Part 7-The missing ones
The short event that just unfolded in front of them was definitely not what they expected, nor a thing they had even heard of.
After emitting a weird patterned glow, it failed in summoning the supposed dungeon boss, and the core shattered itself into pieces afterwards.
Its shards strewn throughout the room, with each piece still emanating a faint pulsating glow. Following its scatter, the dark room was slowly lit back up by the scattered pieces.
Visibility had increased for three, with sources of light all around, they had a better view of the state of the core room. A small uneven sized room, odd patterned brick laid upon its walls and ceiling, cracks of dirt and stone filling the gaps in betweens.
Near the walls at the back of the room, they also saw various humanoid figures, though it was noticeable that they posed no danger, for the slumped figures were human remains. Laying down in various positions and stacked in messy piles.
Some of the corpses were dried and deteriorated, bone exposed through the thin layer of rotting skin - despite that, no foul smell nor any sight of flies or maggots. A few though looked more intact than the others, a clear sign that their deaths were rather recent.
Noticing the bodies, Vibey hurried towards one whose complexion was brighter than any of the decaying corpses. She quickly strutted across the room and approached a man slumped in one of the corners.
"Hey, I think this one is still breathing" Vibey directed her siblings attention to the corner.
The young man, looking no older than twenty, dorned in basic adventurer's equipment. On his neck, a glint caught Lilith's eye.
She followed suit and approached the body, with her right hand, her fingers reaching out to the adventurers dog tags; a brownish-grey metal, two small slabs, strapped onto woven cloth string.
"Iron II, Job: Rookie, Archie of Wirdun"
"Wirdun, one of the nearby town, which means-" realisation came to Lilith and she quickly inspected the rest of the corpses.
Iron III, Job: Swordsman, Liscarl
Copper I, Job: Archer, Lucianne Caru'evich
Iron III, Job: Blacksmith, Rufus of Wirdun
Three of the bodies still had their dog tags donned around their neck, the rest of the corpses however, had nothing definitive that helped to identify them.
A closer look made it clear however, that they were wearing either basic adventurer gear or common folk clothes. Without a doubt, these piles were those who had gone missing in the Beginner's Cave.
By finding their remains, Lilith's party had fulfilled their main quest objective, though not in a way she wanted it to be.
"...Help.. her..."
A weakened voice whispered through, the young man in Vibey's arms was gaining consciousness.
"Please don't move, I need to make sure you have no serious injuries before we can transport you out" Vibey softly replied.
The young man was looking very weak, his complexion pale and his body limp. With another breathe, he continued to mutter
"..Hel.. her..." he continued and glanced at his right hand.
In his weakened grip, he was holding onto someone's hand, a severed arm.
His senses were too dull to recognise anything around him, not even realising the individual he was holding onto had nothing left but her arm.
Vibey was slightly horrified by the severed limb, but she held back, bit her lips to avoid herself from shrieking and quickly gained back her composure.
"It is okay now, we will save both of you, please stay still and we will get you out to safety"her lips trembled, but she managed to let the words out.
An empty assurance, but she knew she had to, and she could apologise later once the young adventurer is safe and sound.
Hearing her promise, the rookie flashed a weak smile.
"..Thank...you"
With another passing breath, his life is no more.
"Sir? ... Sir?"
Vibey quickly presses her fingers on his neck and nostrils, no sign of breathing nor pulse. Pressing her ear onto his chest shows no promise either as no heartbeat can be heard.
"No... No. This is not possible, there is definitely zero sign of external nor critical injury, no mark on the body to signify any blunt trauma or internal injury either...
H-How?"
Vibey panicked, as the life of the young man slipped away from her grasp. Her trembling lips now stuttered and her teeth clattered, suddenly she felt her breathe shortened and taking in air required more effort.
She tried to take a deep breath only to exhale and empty her lungs. Unable to breathe, she tried to move her arms and call for help, trying to reach out to her sister kneeling next to her. However, she could not move an inch, her body rigid as if it just lost all energy and will.
"Vibey, are you okay?"
A quick tap on her shoulder and her vision suddenly cleared, her lungs able to suck in air again and immediately, Vibey took a deep breath.
"No it's.. I am okay, it's just that this.. kid, died out of nowhere. There's no clear sign of injuries as far as I can see, his vitals were weak but not declining. But immediately it just... vanished." biting her lips in frustration, Vibey explained her diagnosis.
"Just ... vanished.. leeching spells of sorts?" curious, Lilith asked further.
"To be honest, not sure, no traces of recently cast magic or spells. It is like his life has just gone poof, like smoke, wait no.. smoke still lingers. Like uh... you know when we hang out some jerkies and the next moment it just.."
"I know what you mean Lettuce, but still everything we have seen so far has been out of the ordinary"
"Shut it, grow some knees before you comment on my medical skills"
*Slap*
Lilith gave her little sister another one of her patented love smack on the head.
"Alright, let's gather all we can collect here and move on, I still need to think of what to write in the guild report later."
After making sure there's no 'love' bump growing on her head, Vibey carefully laid down the young man on the floor, positioning the body respectfully.
"May both of your soul rest in eternal peace"
...
"Alright, we still need to do what we came here to do, go through the remains and grab whatever we can use to identify each one.
I will report this to the guild for larger scale recovery later"
Breaking the silence, Lilith instructed the team on their next and initial task; recovering the survivors, or their remains at least.
Lilith and D moved towards the piles and started shifting through the bodies as respectfully as they could. In the meantime, Vibey was still looking over the man's corpse.
*Clap*
A hard slap to both of her cheeks, she clasped herself awake.
"Alright Vibey, gotta do what you gotta do", Vibey said to herself.
She kneeled down towards the body and carefully removed one of the dog tags, that's when she noticed a glint coming from the severed arm.
In his right grip, he was holding onto his partner's left. The severed hand was pale and slightly dried, on its ring finger, she saw a small silver ring fitted loosely.
Delicately, she pulled the ring off the ring finger. When holding onto the ring, she could feel a rough texture on the inner part. By the feel of it, it was possibly engraving of sorts.
"I should be able to identify the ring's owner with this" She thought to herself.
The light was too dim to look at the engravings, she picked up a nearby glowing core piece and held the piece close to the inner side.
"Archie and Rossa, Wirdu- AAAARGHHHH"
All of sudden, Vibey let off a loud shrieking scream, this immediately directed her siblings' attention towards her.
Both D and Lilith quickly get hold of her,
"Vibey, Vibey! Look at me, look at us, focus, what is going on?"
Lilith's words fell onto deaf ears as Vibey continued to scream, a shriek of pain, sadness, and agony. The two of them were unsure what was happening to Vibey, Lilith saw no injury nor anything around them that could have potentially caused this.
"Vibey! Please! Look at me, steady yourself! I am here, we are here!" She begged her
Uncertain what they could do, Lilith and D held her close in their arms, hoping whatever's going on would stop.
After a short while, Vibey stopped screaming, her body limped and she fell into their arms.
"Vibey, are you okay? What happened?"
Shifting in and out of consciousness, Vibey exhaustedly replied,
"Lulu... she is.. in pain.."
After muttering a few words, she fell unconscious.
"Vibey? Vibey!"
Lilith checked her pulse and breathing, slightly abnormal and accelerated heartbeat, but she was still breathing fine, should be no danger as far as she knew and Vibey was only unconscious.
Although she might be fine, Lilith wanted to take no chance.
"D, pack up all you can, we are going back."
D let out a nod and immediately scurried toward the things they had collected from the corpse and began packing things up.
In the meantime, Lilith slowly laid Vibey down and held both her hands, she slowly bent down and touched her forehead to Vibey's.
"Lulu? Are you there? What happened?" she asked
"....."
No reply from the wind elemental.
"Lulu? Lulu! What happened? Are you okay, what happened to Vibey?"
Again, her message towards Lulu received no reply. Having no clear answer, she decided to forcefully connect her mana only to find no clear answer either.
Both Vibey's and Lulu's mana felt very unstable to her, crashing and splashing like waves in a stormy summer. Yet besides the mana instability, there was nothing that pinpoints the sudden hysteria and loss of consciousness.
The only conclusion she could draw was that, either Lulu or Vibey received a very strong psyche attack, one that crashed their emotion into disarray and in turn, emotional shock.
While this might not cause any immediate harm to Vibey, Lilith was still concerned of the emotional shock she might have received, nothing else she could do but bring her to a qualified healer.
Once she disconnected the mana points, she realised there were things nudging in both of their palms.
A silver ring and small glowing core piece, the last thing Vibey touched before fainting, could these probably be the cause?
A hand grabbed hold of her shoulder. It was D, standing behind with his big backpack packed tight.
"Good, let's return." says Lilith.
She pocketed both the ring and core piece, then helped D in lifting Vibey up to his cradle. All prepped and ready to leave, they backtracked their steps and headed back to the surface.