14 - The Creature

I pulled out my sword, forcing myself to stop panicking and focus, ready to swing. The footsteps became considerably slow, as if this thing was trying to make the least noise possible. I widened my eyes at Helia, trying to signal to her to move out of the way instead of just waiting there but she wasn't looking at me at all.

And then the thing reached the door, first a finger—human fingers?— gripped the door frame, a foot wearing boots and finally the "thing" popped into view, stepping right into Helia as if "it" didn't see her there.

Familiar-looking cloak. Blonde hair, ruby eyes.

"Lilly?!" I yelled.

The sight was probably comical. Helia staring with a horrified expression at Lilly who was looking into the room with a skittish, deer-in-headlights look on at face at me who was holding up a sword, still ready to attack.

"Hi." She muttered quietly where she stood, refusing to look me in the eye.

To make this entire situation even weirder, Helia suddenly burst out into a cackle, startling us. Lilly did not take her sudden laughter very well because she jumped and scrambled into the room, screaming all the while.

"Why the hell are you screaming?!" I asked, confused and borderline annoyed.

"Where t-t-the hell, did s-she come from?"

"Huh?" I looked towards Helia who was still bent over from laughing, complexion almost concerningly blue.

"She's been there the entire time, what are you…" Something clicked in my head, like adding two and two together. Helia's laugh when literally nothing was funny, how it seemed like Lilly was ignoring Helia's presence since the moment she appeared in the hallway—almost bumping into her.

"Helia," I sighed, pushing two fingers into the space between my eyebrows to work out the tension there. Else, I was going to do something very uncool, like stab a girl. "What makes you think this is a good time to play pranks?"

Helia gasped, finally coming up for air. "I'm so sorry, I really am," She took a deep breath, a giggle still managing to escape, "But you've been so on edge, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see you almost pee your pants."

She'd made herself invisible to ensure Lilly kept up her slow creep towards the door without knowing we'd already seen her. Not as if she was being very quiet. But that was beside the point. When did Helia drink a potion to turn herself invisible? I'd been facing her the entire time we were both waiting in silence when Lilly turned the corner.

This was giving me a headache.

"I can't even…" I shook my head, deciding I didn't want to deal with her anymore. "Lilly, what are you doing here? You've been…" You've been avoiding me, was what I wanted to say. No words of that sort left my mouth. Now wasn't the time.

"She's been following us." Helia supplied helpfully. Lilly who hadn't said anything the entire time threw a glare at her, few strands of gold hair fallen from its messy bun hold at the sudden movement. That didn't stop Helia though. "I noticed her all the way back in the town square, when we were leaving and kept sensing her presence as she trailed us all the way here."

Lilly frowned, "Sensing my presence? That's not possible…"

"There's something going on around you… Or inside… Should probably get that checked out." Helia shrugged. "Okayyy, back to business. Hero, step aside. And sheath that sword unless you'd like to nick one of us in the arm with the way you're holding it. Get some sword lessons, dear."

"Just as soon as I'm done with my potions lessons, I assure you." I did as she asked and focused. As I watched Helia run her hands around various surfaces, the walls, the tables, I turned to face Lilly who, for very curious reasons, was refusing to look at me. "It was you who slammed the entrance door, wasn't it?"

I didn't need any confirmation, but Lilly went red at my words. "It was a mistake! It's so windy out here."

"I'm not trying to attack you or anything, just… You made me lose my composure, that's all."

She snorted, fighting a smile, probably as she pictured me —as Helia so nicely put it—nearly pissing my pants. It made sense that Helia wasn't as frightened as I was now that I knew she was aware Lilly was around.

"Aha!" Helia's triumphant voice drew Lilly and I out of our quiet conversation. I should have been shocked or at least concerned to see her on the floor on her hands and knees, face nearly to the ground. But it was a comical sight. Also, I'd come to accept that Helia was just strange.

"Hero, remember that strange energy I said I sensed when we first got to this room." I nodded and Helia continued. "Well, I found the source. It's very faint, probably from years of being locked away- Hold on, come a bit closer, will you?"

I left where Lilly stood to crouch beside Helia. Only then did I notice what she'd discovered was a locked trapdoor. "Watch closely: Ignis liberas." She said and a soft flame, so tame it just seemed like a warm glow, flowed from her hands and over the lock, gently burning it away so it rusted and fell into dust.

As soon as I took this in, a system notification dropped in.

[New spell added to grimoire: Ignis liberas]

"Oh." I said dumbly.

"Ignis liberas is an unlocking spell that is more powerfully used to manifest defiance during combat. I'm sure you've learned it."

"Yeah." I blinked. "Thanks. But I thought I was learning how to craft potions."

"Seriously." Helia sighed and shook her head at me as she raised the trapdoor. "What do you intend to use potions for as an adventurer? You can buy those anywhere. I'm teaching you spells because that's what you need."

"You could have said that from the start…"

"Nah." She grinned at me. "Okay. Just as I suspected. Items used for dark magic."

At her words, I looked inside the small space.

[Quest items found:]

[Candles, Bag of salt, Grimoire of unknown origins, the bones of a rabbit, chalk]

"What?" Lilly said, and came closer, peering into the space below with us.

"Candles, a bag of what I imagine contains salt, a book, probably a grimoire, and bones. Bones that thankfully, look like those of a small animal."

"Ritual items," I murmured.

Lilly reached a hand in, moving toward the grimoire. "Hey!" I yelled immediately. "Don't touch anything, there's still dark energy on them."

"Well, what do you propose we do with them then?" Lilly argued.

"Leave them here. They've been useful in knowing what we're dealing with and just that."

We shut the trapdoor and all left the room, closing the door behind us.

"Alright, then. One more hallway." Helia said.

"Then we're out of here. Seriously, this place is creeping me out." I replied.

"Big baby." Lilly commented quietly. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Alright, now that we're over that last ten minutes, mind explaining why you stalked us all the way here?"

"I didn't stalk you, Hero." Lilly rolled her eyes. "The abandoned town hall quest is open to anyone who wishes to investigate it. You just happened to start it the same day I was going to. Who's to say you weren't the one stalking me?"

"Considering I got here before you-"

"Shut up."

I smiled smugly to myself.

"While the both of you were busy disagreeing about the irrelevant, I've been to the third room and back. There's nothing in there except rotting tables and chairs. No weird energy either so I guess it's time to go."

I groaned. "Holy hell, finally." But then I realized something. "Wait, the quest isn't over though. We didn't find anything relating to the dead bodies."

"We found items used for rituals, Hero, what more do you want?" Lilly asked. "Obviously, the dead bodies that were found all those years ago were being used for rituals. The end."

"Yeah, but…" The game system usually sent in a notification of completion as well as my rewards as soon as I was done with my quest. But I'd gotten nothing meaning we weren't done.

And once again, I was stuck with this quest until I completed it.

"We haven't searched outside the building though." I suggested a little desperately.

"For what? The dead bodies? They'd be long decayed, bro. And that's assuming they haven't been given a proper burial back in Woodpine. You're acting a little weird. I thought you'd be the first out of this place." Lilly replied.

And she was right, but I was basically useless until I could get this damn quest out of my logs. But I didn't want to do it alone. "Fuck." I sighed. "Fine. Let's go." It was fine. I would figure something out later.

We left the building and walked back to Woodpine. Lilly separated from us before we even neared the town and I reminded Helia that I ended up learning only one thing.

"Ah. Sorry, Hero. To be honest, I thought the place just had a haunting problem and we were going to fight ghouls or monsters or whatever so I could teach you practically."

And so I learned about twenty new spells in one afternoon and then we parted ways.

I couldn't help but wonder if I was really, really dumb for getting myself into another impossible quest, much like I feared.