Ambrose finished building the small campsite.
He breathed heavily as it took him five hours of error and trial until he finally managed to build the tents and arrange the campfire in a perfect spot.
“Oh, finally done?” The Wisdom King removed the sunglasses while sitting on a beach chair under the shade of a tree.
They had left the rocky part of the valley behind and arrived at a lush meadow with a breathtaking view of the mountains.
There, Ambrose also built the campsite near the forest that moved up the mountain like a beautiful nature-made decoration.
The sunlight filtered through the trees, casting a golden glow over the campsite.
It still felt like they were in the embrace of the mountains as they surrounded the vast area around them, almost like those mountains were standing guard without letting any foul air into the meadows.
‘This mountainside is enormous.’ Ambrose thought as he tried to find a place to sit.
After finding a fallen trunk near the forest, he brought it to the campsite, dropped it down, and sat on it.
‘I thought the mountains were only near Nether Forest, but I greatly underestimated their length. This is easily the tallest mountain I have ever seen; even those enormous mountains back in reality pale in comparison.’
“Now that you are done building the campsite, go hunt us some food.” The Wisdom King said while covering his eyes with black sunglasses.
He looked like he was here to have a vacation while letting his disciple do all the hard work.
Ambrose dropped his shoulders in exhaustion.
However, he stood up and approached the forest, but then he remembered a certain thing.
“Ah, there might be a problem.”
“What is it?” The Wisdom King asked while resting his head on his hand in curiosity.
“All the animals I kill turn into pixels.” Ambrose said, realizing that it was quite impossible to hunt any food since that food turns to pixels.
The Wisdom King pondered for a moment before suggesting a possible solution.
“Don’t kill them then. Bring them here, and I will deal with them.”
“Alright…” Ambrose sighed, and as he walked into the forest, he thought.
‘Well, that is making things more difficult.
‘Right, I also saw the World Quest announcement in the sky.
‘I wonder how Emma and Bella is doing in Yatagarasu.’
…
At the rainy city of Yatagarasu.
Splash—while the rain continued hammering down, rugged-clothed creatures stepped into the puddles and made their way closer to the center of Yatagarasu.
They were green-skinned, disgusting-looking creatures with pointy ears.
They were goblins—hundreds of them!
Their menacing growls revealed sharp, yellow, rotting teeth.
Slam—several doors closed shut as frightened citizens hid behind the sturdy doors.
However, those loud noises attracted the attention of the goblins.
While the goblins smashed their wooden maces against the door, a middle-aged man desperately tried to hold the door shut while shouting.
“Close the curtains!” He shouted to his two children.
His children, with frightened looks, closed the curtains, but before that, they managed to catch a glimpse of the ugly goblins.
The same scene occurred in several dozen households.
Smash—the doors broke open, and the goblins began to pour into the houses.
The blood-curling screams filled the air as the death count began rising rapidly.
The chaos and terror spread throughout the town.
The unstoppable might of the goblin army destroyed the players resistance.
At the top of the spear-shaped mountain, inside the dojo.
“Master!” A spear-wielding man approached a man dressed in traditional samurai robes with a black spear in hand.
He was Karasu, the Spear Master of Yatagarasu.
“Yes?” Karasu opened his mystifying eyes.
“A goblin army had stormed inside the city. A death toll is already very alarming!”
“I see.” Karasu closed his eyes. “That shall not matter. It is not our duty to get rid of them.”
“B-but, the innocent people are in danger.” The spear-wielding man said with a few sweatdrops falling down the side of his face.
Karasu sighed. “They are, but the fate of the city does not concern us. Our duty is solely to protect the shrine.”
The spear-wielding man gritted his teeth but nodded with frustration. 𝐎𝑽xt.𝚘𝑚
Across the streets of Yatagarasu, blood and rain mixed into a gruesome and haunting scene.
A group of goblins, wielding blood-stained maces, walked over the blood-mixed puddles and came across a bookstore with the name The Whispering Pages.
The stained glass windows showed dark interiors, and the door was locked.
One of the goblins grunted and tried to open the door, but it was tightly locked.
“Groah!” The goblin groaned in frustration and then smashed the mace into the window, breaking it.
The group of goblins then climbed inside the bookstore and knocked down several bookshelves while smelling the air.
They were certain that they were smelling something sweet—it was something of a mix of flowers, and vanilla.
It was a very intoxicating scent for goblins.
They couldn’t resist the temptation to investigate further.
While smelling the air, they came across the stairs and grinned hideously as they began ascending them.
Shortly afterwards, they came across a closed door and eagerly pushed it open, revealing a dark and mysterious room.
The smell was thickest there.
They entered the room and looked towards the bed.
There was a small bump, human-shaped.
With large grins, they removed the blanket to the side, but to their surprise, there was nothing but a stack of books and pillows.
“Gruh?”
From the corner of the room, a red-eyed woman shot forward with a sword in hand and sliced through the heads of two of the goblins.
“Gah?” The remaining two goblins turned around and growled loudly.
The smell was coming from the red-eyed woman, making them salivate with hunger. They lunged towards her, desperate to feast on her flesh.
Bella pulled out the pearl with strange black, slimy things swimming inside and threw it at the floor.
After the pearl cracked like a glass cup, black smoke shot forward and wrapped around the goblins short bodies.
The goblins shrieked in agony as the smoke tightened its grip, choking them until they fell to the ground, gasping for air.
After a short while, the goblins stopped moving as they resigned themselves to death.
“Haah, haah….” Bella gasped for air and dropped her sword.
She walked over the dead goblins and looked out of the windows at the streets, where goblins chased after players and NPCs.
Everywhere she looked, smoke, fire, and blood reigned supreme.
“Yatagarasu… is doomed…” She thought out loud and fell to her knees.
‘How can I escape this place?’ She wondered, her heart pounding in her chest.
Escaping Yatagarasu seemed truly impossible.
The worst possible thing happened.
While Amaterasu’s and Tsukuyomi’s players managed to successfully complete the World Quest, Yatagarasu was badly losing.
The reason was because the strongest players had already left Yatagarasu and had moved over to Dark Waters, gone to visit other cities, or gone to Warhaven.
Because it took them the longest to achieve World Quest, they were also not prepared and had basically left their city defenseless.
On this day, Yatagarasu, the city with the highest population, was overrun by a goblin army.
They had failed at the World Quest and now faced the dire consequences of their failure.
The city was destroyed.