Whispers from the Abyss

The guard noticed that Eric's party had one more member, then their guild card said and asked, “Who's this? Your guild card says you guys only have a total of five members, but I can see that there are six of you.” Eric took out a silver coin and said to the guard, “He's apart of our party. We just haven't had time to get a new card yet because he just joined.” The guard noticed the coin and grabbed it, saying, "Ah, your free to go into the city then.” Eric and his party, along with Luke, walked through the front gates of the city. Once inside the city, the party went to the adventurers guild to report what had happened. While walking, Clark said to Luke, “Follow me; we don't need to go back with them. I want to introduce you to one of my friends in the mage tower.” And veered off with Luke into the direction of the mage tower. The mage tower was in the center of town, right next to the city lords manor. While walking to the tower, Luke was asking questions about the tower: “Who is the leader of the mage tower? Are they strong? What types of magic can they do.” Clark was overwhelmed by how many questions Luke was asking. There were only a few questions that Clark could answer for Luke. “The leader of the tower is titled the Grand Mage, with each one having a unique prefix. This generation's Grand Mage prefix is anti-magic. Grand Mage due to his unique magic to cancel others magic. The Grand Mage is the strongest mage of this generation that the tower has to offer. You will have to wait and ask my friend once we get to the tower for the other questions.” The whole time Luke was listening very closely, remembering all he could about the Grand Mage.

For the rest of the walk, Luke and Clark made small talk. Clark was curious about Luke's family's living conditions. Luke thought for a second, trying to think of somewhere that is out of reach for humans. Luke remembers the mountain he was found on when he first appeared in this realm. “My family lives in the mountains. I saw a village when I was coming down the mountains into the forest.” Clark looked at Luke funny and started to laugh shortly after. “Hahaha. I didn't expect you to be able to tell jokes. I thought you were serious about being from the Nameless Mountains.” Luke was shocked that the mountain he appeared on was famous enough to be named and known by city residents. “What? My family just calls the mountains our family name of Magus.” Luke told Clark about how his family owned the mountains. Clark was expressionless, unable to process what he just learned. All his life, Clark had known the Nameless Mountains to be unsurvivable, with all the expeditions being fruitless. Every single one of them was wiped out, so no one knew what lived in those mountains. They only knew the mountains as one of the forbidden areas. Clark regained composure and exclaimed, “You were serious about being from the Nameless Mountains! No one has ever gone into those mountains and came out alive.” Luke knew he screwed up, not knowing those mountains were famous. Before Clark could ask Luke anything about the mountains, they arrived at the mage tower. Clark led Luke to the entrance to the mage tower, seemingly forgetting about what Luke had just said. But Luke knew that this wouldn't be the last time Clark would ask about his family.

Back with the rest of Erics Party

Eric and his party had just arrived at the guild hall. Eric headed right to the guild president's room while the rest of the party spread out. Each going off to do their own thing. Mela headed off towards the town church to check in with the head preist. While Estrella vanished from everyone's view with no one knowing where she went. The only thing certain was that this wasn’t good for Luke. Scott sat down at the bar right away, getting to drinking. Scott grabbed the beer and chugged it down. "Ah, nothing beats a nice beer after a hard day of work. The only thing missing now is my drinking buddy Clark. Speaking of Clark, where did he go? Eh, he will show up eventually.” Scott mumbled under his breath while waiting for Clark. Meanwhile, in the guild president's office, Eric was telling her about what happened. “Ms. Zya, while carrying out our mission, my adventurer squad encountered an army of goblins, and if it wasn’t for a passerby, we wouldn’t have survived. This is serious! Never before has an A-ranked adventure squad almost been wiped out by goblins. Something is going on.” Ms. Zya took a minute to think about if this was credible information or not. After deciding to trust Eric, Ms. Zya called in her second in command, Knight Lance. “I need you to head over to the city barracks and tell them to say on high alert for the next few days. While also sending out a few scouting parties to stay ahead if something does show up.” Ms. Zya turned back to Eric and said, “Thank you for the valuable information. If this turns out to be true, then your party might just become an A+ ranked party.” After hearing this, Eric instantly grins and bowed right after. Before he somehow made her mad, Eric left the room heading to tell the rest of the party the good news. After seeing everyone already left, Eric decided to wait till tomorrow to tell everyone.

In the far distant sky, a massive pillar of smoke rose from the direction of the nearest sub-city, filling the sky with smog. The city sent out a scouting party in hopes of finding out what had happened. After two days, only one of the scouts came back, telling the city leadership, “We are doomed. While trying to scout, we noticed a massive army of goblins coming towards us. We tried to hide, but they used some strange type of magic to direct us. Im the only one who survived. Im sorry. Im sorry. Im sorry. Im sorry.” The soldier started to repeat those words while slamming his head into the ground. The guild president, Ms. Zya, spoke gravely. “The river of blood will flow once more.” After words, she walked out to go ready all the adventures.

Back with Luke

This whole time Luke had heard small bits of gossip from everyone. He knew war was coming, especially. All the rumors plus the goblins he saved Eric's party from indicated something was going on. While Luke knew high-tier goblins could form a social structure and start a civilization, low-tier goblins are basically just beasts on two legs whose purpose is to breed and have children. But the army Luke fought with Erics party was too organized. Luke had the time to think it through these past two days and realized that a high-tier goblin probably mutated among the goblins, resulting in the start of their counterattack. Being too weak still, Luke couldn’t intervene in the war, so he focused on growing his strength instead.