Chapter 62 - Episode 62: A Ritual.

Durak, the chief of Loslan Village approaches us.

"Welcome to our village. It has been a while since there is a visitor from outside the forest. I heard from Kuhak that you gave us the materials and ingredients for the ritual. We are very grateful and we are in debt to you."

I look at Ivonna and it seems she got a quest from Durak because she's like reading something in front of her. She smiles and nods.

"It's nothing. I'm glad that we can help."

Ivonna then looks at Durak.

"Can you explain it to us, what exactly the ritual is and what it's for?"

Durak is pointing at the chair.

"Have a seat! I will tell you the story."

We are sitting at the table and Durak clears his throat.

"Before we talk about the ritual, we will tell you about our origins first. I believe that you have heard about Loslathan. She is our ancestor, and we are not like any other human out there, we are a High Human race. There are 5 others like us around the Orion, the descendants of Aldran, Vezolan, Artas, Eveth, and Obrellian. Before Loslathan died, she told her children to give offerings every month on the day after the full moon. It is to prevent a disaster, a catastrophe from the being that lives inside Zerkhil's Volcano. She also said that we, the High Human race can hear the voice of Betelgeuse, and it is true. That is why we are doing rituals every month to prevent a catastrophe and ask Betelgeuse to protect our village at the same time."

Ivonna looks at me for quite a while and then looks at Durak.

"Those names. They're the legendary people who saved Orion. The era of the greatest generation. The last human from the greatest generation was Ezira, but she didn't have a descendant. Is that why she's not included??"

Durak nods in agreement.

"It was an unfortunate event. If she survived, there will be 7 of us instead of 6. That is why we are worried that the future would be filled with darkness. We are afraid because nobody has ever heard Empress Ezira's last will and warnings, one of the beings that can bring a catastrophe to Orion would raise. The being that Empress Ezira defeated, Ardor."

Ivonna is humming with understanding. Durak looks at the sky through the window and stands up.

"It is getting late. Let us talk for another time. I don't want to take your resting time, I heard you were hunting monsters in Zerkhil's Valley. You must be tired, please have some rest."

We nodded and Durak left the room. Ivonna leaned on the chair and looked at the ceiling while yawning then closed her eyes. Turned out she fell asleep on the chair because it took me a while to realize that she didn't move or said anything.

I approach her and I look at her. I scoff and shake my head.

"If you're tired you should go to bed, not falling asleep on the chair."

I grab her body and carry her on my back. Ivonna moans and tightens her arms around my neck. She mumbles.

"Chessi... just put me in my bed."

I furrow my forehead and tilt my head.

"Who is Chessi?"

She keeps mumbling and I have no idea what's she saying at all. I walk to the house and it's quite far from here. I look around and everyone is still busy preparing for the ritual down there. Ivonna moans and she's covering her face on my neck and snuggles. It tickles and I'm rushing to the house because I'm a ticklish person. As soon as I enter the house, I immediately put her on the bed. Then I also go to my bed and fall asleep.

A bird is chirping loudly beside my window bed. I open my eyes and I see Ivonna is sitting on the chair. I get up from the bed and approach her. She's startled and turns her face away. I raise my eyebrows and then chuckles.

"So you remembered that you were snuggling on my neck last night?"

Ivonna's face and ears turn red. I scoff.

"You do know when you're embarrassed in this game, your face will turn red, right? Your face is so red right now."

Ivonna takes a deep breath.

"I know... that was embarrassing, I'm so sorry."

I sit behind her and stretch my body.

"How did you do that?"

Ivonna turns around and staring at me with her bright red face.

"I don't know. One time, we were hunting monsters and Michael was luring the monsters to us. I was resting on the wall to rest for a moment and suddenly I fell asleep. Luckily Michael didn't lure a lot of monsters back then and nothing bad happened."

I'm covering my mouth and look down. Ivonna starts chuckling and we both chuckle and laugh at her story. Ivonna clears her throat.

"Enough with that, let's farm some more. We have 6 days before the ritual starts, so we are free until then."

I nod.

"Yeah, let's go."

(6 days have passed.)

We farmed at the same spot for the last 6 days. The reason why we did that is that we didn't want to go deeper into the valley and triggers a World Boss event on accident. I learned my lesson in the Pit of hell. Queen Arachne is easy to kill because of her level, but Khafir, It's impossible for me to solo him with the time duration that will be given by the system, and it's impossible for the players to deal with him now either. I leveled up 27 times, and I have 9.964 Betelgeuse's Coin. Ivonna leveled up 19 times and she has 3012 Betelgeuse's Coin. Then we went back to Loslan Village to watch the ritual.

Ivonna is looking at the forum and she's now officially Rank 1st in the Level Leaderboard, and I'm Rank 6th. I'm not surprised that Ivonna becomes Rank 1st, but I'm surprised that I ended up being in the top 10 leaderboards. Francesca and the others were messaging us like crazy when they found out about our level, and they're regretting that they didn't join us to farm Betelgeuse's Coin.

Someone is knocking on the door, and it's Kuhak. He enters the house with a huge smile on his face.

"Are you ready? We will start the ritual now."

Ivonna and I nod and follow him.

All the villagers are circling around the huge bonfire. Durak is standing in the middle in front of the bonfire. He lifts his hands while facing the bonfire.

"Lady Loslathan, we are gathering here to give offerings as you wished us to do. We hope this month's offerings are enough to fill the hunger of the being that you defeated. We are also praying to Betelgeuse for protection and to show our gratitude for keeping us safe from any kind of misfortune. With this, we will start our offerings."

All the villagers grab the offerings and throw them into the fire. From monsters' heads to flesh and bones. The ground is slightly shaking. Ivonna is looking around with worries. I put my hand on her shoulder and it startled her. I put my finger on my lips. Ivonna then stops moving. Everyone is closing their eyes in silence to feel the ground shaking. Ivonna looks at them and they're all worried about something. Then the ground stops shaking. Everyone is sighing with reliefs.

Ivonna leans towards me and whispers.

"Why is everyone so tense after they give the offerings?"

I tilt my head toward her.

"It's because if the shaking is getting worse, that means the offerings aren't enough. When that happens, It could trigger the World Boss event. It should be fine for now because we are the only players that discovered this area. Once there are enough players, this ritual has a 5% chance to fail. It would be great if we are the only players to know about this place for now because of that."

Ivonna is surprised and humming with understanding.

"A 5% chance, and a monthly ritual. In a week of real-time, they did 5 rituals. If it's a month, they did 22 rituals. In 5 months, there's a chance the ritual will fail and it's kind of scary."

I nod with agreement. Ivonna then tilts her head.

"We have been here for a week now. Is Heugron's book not here?"

I smirk and pointing at the bonfire.

"Throw Thera's Heart into the bonfire as an offering. There's something I want you to do. When the book appears, record it and make sure you're close enough to be able to read what's written in the book. If not, you will not be able to see the hints for the next quest. "

Ivonna looks at me with her mouth open. She nods nervously and grabs Thera's Heart. She shows the heart to me and tilts her head. I nod and tilt my head toward the bonfire. She walks through the villagers, and everyone is looking at her with confusion. Durak is still in front of the bonfire and he notices Ivonna is walking towards the bonfire.

Ivonna is standing in front of the bonfire with the heart in her hand. She turns around to look at me one last time. I nod and raise my eyebrows. Ivonna gulps and throws the heart into the bonfire. The heart immediately glows and then a beam of golden light piercing through the trees and going up to the sky. Everyone is looking up to the sky. Then something falls from the sky and lands in front of Ivonna. It's a gold frame blue book, then it floats in front of her. The book opens itself and turns its pages. Then the book scatters and becomes a glowing blue orb. It's floating in front of her and gets inside her chest. Everyone is looking at her with their mouths wide open. Ivonna slowly turns around and pressing her hands against her chest.

Ivonna looks at me for quite a while and then she smiles happily.

"I got the second quest!"