Chapter 93 - The Caphyae Kidnappings

"I might. Give us a look at what you've got." The bartender said while searching through his stack of quest sheets.

Merlin did as he was asked, taking out a handful of fangs and a wolf pelt from his inventory and placing them on the counter.

The bartender picked up one of the fangs and brought it close to his face to inspect it. "Right, Right. This looks like one of those dire mutts that hover around town." He flicked the fang and listened to the sound it made. "Sounds tough too, these will fetch a pretty penny."

The bartender placed the tooth back down and ran his fingers across the wolf's pelt before going back to flicking through the quest forms.

"There we go, knew we had one." The bartender mumbled to himself while pulling a sheet out of the pile, he then handed that sheet to Merlin. "You might like this one."

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[Common Quest]

Local Alchemist needs Wolf Fangs.

A local alchemist has requested ten wolf fangs as quickly as possible, they didn't specify what type of wolf it had to be. They are offering to buy it at four copper each.

Wolf fangs: 10/10

• Reward: 50 EXP, 40 Copper

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"Done deal." Merlin accepted the quest, handing over ten of the sixteen wolf fangs he had on him. He received forty copper in return, which he threw into his inventory. "I've got six fangs left, will you take those off my hands?"

"We'll take them at a copper each and three copper per wolf pelt." The bartender said while inspecting the pelt's quality. "If you're going to be hunting a lot, it might be best that you visit old Arnulf, the local hunter and learn a thing or two about skinning an animal from him, it'll help you improve the price."

"Thanks, I'll look into that." Merlin nodded his head as the bartender spoke, he began taking out all the pelts and fangs out of his inventory, laying the rest out on the counter. "I'll accept those prices, I've got six fangs and twenty-three pelts."

"Right. Well, lets see here." The bartender began counting out the pelts. "So you've got six copper for the fangs, and lets see here... Sixty-nine copper for the pelts."

The bartender handed Merlin a hefty handful of coins, which Merlin quickly threw into his inventory. He currently had twenty-eight silver and one hundred twenty-one copper, or four gold and one copper when converted.

"Alright, do you have any quests up north by chance?" Merlin asked as the bartender had started moving wolf pelts into the back room. "Or maybe something involving these disappearances between here and Caphyae?" 

"The rumoured kidnappings?" The bartender poked his head out from the back room. "Yeah, we've got a special request from the town guard, I'll find it for you in a second."

The bartender vanished into the back room with another handful of wolf pelts, he came back a few moments later and began rummaging through his pile of quests once more. He pulled out a page and handed it to Merlin, causing a quest window to appear before him.

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[Uncommon Quest]

The Caphyae Kidnappings.

There are rumours and reports of kidnappings or disappearances of people travelling between Orchomenus and Caphyae. The town guard have submitted a request to the mercenary guild to deal with this issue swiftly.

Nobody is sure if this is bandits, monsters or something else entirely, there have been no ransom notes or bodies found anywhere near the path, so the town guard have issued a statement that anyone travelling should travel in large groups.

Your task is to search the area between the two towns and discover the cause of the disappearances, and if you can, rescue the survivors.

Research the disappearances.

• Reward: 200 EXP, 20 Silver

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"I'll take it, thanks." Merlin accepted the quest, but when he asked if there were any more quests in the area he received a no, so he said his farewells and left the building.

He figured he didn't really need anything else in town, so he made his way back towards the northern gate. He gave the guards a wave before stepping into the dark wilderness that was barely illuminated by the moon above.

Without wasting any time he had summoned his ball of light as usual and began travelling down the nothern road on his way to Caphyae.

After about eleven minutes of walking, Merlin heard a rustling noise in the nearby forest. He firmly grasped both of his daggers as he continued on his way, but as he walked the rustling was getting louder and it sounded like it was closing in on him.

Merlin could feel his heart starting to race. He didn't enjoy feeling like someone else's prey, so whoever, or whatever was out there targeting him right now was about to have a very bad day.

The forest became silent for a moment, and the tension in the air grew. Merlin was taking deep breaths to try and calm his heart rate. And then suddenly, a long bipedal creature lunged out of the treeline directly towards Merlin and attempted to slash at his flesh with its long claw-like fingers.

Merlin tried jumping out of the way but felt the creature's claws slice across his chest, dealing a measly seven damage. This creature was much faster than Merlin expected, so he didn't manage to react in time, but now that it was finally out in the open, Merlin could now see his stalker.

"Oh man, you're ugly." Merlin mocked the creature as he took a couple steps backwards, avoiding the creature's second attack.

The creature was somewhat pale, more bluish-grey than anything. It had long claws, a hideous face with sharp dagger-like teeth, and it appeared to be severely emaciated. Merlin could see the creature's ribs quite clearly pronounced underneath its disgusting decay-ridden skin.

"Why the hell is there a gho--" Before Merlin could finish his sentence, the creature lunged at him once more, Merlin thrust his daggers into the creature's side before he pushed the creature away.

It relentlessly lunged at him once more, and the same thing happened, only that this time the creature wasn't pushed away. Instead it dug its claws into Merlin's back to secure itself before it started biting down on his shoulder.

Merlin started stabbing the creature's side repeatedly while it bit him in return, the creature eventually let up with its attacks as a large gaping hole had been made in its side, causing black blood and various mashed organs to spill out.

「Passive skill ⟪Rose Blight⟫ has been resisted.」

A notification appeared before Merlin as the creature leapt off of him and started sprinting into the forest, leaving Merlin on the road alone with a large hole bitten out of his shoulder. He glanced at the notification, and he understood why it had been resisted.

"What the hell is a ghoul doing this far south?" Merlin asked himself, wondering why he had that encounter, or better yet why the ghoul was such a low level compared to what he would normally expect.

Merlin had a very strong suspicion that this was related to the kidnapping quest, and he saw the trail of blood and giblets leading into the forest, the only problem was that he currently didn't have the use of his left arm so he didn't feel like going for a rematch at the moment. It seemed as though the ghoul had bitten through some crucial nerves and muscles and even the bone in his shoulder, leaving it useless.

Merlin utilised one of his vines to wrap around his shoulder and block the bleeding as best as he could. He picked up the dagger he previously held in his left arm and sheathed it before making his way into the forest to look for some kind of wildlife. It didn't take him long to find a wolf in the area, and after killing it with the help of his remaining vine, he began fulfilling the conditions for his ghoulish tendencies ability to activate.

By devouring small chunks of raw wolf meat, he was quickly restoring his health points, and the wounds on his body started healing at an unnatural rate. Unfortunately while the gaping hole in his shoulder had healed, a large scar was left on his body where it once was. This scar would only disappear once he received proper healing, like from magic, potions or a medical bath.

Now fully healed, Merlin cast cleanse on himself, removing the wolf's blood from his chin and his own blood that had covered the entire left half of his torso. When he was satisfied, he made his way back to the road so that he could follow the blood path properly.

As he traversed through the forest for roughly three minutes, he came across a large clearing in the forest, and within this clearing was a severely dilapidated church-like building that looked to have been abandoned in the middle of the forest for countless years.. And the trail of blood was leading straight towards the church's front door.