Chapter 15 - 13 : Encountering Sinland

"Captain, it seems like someone else has been here before us." The assassin who previously reported about the other guilds making moves on the mission once again reported to the middle aged man after he had scouted the place out.

It had been a little bit above 30 minutes since Sato and Fudo had defeated the [Cursed servant]. During this time, Sinland had moved over at quite a high speed, reaching the Ghost mansion before any other guild.

Same as Sato and Fudo, they were suspicious of the clean and organized environment, wondering whether this building was actually abandoned or not. Before entering, their captain had ordered them to scout the area after which the assassin had discovered the battle scene between Sato and Fudo and the [Cursed servant]. The entire party then headed over to the site.

Upon approaching the courtyard, the party's druid, Riddled Tree, said "This place reeks of a stifling and eerie kind of mana. It gives me a purging feeling."

Being a mage, Riddled Tree had quite a high affinity to mana when compared to Physical classes and being a druid, he had an even higher sensitivity to mana when compared to other mages apart from Elementalists.

In Infinite Realm, all mage type classes are capable of sensing mana but their sensitivity to mana differs. Elementalists, since they possess the ability to harness a particular form of mana, actually have high mana-sensitive senses as this allows them to be able to freely control the mana of their choice. As such, there are various types of elementalists.

Next in line are Druids, who possess a very high affinity towards nature type mana and as such are able to notice changes made by foreign mana, in an area's mana density and form. It is believed that at a very high level, druid can be awesome trackers having the ability to notice where their prey has been by tracking the dissociation of mana that their prey causes in a still environment.[1] This was a specialty of theirs that not even the elementalists could copy apart from some special cases.

"...Dark mana or is it demonic energy?" Manny, the swordsman who had a little argument with Faded wings before, asked.

"I don't know. I haven't experienced any of them before in Infinite Realm. But it feels a little similar to Eye's mana" Riddled Tree shook his head. Cursed Eye was the team's cursemancer who was also with them at the moment.

Due to the various productions of VRMMORPGs, their elements and features also differ. For example, in Conquest, a previous most popular VRMMORPG, dark mana has a gloomy feeling while demonic energy has a stifling and muddy feeling to it. But since Infinite Realm has recently begun, Riddled Tree hasn't been able to experience any of the various forms of mana except the major ones.(AN : Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, Light… I hope there's no book that has a VRMMORPG named Conquest. I don't want any trouble…)

"Everyone, prepare for combat. Riddled, what other mana can you sense?" The middle aged Captain asked.

"I was only able to sense that energy previously because it was my first time experiencing it and I can feel some of it's remnants in those rubble." Riddled Tree pointed over to the rubble that was formed from the [Cursed servant]'s [Pitch crepuscular ray]. " However, I feel a slight trace of fire element though I'm not so sure as to whether it was originally here or not."

Normally, Riddled Tree wouldn't have been able to sense Fudo's fire elements since it had been quite sometime since he used it. However, the attack power and momentum of his attacks were so great for a level 1 player that little remnants were left behind, enough for an elite level 4 druid like Riddled Tree to barely sense it. But even at that, due to the 15% increase in Fire element affinity Riddled Tree's sense were quite distorted leading to him not being sure if the Fire elements he sensed were originally present or foreign.( AN : So apart from increasing attack power, now you know what affinity does for a player.)

"It's better safe than sorry. Can you track it?" The captain asked.

Riddled Tree smiled wryly "Captain, I just said that I can barely sense it such that I'm not even sure it exists. Tracking it would literally be as impossible as tracking an ant's tracks."

" Everyone keep your guards up. Whether he's right or wrong, it doesn't deny the fact that there was a battle here. Faded."

"Yes, captain." The black haired Caucasian beauty answered.

"Take Rock with you and check behind the mansion. Devis, you head over to the entrance and stop anyone from leaving. The rest of with you are with me. Let's go."

Rock was the party's Paladin, second only to their main MT (Main Tank), Guardian Block (AN : Guardian is his class, Block is his name. Yeah, I ran out of names…haha…). Devis was the assassin who reported earlier to the captain.

…

It happened to be when Faded wings and Rock approached the backyard of the mansion that they encountered Sato and Fudo escaping.

"Who are you?" Rock asked them with a deep voice and a serious face.

"Who are you?" Fudo jokingly mimicked him.

"...I asked first." Rock replied.

"I asked second."

"..."

Meanwhile, Faded wings, who happened to be in stealth the entire time was about to contact the others when she heard Sato say "Come out. I know you're here."

'Impossible. I used [Fade]. He shouldn't be able to sense my aura.'

[[ Fade : Disappear from sight and erase aura for 30 seconds.

Cool-down: 10 seconds]]

'Looks like I was right.' Seeing the reaction on the Paladin's face, Sato smiled and stared at a spot while saying out loud as if addressing an invisible creature " You really should learn manners and stop hiding when facing a guest."

A few seconds later, Faded wings deactivated her skill appearing right infront of Sato.

"How did you find me?" Faded wings asked.

"I'm sorry. Fudo !!" Sato dashed towards the Kiro mountain range while throwing his last [Flash grenade]. ( AN : Might be late but the [Flash grenades] they have been using was provided by Fudo)

"Right behind you." Exactly as he stated, Fudo was running right behind him. Immediately after the flash went off, he turned back and fired a [Fireball] at Faded wings due to the fact that she being an assassin was the only one capable of catching up to them.

Initially surprised at their actions, Faded wings was actually able to shut her eyes before the [Flash grenade[ erupted however, since Fudo's [Fireball] made timely use of the abrupt flash, she wasn't able to dodge it and tried to block it. But since she did so in an untimely manner, she ended up be pushed back and received damage.

Recovering from the attack, she faced her assailants who happened to have already gone quite a distance away. With that she gave up pursuing them and reported what had occurred to her captain, retaining the fact that she had seen them escape and replacing it with being affected by the flash and attacked immediately by an elementalist.

"Captain, why do you think they were running?" Faded asked in the audio communication.

"Considering the strategy and tactic they just applied, I'd say they were experts. They most likely guessed you were with a group and so retreated. If I'm correct they must have gained something already. It's also possible they might be running from something, so be careful ok?…Faded, Faded do you hear me?"

"Yeah, I do. I think I might know what they were running from."

"What is it?" The captain asked worriedly.

" A horde…"

After that the call got caught and Faded wings' together with Rock, the Paladin's life signatures went gray in the Party interface, signifying their deaths.

AN :

[1] This would be very hard to explain. When you place a drop of oil into a bucket of water, the oil is easily noticed (won't explain why). Now the bucket of water without the oil is equivalent to an area of field, the oil is a foreign mana. Once foreign mana steps into an area, it doesn't blend in since it never belonged there. High levelled Druids are able to sense foreign mana in an environment due to their affinity with Life, Nature/wood type mana, the same way you can see an oil droplet in water. It is obviously clear to them since it never belonged there and players especially mages are containers of mana but due to their low level, the mana leaks off , displacing the environment and leaving behind foreign mana but because it is so minute they hardly notice it.. This is what Druids use to track a person.