Village Jille (1).

"Hey, Dylan, can I ask you something?"

The car journey, even though it was faster compared to walking, would still take about an hour, maybe two, since, well, Terraria didn't have paved roads, and the few dirt roads they had were complete and utter crap.

I also had to be careful while driving; the Humvee might be an excellent car for these dirt roads, but it didn't fully compensate for my inexperience.

There was a huge difference between driving on paved roads and driving on bumpy, non-linear dirt roads. So, I had to slow down to avoid accidentally slamming the car into a tree.

This made the trip take a bit longer than necessary. So, why not make good use of the time and have a chat?

Dylan, who at this moment looked like a child gazing at the landscape passing by the car window, turned to me.

"Sure, what's the question?" He seemed more relaxed than before, having gotten used to the car's speed and just enjoying the ride.

I hummed a bit as I organized my questions. Let's ask about the mission first; later, if this group really moves forward, I can inquire about his personal life or something. Like, why was he pretending to be a peasant when he clearly wasn't.

"Well, about the mission, I don't know much about the area, what's it like?" It was good to have this information; after all, I wouldn't want to be caught off guard by not knowing about the terrain.

I'll give Dylan the credit he deserved; the guy didn't hesitate a second before answering, as if the information was already at the tip of his tongue.

"Village Jille, a village of farmers and agriculturists, they cultivate grapes, strawberries, and apples, all used or sold to be turned into wine or cider." He paused a bit as he breathed before continuing.

"The last time a scribe from the castle visited this village was at the end of last year, where he documented that the total population was three hundred and sixty-seven people, these being..."

He blinked, turning to me. When he realized I was still paying attention, he continued.

In that time he turned to me, I glanced away from the road for a moment and noticed that his eyes seemed to glow faintly in a light blue shade as he spoke.

"[WiseWizardGleam] Impressive, I don't know if he uses some mode to keep his memory organized like Occlumency, but the way he retains information is impressive. (Emote of an impressed old wizard).

[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: A guide from the Order of Guides.... I see where that term comes from, not as impressive as my memory, but still good enough. (Emote of impressed Iron Man).

[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]: Urk!... So, is this envy? What a nasty feeling. I wonder how easy studying would be if I had a memory like that! (Emote of Little Red Riding Hood with envy).

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: His eyes were glowing faintly as he spoke, maybe it has something to do with it? Some kind of memorization dojutsu? A sort of downgraded version of Sharingan? (Emote of an old frog scratching his beard in thought).

[BestToadSannin]: I had the same impression, but I think it might be too early to think about that. Maybe he's using magic on his eyes or brain? Magic is confusing like that after all. (Emote of a frog scratching his chin in thought).

Yes, the glowing eyes gave me a bit of a Sharingan vibe too, but I could feel the magic emanating from them, and I wasn't good with magic; that should say something.

And since they were magical eyes, I guess the correct term would be Mystic Eyes?

"Impressive, some kind of magic, I suppose? Or do you just memorize information about random villages?" I asked playfully, to which he laughed.

"As much as I'd like to boast and say that it's all thanks to my brain and intelligence, there's magic involved too," he commented briefly, without further explanations. Some kind of secret, I imagine? Something from his family or the Order of Guides?

I didn't continue asking; if he didn't want to tell me, that's okay, everyone had secrets.

"And about the surrounding terrain, forest, plain?" I asked, turning my eyes back to the road.

Again, without hesitation, he answered me. I'm sure his eyes were glowing, as I could feel the mana coming from them even if I turned away.

"The village is between two forests, so a few hundred meters without trees, then a dense forest."

I hummed lightly; that was good. The part without trees would give us a clear view in case goblins tried to invade the village. The only problem would be the forest, as it would be easy for us to be ambushed. Of course, if I didn't have the Minimap to report their actions.

"Alright, good to know. And about the goblins? Any important information? I can't say I've faced one before, so any information is welcome." Here we go; what kind of goblin was I dealing with?

I could feel the mana emanating from him again, or rather, his eyes, before Dylan spoke again. We'll need to find some kind of glasses for this guy. If I can feel his mana like this, I imagine any competent mage could sense it miles away.

"Goblins, usually having green or navy-blue skin, average height, one meter twenty to one meter fifty, varying depending on the goblin." He took a moment to breathe before continuing.

"Not very intelligent; estimated intelligence compared to a Terrarian child of five to six years, but very good at ambush and trap creation."

I interrupted him in the middle of his speech, as I had something to ask, and I thought it best to confirm something.

"How are they categorized? Monsters, beasts, or a race?" I needed to know; after all, what the hell happened to the goblins I knew from the game? What turned them into this?

He paused his speech briefly with my interruption before continuing.

"Monster and race. Actually, goblins are intelligent and conscious enough to be considered a race, but still, they are monsters since they are mainly motivated by instinct, using their intelligence for a few things, but..."

He seemed hesitant, as if he didn't know whether he would tell me the next part or not, but he ended up deciding to tell me.

"There are reports, tales, and records that goblins were once a great race of mages and enchanters. The main facts confirming this theory are the Mystic Symbols."

In the past? Not now... This was strange, and not the kind of strange that came with something good, no. This was the kind of strange that was accompanied by something really bad.

"Mystic Symbols? The drawings on the walls and the Guild's walls?" I had researched a bit about this in the last week, but not as much as I would have liked due to lack of time.

Dylan didn't even need to "turn on" his eyes to answer me this time.

"Yes, and on armor and weapons too. It's the kingdom's main enchantment system. Not that most people know that; everyone thinks it's something created by Terrarians, but it's a goblin creation."

He seemed sad for some reason. The loss of knowledge of such a race? Misinformation? I didn't know, but this confirmed another of my theories.

The strange symbols, or as Dylan called them, the Mystic Symbols, were something coming from goblins, and the only goblin I knew with the power to "enchant" things, or in this case, fix them, was the NPC goblin, who could enchant items.

As far as I knew, Terraria had been around for some time; the kingdom was old. So, either this goblin was very old or immortal, which I doubted, or this form of enchantment was something that could be taught, not some kind of unique talent.

From what I had researched and also from what Dylan was saying, this wasn't some kind of secret or anything, as it was something commonly used by higher-ranking contractors.

So, returning to Terraria, I'll see if I can learn more about it. One thing is learning the runes from scratch; another is learning a system that had been explored and used for years by Guild and kingdom people in general.

As we chatted, another thought crossed my mind.

"Dylan, why did you find it strange that the mission involved Goblins?"

He looked at me confused before exclaiming slightly.

"Oh! Yes, you're new to the Guild, aren't you?" He shook his head as if he still couldn't believe this information.

Wasn't he new too? But I guess his knowledge comes from the Order.

"It's because missions with goblins always end up being handled by the army, and when they don't, they disappear quickly since it's practically easy money."

"I see..." But it was strange; after all, I found this mission in an exposed place. It was practically the first thing I saw when I went to check the mission board...

If it was so in demand, easy money as Dylan said, why hadn't anyone taken it before? After all, the mission itself says it was posted at least a few weeks ago...

I let this thought ferment in my head for the rest of the journey to Village Jille, and more and more a sense of unease took hold of me.

It didn't make sense; someone should have taken this mission, if what Dylan says is true. After all, that was one of the reasons I took this mission: the reward was enormous. It was literally fifty gold coins.

So, why? Every time I thought about it, the feeling got worse, until, when we got close enough to the village, close enough for me to see the people in the village on the Minimap.

When we passed the three-kilometer mark, where I could see the points representing the people in the village on the Minimap, I slammed on the brakes, making Dylan jolt. Luckily, he was wearing a seatbelt, or he probably would have gotten hurt.

I ignored the scared scream of the guide next to me and his questions about why I had stopped so suddenly, my attention fully focused on the representation of the village I had on the Minimap...

First, even looking from above, I could estimate that there were more than three hundred people in the village, much more than Dylan had said. The number was probably around five hundred.

Which in itself was strange; after all, why did the village's population grow so much in less than a year? But the worst part, the part that made the hairs on my neck stand...

The color of the points. The color of the damn points representing people in the village. There wasn't a single, a miserable single point that wasn't orange...

"What the hell is this?" I murmured, shivering, my instincts warning me that I was right, there was something very wrong here.

I quickly pulled up the Minimap and went to see the information. After the stream received the general update, some things got better, more "polished" so to speak. The Minimap was one of those things that received a small upgrade, as it now had an explanation of what the colors meant.

Green was ally/friendly.

Red was enemy/hostile.

Yellow was unknown/neutral.

And finally, the orange color, which I was reading about at the moment.

[Orange: Living beings controlled by the mind in some way, be it witchcraft, hypnosis, dark magic, some fungus or plant... etc.]

I could feel the hairs on my neck standing even more and a sense of ominousness rising, confirming my fears. This damn mission had something wrong, very, very wrong.

My thoughts started to race, my brain working at high speed.

I ignored Dylan, who was calling me, and quickly stood up, opening the hatch of the Humvee and taking binoculars from the inventory. We were a good distance from the village, but with the binoculars, I could easily see its walls.

They were made of wood and seemed to be about five meters high, but that wasn't what caught my attention, no. What caught my attention were the Mystic Symbols painted on the walls...

Dozens, no, hundreds of Mystic Symbols, all in red as if they had been painted with blood...

At this point, the ominous feeling I felt was so great that my only thought was to get in the Humvee, turn around, and get out of this place as fast as possible. But three things stopped me, happening almost at the same time.

The first thing, when I changed the direction I was looking with the binoculars, I could see even at this distance that there were people in the watchtowers of the walls...

All looking in my direction as if they could see me even at this distance of three kilometers... They had noticed the Humvee and, consequently, me and Dylan.

The second thing was, the moment the people in the village seemed to notice us, a notification pinged in the stream.

It came from the Minimap, it was the same notification that I had left on since HOTD, all this time, it was the notification to warn me if enemies appeared within a one-kilometer radius...

Quickly pulling up the Minimap, I could see that behind, both to the right and left of the Humvee, in the forest, dozens and dozens of red dots had appeared out of nowhere, as if they were emerging from the ground.

And all these dots were approaching, coming in our direction, flanking us, not letting us escape...

And, finally, what finished cementing the fact that we were totally and completely screwed, the stream had given me a mission, here in Terraria, something it had never done before.

-//-

[Emergency Mission (World) - (Chain Mission)]

Mission Name: What's happening in Village Jille?

Description: Something is happening to the residents of Village Jille, they seem to be acting strangely, as if they are being controlled by something or someone...

Main Objective: Investigate what's happening in Village Jille and survive.

Reward: Life Crystal (1), Mana Crystal (1), ???, ???, ???

Secondary Objective: ??? / Reward: ???

Secondary Objective: ??? / Reward: ???

Secondary Objective: ??? / Reward: ???

Secondary Objective: ??? / Reward: ???

Secondary Objective: ??? / Reward: ???

Secondary Objective: ??? / Reward: ???

-//-

Emergency mission? World? Chain Mission? How the hell did this escalate so quickly?! Wasn't it just a simple mission involving goblins?

Damn!.... DAMN!

This came out of nowhere!

Meanwhile, the (CHAT) was having a little uproar.

[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Okay... this is scary, am I the only one getting chills here? What do you think about running, DS? I vote yes, and the rest of the chat? (Emote of Iron Man sweating).

[YellowHuntressLive]: I'm the first to say I like a good fight, but at this moment I would vote for running too... +1

[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]: Running is good, you know? It's kind of my specialty, how about running now Devas? LIKE RIGHT NOW!

[SniperHirano]: I'm pretty sure I saw a horror movie like this once... +1

[AsuraLady]: JUST GET IN THE HUMVEE AND RUN ALREADY!

The first thought I had was to go back to the Humvee and escape, but I had a vague feeling that it wouldn't work.

First, I didn't know the total number of enemies, ignoring the controlled people from the village, there were at least two hundred red dots behind us, not to mention that they appeared out of nowhere and were blocking part of the road!

Second, I didn't know what the enemies were, what they could do, their strength, speed. Fleeing while being pursued by an army in a forest with the only road blocked? Not the best of ideas.

So I did the best thing I could think of. I waved to the people on the village wall with both arms and pointed downwards while making an X sign crossing my arms.

"BROKEN! THIS DAMN OLD MACHINE HAD A PROBLEM! WE'RE ALREADY COMING! JUST A SECOND!"

Luckily, or unluckily, they seemed to understand me. I didn't know if they could hear me or not, but if they could, that was a bad sign.

If they really heard me and didn't just deduce that something had happened because of the signal I made, it would complicate things a lot.

"Great!" I growled through my teeth and went back to the Humvee.

As soon as I got into the Humvee, I closed the hatch and the windows, trying to muffle the noise as much as possible.

I didn't stop there and took advantage of the fact that the car windows were tinted, and it wouldn't be possible to see what was happening inside the car. I put pillows, cloths, and blankets all over the car.

I didn't know if this would work, but it was better than nothing.

Meanwhile, Dylan was looking at me confused and a little scared, not understanding my actions. When I started putting pillows in the car, it seemed to be enough, and he opened his mouth to ask me.

"Devas! What happened?! Why is everything-"

I didn't let him finish and put my hand over his mouth. He was talking too loudly, and I still didn't know if the people from the village could really hear us or not.

I looked at him and put my fingers to my lips while whispering.

"Don't shout, I'll explain, but I think we're being listened to, speak quietly."

I could see his eyes widen, and he looked around as if searching for who might be listening.

When I was sure he wouldn't freak out, I took my hand off his mouth and asked in a whisper again.

"Do you have anything to muffle our voices even more?" I may have closed the Humvee and muffled the sound with pillows and blankets, but I still wasn't confident that it was enough.

He shook his head quickly but didn't say anything out loud, just tapped twice on the ring he had on his finger, making a small wooden box appear.

He placed the box in front of both of us on the car dashboard. Then he opened the box, showing that it was a music box with a small dancer inside.

He then turned the handle of the music box five times, making the dancer start to dance, but strangely, even with the gears moving, the box made no sound.

I raised an eyebrow in confusion, but before I could ask, Dylan answered.

"It's a gift I got from my sister to study in silence; no sound enters or leaves because of a matrix of symbols inside it."

Before I could say anything, he continued in a hurry.

"It's a dancer because my sister is annoying and likes to tease me, it's not a personal preference or anything!"

I blinked slowly.

"Okay? I didn't say anything, but fine..."

Uncertain perhaps? And since when does the Guide have a sister? He didn't have relatives from what I remembered.

And this box was cool; I'll see if I can get something like this after we get out of this shitty situation.

I shook my head, pushing random thoughts to the back of my mind and focused.

"I'll summarize what I found out." I pointed to the village in the distance. "I have a way to detect people at a distance, like a kind of mental map; it has a range of about three kilometers more or less. Follow me so far?"

When he nodded in agreement, I continued.

"Great. Imagine that each person is a dot on a map, and each dot has a color. Green for allies, red for enemies, and yellow for unknowns."

I would prefer not to talk about the Minimap, but at this point, it was the fastest way to explain things without wasting time.

I let the information sink in for a few seconds; Dylan wasn't dumb, I could see that he had realized where this was going.

"I won't ask how this works, as curious as I am. You can tell me later if you want." He was a bit shaky, probably realizing the shitty situation we were in.

"How many enemies?" He finally asked the question.

I smiled sadly and pointed behind us. "Back there, at least two hundred, all red dots." I turned my hand and pointed back to the village, ignoring the fearful look the guide had on his face.

"In the village? Ignoring the fact that there are well over three hundred people, about five hundred. All of them are orange." I let silence fill the car for a while. Before Dylan could ask, I answered.

"Orange is the color for people mind-controlled." I could see his eyes widen, and his mouth opened without him making any sound, as if his voice had been stolen.

"All of them are orange?" He managed to ask, to which I simply nodded in agreement.

I'll give credit to the guy; he looked completely scared, his face had turned pale as if all the blood had been drained from his body, but he didn't faint or scream in fear, just nodded slowly at me.

"I see... what's the plan? Or did you just tell me this to know if I want to die for 'little' red dots or 'little' orange dots?" He made air quotes with his hand as he said sarcastically.

I wasn't offended; sarcasm was good, much better than him panicking and freaking out.

"Running is too risky, as I said, I can detect people with a pretty large range, but those back there." I pointed to the forest again and looked at the Minimap to make sure they were still there.

They were, and they were standing, but I'm sure if we took too long, that would change.

"They appeared out of nowhere, or they have a way to hide from my magic." Which I found difficult, as it was the stream's Minimap, not my own magic, but I still didn't rule out that option.

"Or they managed to appear outside my range less than a kilometer away in a second." Which was frankly scary.

The Minimap's range was three kilometers; within those three kilometers, the points representing people began to appear.

So, if they came running, it meant they were at least five times faster than the speed of sound. If that was the case, well, we might as well lie down and die. But I didn't think that was it, as if they were really that fast, they would have come and forced us, me and Dylan, to go to the village.

So, the other more plausible option remained...

"Teleportation..." Dylan seemed to come to the same conclusion as me, but oddly he seemed relieved by that for some reason.

Teleportation. I didn't know how it worked in Terraria beyond the game, but at this point, I was using the game as a kind of weak suggestion and not a rule.

He nodded slightly as if thinking about something, and I could see his eyes glowing slightly blue again before he started talking.

"Normally, something like this would be the work of a mage, at least in platinum ranking, so many people like that..." He sighed as he scratched his head in frustration.

"...A gemstone ranking and one of the strongholds... But luckily, it shouldn't be that, right?" He sighed in relief. "After all, if it were someone of that level, they would have come and forcibly taken us and thrown us into the village."

I didn't know the strength of platinum-ranked contractors or gemstone-ranked ones, but by the way Dylan talked about them, with fear and admiration, I would guess they were strong.

I hummed lightly. "And if they were all platinum-ranked, it would be the same; we would have been subdued a long time ago."

It must be something else then, an amulet or a ready-made matrix? I didn't know if that was possible, but it was the most likely option.

I sighed frustrated. I could see that the red dots behind were on the dirt road, meaning if we were to run, it would be through the forest...

"I really don't like the option of running through a forest where I don't know anything." I commented, more to myself than to Dylan.

The Humvee also wouldn't be the best option in the forest. As excellent as the car was, it wasn't well-suited for it.

Ignoring also the fact that we were just deducing things here, these guys could very well hide from the Minimap or have free teleportation, which meant that trying to run was just running to death.

"What would leave us the option of fighting... which would also be suicide..." Dylan commented, sounding hopeless.

What a crappy situation...

I had an escape route, of course. Something I discovered is that, after finishing a mission in another world, the travel system went on "cooldown," so to speak. I had to wait a week to go on another mission.

At least now I could "save" a mission. I imagine it's in case a mission I want to do appears and the cooldown hasn't finished yet; that way, I could store it for later.

As it had been two weeks since my last mission, the cooldown was already ready, meaning I had one last option if everything went wrong; I could accept a mission and escape to another world.

But I would leave that as a last resort, as just thinking about running away like that left a bad taste in my mouth.

"Yeah, it's suicide." I didn't deny it. "But there's one last option; our chances are still low, but it's better than accepting death."

"What? What's this option?" He asked, his eyes regaining a bit of hope.

I pointed to the village.

"Free the people in the village and use it as a base."

If we could free the people in the village, we would have people to help us. Not to mention, I'd prefer to defend a base than fight a head-on battle against an army.

But this plan had only a small problem, nothing too serious.

"I have no idea how to free the people in the village." I lightly commented to the guide.

I had my title, which made me more at ease regarding mind control, but freeing other people? I had nothing that could do that.

I took my eyes off the Minimap and turned my gaze back to Dylan, who seemed pensive, his eyes still glowing light blue.

"If you have something that can do that, now is the time to say. If not, I'll just risk taking the Humvee through the forest."

I paused for a second before commenting, a thought wandering through my mind.

"You wouldn't happen to have a way to contact someone from the kingdom to come help us, would you?"

I knew he was hiding something, so I didn't comment before, but now wasn't the time to keep secrets.

He seemed surprised by my comment before sighing and saying in a self-deprecating voice, as if his secret had been exposed so quickly.

"So, you noticed." He sighed and gave a self-deprecating smile as he shook his head in denial.

"I would have a way to contact someone like that normally, but I kind of..." He looked embarrassed, each word lower than the previous, until the last ones I had to concentrate to hear.

"...Ran away from home, ended up leaving some things there in a hurry, including my Communication Mirror..."

I stayed silent for a few seconds before bringing my hands to my eyes and sighing.

Damn it! Of all things, a runaway noble?

And I said noble because no kind of peasant or common person acted like Dylan did; the guy might try to hide it, but the way he moved, spoke, and walked had etiquette.

Not to mention the clothes; he might have tried to pass as someone with a simple past by wearing simple clothes, but they were too clean and neat for that.

Something on my face must have betrayed my feelings, as Dylan shrank even more, probably realizing how stupid it was to run away from home without the only way to communicate with his family.

"But..." He said slowly, his voice returning to life. "I have something that can help us; it's called Purification Powder, a powder that can purify and cleanse most curses and abnormal diseases caused by magic."

He seemed excited for the first time since I mentioned our situation. But I could see the "but" or "however" coming from miles away.

"However…" He said slowly, hesitating. "I don't have it ready with me, I have the necessary materials to make it, but it will take..."

Of course! There's always a damn "however"!

"How long?" I asked; if he said one day, I would start the Humvee and risk the escape without hesitation.

"Two... No, one hour." He raised a finger. "One hour, and I can make enough powder to get us out of this situation." He seemed determined, with fire in his eyes.

"One hour; if you can buy me enough time, I guarantee I can find a way to spread this powder throughout the village and cover all the people in there!" I could see that he was serious, or at least I hoped he was...

One hour? Let's see what I can do.

I waved my hand and stored the back seat of the car in the inventory, leaving the trunk and the back of the car free.

"Your workshop." I pointed to the now free part of the car. "Start preparing the powder; I'll buy you the time you need."

Without saying anything more, I turned off the car and got out of it, closing the door behind me.

Had I yelled before that the car had a problem? I went to the front of the car and opened the hood while shouting and cursing.

"DAMN STUPID MACHINE! I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE BOUGHT YOU! BUT NOOO, LISTEN TO THE SELLER, YOU IDIOT, BUY THIS DEFECTIVE SHIT! WHAT COULD GO WRONG!"

I didn't know if they could hear me, but I kept up the act; there was also the fact that it was easier to pretend anger while yelling.

I managed to keep it up for at least a few minutes, shouting at the car's engine and occasionally swearing before noticing movement in the enemies in the forest.

Some of them seemed agitated, moving from side to side, uneasy about something. Well... let's move on to the next part of this theater I was putting on.

I didn't waste any time. Slamming the car's hood shut, I went to the back of the vehicle, not forgetting to shout while continuing to pretend anger.

"ALL RIGHT, DAMMIT! I'LL DO IT MYSELF, WORTHLESS OLD PIECE OF CRAP!"

I put both hands on the back of the Humvee and started pushing, the car moving slowly forward, inch by inch.

I had to contain myself from smiling; I knew my training had paid off, but I didn't think it was this much, considering I was pushing a military car that weighed at least two tons.

And that without giving it my all, as I felt that if I tried, I could push the Humvee even faster.

But...

I had to hide my smile by pretending to wipe the sweat off my face.

I didn't want to end up straining a muscle or something, right? So let's keep pushing this car slowly...

Not too slow, after all, our hosts awaited us at the gates of the village, but losing an hour wouldn't hurt anyone...