Chương 330: Chapter 316

The team appeared on the outskirts of a small village – more like a hamlet – surrounded by suffocating gray fog that seemed to be minutes away from swallowing the last remnants of anything that existed in this place.

They stood on a dirt road, two heavy grooves carved into it proving that traffic must have existed around here, and they could see clearly the center of the hamlet, which was a not-quite-round dirt space – where the residents probably gathered during their off-time – and a solitary well, built from dark gray stone, spewing the aforementioned fog into the air, as if it was some kind of old-school water diffuser.

"It smells like…old blood…" Clarissa spoke softly while grimacing. The others nodded, while Sam spoke up with the same soft tone.

"Well, they're called Hemogoblins for a reason…" Silence fell again as they advanced into the hamlet in a loose circle formation, each of them keeping an eye out for a different direction, while their magical senses were blazing through the smallish fracture. Sam's senses, when pushed to the extreme, penetrated the fog like a knife through butter, and at the edges he could feel the eternally – and very familiar – encroaching void as something kept the fracture in place.

'Maybe if we don't find the anchor, then I could burst the bubble?' he mused thoughtfully as they approached the well in the middle that looked very much the same well the portal to the fracture was nestled in. It simply looked not brand new, but well-used and well-maintained.

'Though there is a chance that would violently terminate our existence too… Hmm, decisions… decisions…' As they stopped next to the well – avoiding the fog rising from it – he looked around and took in the gray sky, the swirling fog in the background, the unnaturally silent, unmoving, and empty houses of the hamlet. Nothing was damaged; the surrounding objects, including doors, windows, houses, and a few lone tools scattered here and there, were abandoned and left to the elements.

Not one hint of anything living here, or even existing. No footprints, despite the obvious carriage grooves carved into the hard ground. No animal noises, not even wind blowing past. As if the entire hamlet was frozen in a gray nothingness.

"Creepy," Dan muttered as he was looking around, his club held protectively in front of him.

"Reminds me of that stupid horror movie Lara made me watch. Couldn't go to the toilet in the dark for a week after…"

"Look on the bright side!" Katie chirped happily.

"Here you can at least burn the creepy away!" Before Dan could reply, a sound echoed around the hamlet. KEKEKEKEKE A creepy laughter, that despite the low chance of danger, sent a shiver down his spine. Odd movements in the fog that almost looked like figures appeared, then vanished by the time anybody blinked. Sam raised a hand, magic ready to be launched.

"Don't annihilate them instantly. I want to see if we can figure out the anchor…"

"Lame…"

"Katie!"

"Fine…I promise I won't annihilate them in an instant," she replied, the pout clearly heard in her voice. Then her tone changed on a dime, almost taking on a manic energy.

"But you didn't say anything about having fun! HAHAHA!" WHOOOSH She swung her giant weapon in an arc in front of her, letting loose a great arc of yellowish-black crescent of energy. CRASH It flew through several buildings, turning them into nothing more than kindling, and impacted the fog around the hamlet with enough strength and speed to surprise anybody on their level. The poor monsters inhabiting this fracture stood no chance.

There was a brief moment as several somethings let out a screech of pain before the sound was cut off and the uniformly gray fog turned bloody red, as if a packet of red dust had exploded.

"Here they come…" Sam murmured.

"Remember! Slow!" His hopes for his teammates were high, but alas, life always has a way to disappoint people. As the first batch of monsters was annihilated by Katie's 'greeting', it seems they decided that hiding wasn't the best policy. They emerged from the fog as one, walking jankily, their body proportions strangely off. Small, around the size of a ten or twelve-year-old child, with a distinctly goblinoid body shape, but somehow all wrong.

Their skin, instead of the usual green – or the rarer red or blue – was dust gray, crisscrossed with cracks, as if they were left out in the sun and wind, while their eyes were pure red, no sclera or any other part showing, just glowing blood red color. Their hands, especially their fingers, were elongated, ending in sharp nails that dripped with a smoky substance that evaporated as soon as it hit the ground, joining the all-enveloping fog.

"Now, as I said–" Sam began, but sadly, he was interrupted by several exclamations.

"PLASMA ANNIHILATION STORM!"

"ETERNAL DANCING BLADES OF THE GLADE!" Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"CHAIN LIGHTNING!"

"PRIMORDIAL HAHAHAHA!" Sam looked at the crater surrounding them, as the team stood next to the well and a small patch of circular, untouched ground.

"I said slowly, right?" he asked drily. His team, surprisingly, refused to look into his eyes. There was a small murmur from one direction, but he couldn't make it out.

"Yes?" He put one of his hands to his ears.

"Speak up, please. I can't hear you!"

"I said they were creepy!" Isabella cried out, her cheeks tinted with a small dusting of red. The outcry was followed by a general agreement from the rest of them.

"For fuck's sake… You all saw the pictures. I showed them in orientation!"

"Yes, well, they're creepier in person," Isabella replied while crossing her arms in front of her. Katie raised a hand.

"I think they were cute."

"Then why did you join the others?"

"It seemed fun!" Sam resisted the urge to facepalm, then counted backward from ten before letting out a bone-weary sigh.

"Let's just… do it again. And please, this time give me some time to look at them. Alright?" They appeared in front of the portal to the fracture, the entire facility around it still in uproar. There were dozens of guards standing around, trying to look important while the players were clamoring to enter the fracture, not caring about the breach of security. The moment they were spotted, a hush fell over the crowd.

The low-level and new players looked on with interest, while the guild workers and guards looked like they were hoping they wouldn't have to fight them, yet looked ready to throw down, no matter how useless it would be. Sam made eye contact with several people, including the official they met the first time, gave them a thumbs up, then re-entered the fracture with the team.

"Alright, team, listen carefully to me," Sam started talking the moment they appeared in the fracture again, the gray and fog-covered hamlet just in front of them. The rest of them stood around him and looked at him with barely concealed humor.

"Slow. Like use basic attacks. Please."

"Sure thing, boss!"

"You got it!"

"Understood."

"You can't put a lid on my awesomeness! This is oppression!" Katie cried out with what he hoped was mock indignation.

"Katie…I'm not oppressing you. I'm giving you an order. You promised…" Katie let out a huff.

"Fine. But I won't like it!" Once again, they entered the hamlet, stood near the well, and watched as unidentified shapes in the fog circled them, letting out unsettling sounds and laughter.

This time, thankfully, his team managed to keep themselves from unleashing apocalyptic attacks on the poor unsuspecting monsters, so Sam could watch as the gray little monsters, a parody of all goblin-kind, creeped closer and closer to them, as his mana sense went into overdrive, trying to find their source or something that linked them together. Naturally, he had considered the well, being so prominent and all, but he wanted to make sure he was correct.

Unfortunately, his inner peace was ruined by the idiots whom he called friends.

"FROZEN ANNIHILATION!"

"INVERSION OF LIFE AND DEATH!"

"MELODIOUS STRIKE OF THE ILLUSIONARY ARMORY!"

"DIE! DIE! DIE! MWAHAHAHA!"

"Just why?" Sam asked, exasperated as he took in the new crater around them. His stupid teammates didn't even try to look bashful as they grinned at him.

"It was very funny," Dan answered with a thumbs up.

"The face you made was worth it," Isabella told him with a chuckle.

"I just followed along. Nothing to do with fun," Clarissa stated with a perfectly flat tone, but Sam could see the sparkle in her eyes. Katie just shrugged.

"You shouldn't have told me not to do it. I thought you were supersmart or something…" Sam closed his eyes and said a prayer to whoever was listening.

'I suppose that's what I get for playing an MMO…' Outwardly, he just let out another deep sigh.

"Alright, that was on me. Can you promise that you won't repeat this the next time?" The silence was suspicious. With another sigh, he made them pick up the meager loot, then headed for the exit. It took them five runs to spend enough time for Sam to pinpoint the anchor in the fracture. He vowed revenge on his stupid friends, who found the entire thing hilarious. Staring down the well, he saw nothing but emerging fog and an unnatural darkness tinted with dark red.

Closing his eyes, while his teammates stood guard, he raised both of his hands. Using his minor earth manipulation skills, he let his magic sink into the ground for a moment before wrenching his hands apart. As a result, the ground heaved and parted before them, destroying the old stonework of the well, creating an uneven hole in the ground that went deeper and deeper, until it revealed a small cavern.

Somebody summoned a light, revealing a pulsing mass of flesh that seemingly was made up of several very old bodies, merged as some kind of fungus made home on them.

"Dan, if you would?" Sam spoke as he kept concentrating on the ground, preventing it from moving. Meanwhile, the girls were standing there and killing all the hemogoblins rushing at them in panic, as the core that controlled them lay bare for all to see. If it was the fungus or some kind of black magic didn't really matter. Fire was a universal solvent after all.

"Plasma spear," Dan stated with a flat tone. The incredibly hot plasma spear flew through the air fast enough to be hard to follow and impacted the mass of meat and fungus and almost vaporized the entire thing. Then the fire that broke out destroyed the rest as the hemogoblins fell over, scratching at their skin as their bodies dissolved into a cloud of dark red dust. For a moment, everything was silent, then a cheerful notification popped up.

[Congratulations on destroying the dimensional anchor to the Bloody Well fracture!] [The taint infecting the village, and the world, has been destroyed.] [Please exit the fracture in an orderly and calm manner, unless you wish to die!] [Time remaining: 00: 01: 54] They scooped up the loot in a leisurely manner as Dan bathed the area with even more fire before Sam let go of the ground he had been holding back.

CRASH The stone and debris crashed down, burying the destroyed fungus with the still-burning fire summoned by Dan. Just in case, Clarissa even cast some purification magic around them and on the ground. You could never be too careful. Then, happy with their work, the team headed for the portal outside of the hamlet. They reappeared at the enemy facility for the last time, just as the fracture portal dispersed behind them.

Looking around, Sam saw an entire company of guild guards standing with weapons and magic ready to strike, while the few high-level players stood in the middle, glaring at Sam and his team. Katie cheerfully waved them as they fanned out, ready for the fight.

"Sorry about the fracture, but it broke somehow…" Sam called out with a self-deprecating chuckle while also scratching the back of his head. The enemy players' eyes widened as they processed the statement, and instantly, anger covered their faces.

"How dare you? Do you know who this place belongs to?"

"I mean, yeah. Why do you think we are here?" Sam replied a matter of factly. The man just opened his mouth, as if to reply, but then closed it. Instead, he just glared at Sam and the others. For a long moment, the two groups stared at each other – one apprehensively and the other cheerfully – before the player seemingly leading the enemy had enough.

"Fuck it! Take them out!"