" Cyrus comforted the man and inquired about the reasons behind his meltdown.

"My family owns a humble tulip farm."

The man periodically burst back into tears, but he steadily recounted his backstory.

"My wife and I sow the bulbs and tend to their growth, while my two children harvest the bulbs in the early summer."

"It was the same this year...but..."

Cyrus listened attentively to the man.

"IT HAS BEEN TWO DAYS THAT MY CHILDREN ARE MISSING!!" The man screamed, attracting the attention of the pedestrians, who whispered among themselves, before resuming their mundane activities.

The man hysterically clutched at Cyrus' shoulders.

Cyrus stepped back and tried to calm down the man.

Soon enough, the latter's breathing steadied into a more regular pattern, and he continued.

"I went to the farm, and I only found a ravaged wasteland, and the...beast that ravaged it, I fear it might have...."

The man then rammed his head onto the ground, and exclaimed, "I don't care about the farm, goddamnit! I JUST WANT MY CHILDREN BACK!"

"The Praetorian Guards didn't want to offer any help, so I hoped a generous and rich individual would donate to me to hire mercenaries and investigators.."

At that moment, Cyrus wanted to act on his impulse, and help the man free of any charge.

However, he could not offer help for any of the numerous tragedies of the world without anything in return.

"Mister, how much do the mercenaries charge?"

The man looked at him with a strange gaze, and replied, "The lowest price was 600 Gilders...I don't have that..."

"How much do you have?"

The man frantically searched through each and every small pocket in his attire and soon had a small chunk of coins in his palms.

"I have 260 Gilders..."

Cyrus asked the man to follow him, and they went to a sneakier, less crowded location.

He brought out his sickle, and the man stepped back in fear, as he thought Cyrus was going to murder him.

Instead, he swung the sharp sickle towards a brick wall, and a moderate amount of rubble accompanied this swing.

The man looked at this in astonishment, while Cyrus simply smiled and said, "Will you hire my mercenary services for 260 Gilders?"

The man was stunned, but he wasn't going to let go of a miracle.

He fell to his knees and thanked Cyrus profusely.

"Thank me later."

Cyrus helped the man up and scheduled a meeting with him later on.

____

(Save the children of the florist!)

Recommended Level: 7

Quest Rank: Fair

Quest Rewards: Experience Points, Gilders.

Quest Failure Penalty: Death of the children, and loss of reputation among the poorer citizens of Cape Immergroen.

The description only had information he already knew, so he skimmed it, and immediately moved towards the northern exit of the city.

He followed the path of the paved road for a dozen minutes, then made a turn towards an undeveloped dirt road.

The plain surrounding the city was absolutely gigantic, but fortunately, the tulip farm wasn't too far away from the urban center.

'Calling this a tulip farm is a bit of stretch,' Cyrus clicked his tongue and halted his steps.

In front of him, a few plots of land all had grey tulips, while withering stems were being eaten by rodents and insects.

In the distance, Cyrus heard an ominous slithering noise.

It came from the small farmhouse at the opposite end of one of the plots of tulip farms.

Cyrus avoided all of the rodents and larger insects on the way and snuck towards the gate of the farmhouse.

There, he shut off his breathing, and his eyes peeked at the interior.

The interior held a shocking sight.

On the straw beds of the farmhouse, a teenage boy and girl laid down, with their eyes fully open.

Their pupils were moving, and observing the surroundings, but a disgusting slime-like substance restricted their movement.

When they saw him, their pupils dilated.

However, Cyrus was now looking at something else.

Something, much, much more disgusting and terrifying...

(Biophilic Smooth Snake - Level 6) (Chieftan) (Curse of Armageddon)