At so point, the dirt around the roads leading into the city shifted to a more purple and black color. The sky went from the blue color of dayti to a much paler, almost pink hue that one would very rarely find during a perfect sunset.
The shift between the human world and the monster world was gradual. The nature of both worlds combined, perfectly to make it hard for those within to realize they’d moved to a new territory.
However, there was one thing that couldn’t be hidden.
"We all feel it, don’t we?"
"We do."
The world was filled with an aura of bloodlust and killing intent so thick that it was almost tangible.
"It seems that most monsters migrated to these areas with the purple dirt. Rember when the Quest Window talked about two worlds?"
The other three nodded, understanding where he was going before he finished his words.
"This must be the second one. If the monsters like it this much, then it must be an environnt they’re used to. Our goal isn’t to fight them, though."
They had to exercise more caution around these parts. The world around them was still forested without any signs of civilization in the vicinity. This was a land naturally populated by unintelligent monster species, but Gio was convinced that there was more to it.
’Every area must have so sort of importance. Otherwise, it’s rare for our random spawn city to contain clues to sothing so big.’
"Now that we’re here, we need to find more connections between monsters and humans. If that isn’t possible, we should investigate the monsters’ past to see if we can discover the unknown.’
Once they had their missions in order, they moved carefully through the dense dark forest. The trees were black in color with leaves of crimson led that cast a dark shadow on the ground below. The pinkness of the sky couldn’t shine through the crimson leaves at all.
There were monsters everywhere. Unlike in the city, they inhabited this forest like they were ordinary animals. It was impossible to not have a few within several ters of oneself.
"Huu..."
Their breaths were hidden in a field of energy Gio created. Their steps were masked by the earth under Neriah’s command.
Bubbles covered all of their bodies, eliminating any scent or aura they would usually give off.
The only way for them to be discovered was directly through sight.
The darkness helped them in that aspect. Gio and Neriah, who had the widest sensing ranges of the four, kept their senses spread. With the two of them leading the group’s steps and the four of them working together for concealnt, they were able to make progress without constantly stopping to fight.
’We need signs of civilization, I think. It won’t be far if we’ve already walked this far...’
Around five minutes after Gio had the thought, they saw their first signs of sentient activity.
There was a small cabin in the woods. It was nuzzled inside the trees as a part of the environnt, yet it was never approached by the nearby fauna.
Even if it ant nothing, they had to explore it. The four of them reached the cabin and snuck in through the front door.
"I didn’t know you were good at picking locks," Gio comnted with so admiration in his voice.
"Hey, I’m pretty sure most of us know how to do it, but since I’ve been the most useless, I have to at least do things like this," Shiro responded wryly as he opened it for them.
Inside, they found a relatively humanoid abode. There was a dining table, a small kitchen, a fireplace, and a cot in the corner. On the side table next to the cot, there was a small booklet next to a pen.
Gio walked over and checked it while the other three looked around the cabin.
’It’s uncomfortably human, but this is definitely the monster language. The cabin belongs to an intelligent monster.’
He looked up to see what the others were doing. Shiro was scanning utensils and silverware in the cabinets. Neriah was near the bed looking for more traces of the cabin’s owner. Finally, Serene was in the pantry, looking at the few bits of food that had been preserved.
"This is also a relic of the past," she said.
Neriah nodded in agreent.
"This cabin hasn’t been used in a very long ti."
"Really?"
Shiro looked at them with an odd look on his face.
"To , it looks like people have been touching all of this stuff, though?"
"Hm?"
Gio cocked his head, ushering for Shiro to continue.
"I an, just look," he said as he walked over to the dining table.
"There’s a lot of subtle stuff I could show you, but this is probably the easiest one. Look here. Fingerprints."
The three other mbers of his party all gathered around the dining table. As he said, they were easy to see. There were clear streaks and fingerprints on the dusty table that had been caused no more than an hour or two ago.
"You say everything’s like that...?" Serene muttered.
Almost in unison, they started to check the rest of the room, only to realize that Shiro was absolutely correct.
"Neriah wasn’t wrong..." Gio said.
"It does look like everything hasn’t been used by the original owner of the cabin in a very long ti. However, what Shiro found isn’t wrong either. That can only an..."
"Other people."
"Right. Other people."
Other humans who’d been trapped in the Scenario Quest had co here before them. It wasn’t just one or two groups. If they looked properly, they could find signs of at least ten or twenty humans’ presence in the cabin.
"But we didn’t find any signs of other people outside, did we?" Serene asked.
"It was just monsters," Gio responded.
"I can guarantee that if people entered this place, they didn’t leave..."
Four pairs of eyes widened at once.
They rushed across the cabin and scoured every inch. Gio’s final words could only an a single thing.
After several minutes, Neriah finally unearthed a lever hidden inside the wall behind the closet. She didn’t need to ask for permission before pulling it.
They fully expected the floor to give out. It was the most common and expected outco of pulling a hidden lever in a small cabin.
However, they were bound to be disappointed. The ground did not fall away. Instead, it shifted.
The walls blurred and the world turned into a ss of purple, black, and pink around them. The four of them could only clearly perceive each other and the wood floor below them until the floor eventually disappeared, leaving them standing in a mosaic of blurred hues.
They only managed to stumble for a few seconds before the world righted itself around them. The cabin walls were replaced by large steel walls, and the flooring was replaced by ssy cobblestone.
The damp room was illuminated by two torches on the wall, not casting four shadows on the wall...
...but instead sowhere around twenty.
Gio looked around carefully.
For the first ti since the Scenario Quest began, they were eting other humans.
On one hand, that could be very good news for them.
And on the other...
’They’re all djinns.’
...it could be disastrous.
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