Chapter 130: Investigating The Town (1)
Despite finally finding some evidence that this forest wasn’t completely devoid of all life, Rohan was hesitant to investigate the light coming from inside the small run down building.
"What’s our next move?" He spoke, of the two of them, she was the one who knew more about the Origin Realm, after all.
"I think we should take the risk and move in to get a closer look." Elane replied, earning a brow raise in surprise from Rohan. "We don’t need to get inside the house to get a closer look; just close enough for me to listen in on what’s going on inside. The walls and roof aren’t exactly air tight..."
"Are you sure? Remember, this is a caravan with potentially hundreds of Awakened we are talking about," Rohan still remained worried. The stakes were especially high for this situation. "Even though this is the only building of this ruined town we’ve spotted that looks occupied, that doesn’t mean all the others aren’t nearby."
But Elane wasn’t as nervous as Rohan. Before he could continue, Elane cut him off.
"While you have a point, I’m more of the opinion that this place is only a temporary stop for the caravan whose trail we’ve been following." Elane explained.
"Why is that?" Rohan asked. He squinted his eyes around the periphery of the town once again, double checking that they hadn’t been noticed.
"Do you see a long line of carriages parked anywhere around here?" Elane sarcastically responded. But Rohan did see the logic in her words after realising that there weren’t, in fact, any carriages in sight.
Elane continued after seeing Rohan’s nerves start to ease up, "I reckon that whoever’s inside that run down building, they are either a scout left behind in this town for who knows what reason, or someone completely unrelated to the caravan."
’Hmm...’ Rohan fell into deep thought. He took a dozen or so seconds to go over the situation once more in his head, before he eventually made up his mind.
"I’m with you now. Okay then, let’s pay whoever’s residing in this place a visit."
***
Rohan and Elane cautiously moved out of the forest surrounding the ruined town and walked down the abandoned, desolate streets that were left behind.
Now that he was up close and personal with this place, Rohan finally had the chance to see just how decrepit this whole town was.
Nature had completely reclaimed this bastion of civilisation in a hostile world like the Origin Realm, and everywhere Rohan looked, the buildings and streets were a mixture of greenery and the remnants of the old world before it was lost.
The closer they came to the occupied building, the more the rest of the ruined town seemed to withdraw into the background. This was their sole focus right now.
As he approached, Rohan began to feel a weird shift in the atmosphere. It wasn’t as if he suddenly sensed danger or anything — more like this one crumbling structure where the only source of light in the entire town came from, had become the centre of attention of this entire town’s existence.
Every other house looked dead beyond saving. Roof half or fully collapsed, walls devoured by vines and crumbled due to the passage of time, and windows completely choked up with moss.
But this one place?
It was as if it had been reclaimed once again from nature.
It still looked miserable compared to what you’d find in any other still functioning city in the Origin Realm, but it was largely intact.
Somebody hadn’t just moved into this place on a whim. They had clearly done some work on this building after the fact for it to look in so much better shape than every other ruined building in this town.
Rohan’s hand never strayed far from his side, prepared to materialise his spear at any given moment.
The more he saw the town up close, the less he liked the idea of being here at all. This whole place was nothing but a creepy, foreboding feeling to him. As if the negative emotions of all the residents who once lived, then died here were all gathered, giving it this strange feeling.
’It’s not just this town either, more like the whole forest. Ever since we stepped foot in the E rank territory, it’s been like this. But this is definitely the place where the feeling is the strongest.’ Rohan thought to himself.
Everywhere they’d been during the day had been too quiet compared to the rest of the bustling forests surrounding Erenhot.
Something was clearly going on here.
Elane moved a pace ahead of him and lifted one hand for silence as they approached the building at the source of the light.
The glow filtering out of the cracks in the stone walls was much more noticeable up close compared to their previous vantage point.
From where they stood, they could clearly see that it was dim, warm and inconsistent, like the flicker of a flame rather than something more artificial.
That detail calmed Rohan a little. It was further confirmation that whatever was inside of this building was intelligent and human, as no beast would ever do this.
Still, he remained tense.
He and Elane were technically intruding on this person’s space right now, so they may react quite violently to their presence if he doesn’t play this situation out carefully.
They soon reached the outside wall and pressed themselves up against the rough stone. Up close, the building smelled faintly of damp wood, stale air, old dust and... something metallic.
Not like how spilled blood caused the air to smell like iron — more like a freshly sharpened sword, or just metal left in humidity for a little too long.
Elane slowly crouched beside the gap in the boarded up window and tilted her head slightly. Her entire posture shifted as she focused her enhanced hearing on the interior of the house.
Rohan stayed quiet and let her do her work.
