Chapter 59: Quantes (2)
After drinking with the gnome guards and Captain Tiyo, Crockta found a place to stay the night. It was a clean inn. Quantes was a nice place to visit because all of its lodgings were clean. However, the innkeeper shook her head begrudgingly as she handed him a pair of keys. She was wary of Crockta.
“Your room is 304. Here, keys,” said the innkeeper.
“Thank you,” replied Crockta.
Crockta went up to his room and opened the door. What stood out to him first were the white sheets on the bed.
“Ohhh,” marveled Crockta.
Like a multi-star hotel, all of the objects in the room were neatly arranged without a single margin of error, and every single object was spotless. The sight was enough to make him forget about the innkeeper’s unfriendly attitude.
Crockta sat on the bed. He could see a bathtub through the half-open door of the bathroom. A bathtub indicated that Quantes had a good sewage system. He was impressed by the gnomes’ level of civilization. Knowing this now, it was not surprising at all that they used magic to fire cannonballs. Although the lodging fees were a bit expensive, it was totally worth it.
Crockta plopped down on the bed and thought about what he needed to do going forward. First, he had to find information on the north. Then, he had to prepare equipment for the journey. If possible, he wanted to find some companions for his journey. It would be better to go as a group than alone because it was dangerous in the north.
“Temple of the Fallen God...” muttered Crockta.
Would the answer he had been searching for be there?
Crockta extended his hand toward the ceiling and saw his thick, callused orc hands. He slowly clenched his fist. As he curled his fingers, veins protruded from his green skin. He could feel his life force in his bulging muscles and his blood vessels pulsating with the rhythm of his heartbeat. Was all of this truly just a fantasy game?
After meeting Gordon, Crockta had a deeply strange and foreboding feeling. He felt like he would be able to find the answer to his question if he went to the Temple of the Fallen God.
“Whew.”
Crockta got up from his bed. It was already nighttime. Just because he was a player didn’t mean he didn’t need to sleep.
He went to the bathroom to wash up before heading to bed. However, there were no towels in the bathroom, so Crockta returned to the counter on the first floor to grab some towels. When he went back upstairs, he saw an elf inserting her key into the room next to his.
When their eyes met, the elf stared at Crockta.
“...Hey, are you alive?” greeted Crockta in response to her gaze.
The elf didn’t respond and went inside her room. Crockta shrugged upon seeing that the elf had a cold attitude.
Crockta opened the door to his room and immediately headed to the bathroom. He turned on the faucet and filled the bathtub with steaming hot water. He took off his clothes and immersed himself in the water. Soaking his body in hot water relieved the tension in his body, and his thick orc skin sagged in the heat. He completely immersed himself in the bathtub that was slightly too small for him and closed his eyes. Crockta enjoyed unwinding after all that had happened, and he soon began drifting off to sleep.
Was he dreaming an orc’s dream now that he was an orc? Orcrox’s scenery appeared among the faint glimmers of images in his dreams. He saw Lenox, Grant, and Hoyt. With a team of countless orcs, he fought against a common enemy in his dream.
Suddenly, Crockta opened his eyes. His acute hearing detected a faint noise nearby. It was coming from behind the bathroom wall—the room next door. He recalled the image of the young elf lady he had met earlier.
Then he heard loud chewing noises. It was too annoying to dismiss as merely a faint noise. Someone seemed to be chewing on something really tough. Crockta climbed out of the bathtub and put his ear against the bathroom wall.
Right when a water droplet on the ceiling fell to the surface of the bathtub, he heard someone moaning painfully, “A-Aaah! Mmphfff—”
Crockta grew alarmed. This was the sound of someone being smothered while screaming in pain. Crockta was familiar with this sound. He had heard it numerous times when he executed the concrete method on the Haedong Balhae clan members. They had made the same sounds while screaming under their gags and muzzles.
Crockta’s gaze turned stone cold. He got out of the bathroom and quickly put on his clothes. Then he pulled out his greatsword. With silent footsteps, he approached the elf’s room. He put his ear on her door and once again heard the muffled sounds from earlier.
“Hngg... Mmphfff!” Someone was definitely moaning in pain.
Crockta immediately kicked at the door. The door latch broke, and the door swung wide open.
“...!” Crockta was rendered speechless by the scene before him.
An elf was lying on the floor with her arms tied back, and another elf was loudly chewing on the bound elf’s thigh with her face buried in the bound elf’s flesh. The bitten flesh was oozing blood.
“...Keurek?” The elf who had been devouring the thigh turned her eyes toward him.
The whites of her eyes were now black. Her teeth were also denser and sharper than a human’s. This elf’s appearance was identical to the bound elf who had collapsed on the floor. It was a doppelganger!
The doppelganger smirked upon noticing Crockta. It seemed to be laughing at him. Crockta’s face distorted in anger.
“Bul’tar!” Crockta charged and swung his Ogre Slayer.
The doppelganger quickly retreated with bizarre, unnatural movements.
“Mmphff!” The elf on the floor moaned in pain because the doppelganger had kicked her while jerking away.
Crockta quickly assessed her injuries and pulled her toward him.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
The elf was no longer moving; she had fainted.
Crockta laid her down behind him and raised his greatsword again. The doppelganger looked at him with arrogant eyes that seemed to be laughing at him.
As Crockta was about to take a step forward, the doppelganger flinched and looked back. “...!”
It seemed to be responding to someone calling out to it. Crockta didn’t miss that brief opening and leaped toward it. He swung his greatsword, but the doppelganger dodged the attack at an absurdly fast speed.
Then, like a spider, it hung from the ceiling upside down.
Crockta was startled at first, but he shouted, “What are you looking at? Bring it on!”
The doppelganger seemed preoccupied with something outside. At Crockta’s shouting, it turned its head. Its body didn’t move an inch while hanging upside down, but its head twisted in the opposite direction. Crockta got goosebumps seeing such bizarre movements with an elf’s body.
The doppelganger whispered, “It is calling out to me...”
It had an eerie voice. “It is calling me...”
Crockta, tired of the nonsense, swung his greatsword upward. The doppelganger twisted its body and dodged Crockta’s attack effortlessly before dropping onto the ground. Then it broke the glass on the window and ran outside.
“Oh, no!” Crockta exclaimed as he peered outside the window.
He saw the doppelganger land on the ground. Then it descended into the shadows of the city at astounding speed. Crockta could no longer spot it.
“...!”
The doppelganger was such a bizarre creature! It was exactly as Tiyo had said. A doppelganger that had managed to sneak in was posing a threat to Quantes. Ogres and now doppelgangers... it was quite unusual. What was going on in Quantes?
Crockta turned and approached the elf. She was still unconscious.
“Hey, wake up.” Crockta tried to shake her awake.
He could hear rapid footsteps approaching them. It seemed people were coming this way due to the commotion of the fight and the sound of the window breaking.
Crockta shouted, “Over here!”
The innkeeper, accompanied by the Quantes’ gnome guards, appeared.
“Glad you are here. Because of the doppelganger, this elf—” Crockta said, gesturing to the bound elf,
“I knew I shouldn’t have let an outsider stay!” interrupted the innkeeper.
Crockta shook his head. “There seems to be a misunderstanding. I didn’t do this—”
“What are you doing? Quickly arrest that orc!” commanded the innkeeper.
Quantes’ gnome guards approached him tentatively. They weren’t the guards he had fought with earlier. The uniformed gnomes looked up at the huge orc with nervous faces and aimed their magic guns at him.
“We will take you into custody. Don’t resist,” said the guards.
Crockta repeated, “This is a misunderstanding. The doppelganger...”
It was obvious they didn’t believe him. Their eyes were full of distrust.
Crockta sighed. He didn’t want to cause trouble, so he decided to follow the protocol without protest because he knew Tiyo and the military forces.
“Once this elf comes to her senses, you will realize you’ve made a mistake. Quickly, get this elf some medical attention,” stated Crockta as he got up.
When they saw Crockta raise both arms without protest, they seemed to believe him a bit.
“Even if that is true, we still have to follow the protocol, so please comply with our instructions,” said the gnome guards as they placed handcuffs on him.
“Of course. I respect that,” replied Crockta with a grin.
***
Crockta was quickly released with the elf’s testimony, but the sun was already up by the time he was out. He felt stiff from spending the night in a small room for solitary confinement. The gnome guards who had taken him into custody apologized sincerely.
Crockta accepted their apology, “I understand it was necessary protocol.”
“We are truly very sorry,” said the gnome guards.
Crockta left after diplomatically shaking hands with the guards.
Quantes was full of energy in the morning. Gnomes at the height of Crockta’s waist went about the streets busily. The nice thing about Quantes was that Crockta had a clear, open view everywhere he went thanks to the gnomes’ heights. As he looked for a restaurant to tend to his grumbling stomach, someone approached him.
“Hey,” she called out.
“Hmm?”
It was the elf lady that Crockta had rescued last night.
She approached him and said, “You are the one who rescued me last night, right? I waited outside because I wanted to thank you.”
Crockta became lost in thought as he looked at the woman bowing her head to him. Was she the one who had ignored his greeting while entering her room, or had that been the doppelganger?
The elf smiled at Crockta’s questioning look. “I’m sorry about the first time we met. I’m really shy.”
So, it had been the real one.
Crockta nodded. “You don’t need to thank me. Anyone would have done the same thing.”
“Not anyone,” she replied.
He noticed she was limping. She had bandages around the thigh that the doppelganger had eaten from.
Crockta asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Thanks to you showing up in time, my injuries aren’t that severe.”
“How did you run into the doppelganger?” asked Crockta.
“I’m not sure. I went inside, and someone who looked just like me jumped out from the corner of the room.” She shuddered in disgust. “I thought I was dead meat.”
“You were lucky. Be careful from now on,” warned Crockta.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Crockta.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. She didn’t know the details, but she had heard the name before.
“Ah, that...”
“What’s your name?” asked Crockta in turn.
“I’m Eileen,” said the elf.
After they exchanged a brief conversation, Eileen offered to treat Crockta to a meal to express her gratitude. They headed toward a nearby restaurant. Crockta ordered a thick steak, while Eileen ordered a salad.
“Are you planning to head to the north?” asked Eileen.
“I’m in search of the Temple of the Fallen God,” replied Crockta.
“Fallen god...” said the elf curiously. “It’s my first time hearing about it, but I heard the north is a dangerous place...”
“A warrior does not fear danger.”
“As expected, you are amazing,” praised Eileen.
“Why did you come to Quantes?” asked Crockta.
“I study magic engineering at Quantes’ academy.”
Crockta nodded. The gnomes were highly acclaimed for their technology. It wasn’t odd to come all the way here to study.
“I volunteered specifically because of the artifact that was recently excavated in Quantes,” said Eileen.
“Artifact?”
“Yes. It’s a mysterious ancient heritage that can’t be produced with modern technology.”
An artifact was much more valuable than an item enchanted with magic. In the past, a player discovered an artifact. However, when its whereabouts became known, ambushers slayed the player and stole the artifact from him.
Eileen lowered her voice, “The artifact discovered recently... is a belt called the Demon’s Mouth.”
“The Demon’s Mouth...?”
“Yes, the specifics haven’t been revealed yet, but they said it’s a strange object that emits immense evil energy. There’s a rumor that the researchers who first discovered it went mad while studying the object.”
The Demon’s Mouth—Crockta was curious about it now, but Eileen didn’t have much more information about it.
“I heard the gnomes are debating whether to completely seal the object or continue to research it... I hope they continue because I came here for that,” continued Eileen.
“I’m curious as well, so I hope so too,” Crockta replied.
He chewed and swallowed his steak. Even though he had ordered the largest size, it was still not enough. The taste was amazing though.
Eileen asked, “Are you planning to visit the academy today?”
“Hmm...” Crockta had told her that he planned to drop by the academy sometime to obtain information about the north, but he hadn’t finalized when he would go.
After thinking about it for a moment, Crockta nodded. “Since I have no other plans, I guess so.”
“Then, can I be your guide?” asked Eileen with a smile.
Crockta nodded without giving it much thought. Despite his first impression of her, Eileen was a friendly elf.
“It’s an honor. I will be much obliged,” said Crockta.
“Haha, it’s nothing.” Eileen lowered her eyes shyly at Crockta’s response.
Right then, the message system that had been quiet for a while suddenly popped up.
[You are doing a great job!]
[Right now, your love mode is locked. Would you like to activate your love mode?]
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