The Hidden Basement
The piece of furniture that needed to be moved was probably supposed to be quite heavy, but with his superior strength, Edrick easily pushed it out of the way.
The hatch was revealed in the open.
Anoteros summoned Arm Of Depravity, turning it into a rapier. The thin blade went through a piece of the open lock, allowing him to fling the trapdoor open from a distance… No trap was set off. A careful inspection revealed nothing suspicious. Well, nothing suspicious in the realm of murderous contraptions, but there was light down there, which was definitely a cause for worry.
The scion transformed part of his face into that of a sasquatch, leveraging his bestial form’s more refined senses... But even then, he smelled and heard nothing of note. No moving shadows were ever seen either, so nothing had moved down into the room as far as Edrick was aware.
After a few more minutes of investigation, he went down. The passage was a bit cramped for a man of his stature, but he went through just fine, eventually arriving in a surprisingly well-kept room that was clean and illuminated.
It turns out the light source was actually a lantern on a desk–One that used an energy crystal to manifest light. Edrick guessed that it was a self-sufficient crystal that could absorb energy in the air to refuel itself… That, or when the village had appeared, it had just spawned alongside it in this current state.
Either way, the room was rather small. Even an invisible entity wouldn’t have been able to evade detection... Naturally, Edrick had checked for such a possibility. He had been hanging out with people who all had this ability, after all.
By all means, this little basement was not a trap, nor was it a place of ambush. It was just a room tucked away from the rest… Quite a nice place, as a matter of fact. There were bookshelves filled with books in perfect condition… Although they looked rougher than those Edrick was used to.
‘The covers are made from beast hide, and the paper was clearly made from primarily grass’
He flipped through a few of the books. Unfortunately, his now good grasp of the Underwood Tongue was useless. The language these books were written in had basically nothing in common with that of the Underwood Elves.
‘Hui is going to be happy’
Anoteros was definitely going to be taking all of these books with him alongside that lantern. As for the rest of the room, it was just a bunch of mundane pieces of furniture, as well as more empty drawers and containers… The only two things of interest were a book that had been left on the desk and a perfectly preserved skull.
The skull very closely resembled that of a human, but having seen quite a few human skulls thanks to his culinary preferences, Anoteros immediately knew that this was that of something else.
‘Underwood Elf? Something else?’
He hadn’t seen any skulls from Underwood Elves. All of the corpses he had collected previously had been given away… Thankfully, if he wanted to know, he would be able to just ask Luxuli. With her appraisal ability, she might just be able to tell him exactly what this skull had belonged to…
As for the book… Edrick flipped it open, expecting the same language as the rest. Yet, it wasn’t. He could actually read this… It was Nimeri, the common language of Cangea, the very continent he lived upon.
He frowned. He hadn’t even begun reading the handwritten text, and he could already feel that he had stumbled upon something bizarre.
It read:
[Fools. That’s all I am surrounded by here.
They keep on worshipping this nebulous entity. They keep on idolising its shepherd dog. They do not realise that we are the sheep, but that there is no wolf to be protected from.
We are not what it desires. I realised this a while ago now. We are not the creations it seeks to populate this world with.
‘God’... That thing is no deity. It is more akin to a petulant child. I have seen the old ruins. We aren’t its first attempt. We were the first to be so successful, however.
It certainly knows that I have realised this.
It is watching me write this right now, but can it read this tongue? Did it bother to learn the language of those outsiders as I did? I don’t know. Maybe the next time I come out, its enforcer will be waiting for me.
I may die soon.
I do not care much. The faster we are done here, the better.
In the rare case that someone finds this and can read this tongue. I implore you. Be wary. Perhaps by the time you discover this, it will have evolved. Perhaps it will have found the creatures it wishes to govern over... The things it finds most pleasing to be worshipped by.
Then, perhaps this world will be safe.
If not… Step away from this world. It is hostile to you. The world is it. It is the world. The world is our ‘God’. ‘God’ is everywhere. ]
There was nothing else in the book.
‘...Did the realm create the Underwood Elves from scratch? They have been around for centuries by this point… It must mean that they were the final product’
Edrick was rightfully feeling curious. Did the realm truly have the power to create lifeforms? Has it created everything here? No, that could not be the case. Most of the creatures present here can exist outside…
Underwood Elves were considered a true part of elvenkind, so perhaps it isn’t accurate to say that it manifested life from scratch. It must have taken inspiration–Imitated existing beings. Perhaps it had even used said beings as a basis or material to weave into existence the Underwood Elves and whatever else the writer of this book had been.
‘Then, I would assume that the so-called shepherd dog and enforcer refers to the Red Guardian… Was it the same one back then? Does he remember all of this?’
There was one thing that bothered Edrick, though… Why in damnation would the realm allow for the apparition of this old village with such proof inside of it? Surely, if the text was to be believed, then the realm itself was basically a godlike entity–Some sort of natural force that controlled this entire place.
Surely, it would have control over this place popping out of thin air, or would at least notice and take steps to get rid of it. Did it not care? Did it not know about the evidence here? Did it not worry that Edrick would bring this up to the Underwood Elves?
Or maybe the writer had been mistaken about the intentions of the realm, and it wasn’t as malicious as they had implied?
There were plenty of questions, but no answer whatsoever. Asking these interrogations to the Blutgar would likely land Anoteros in hot water, so it was best to keep everything to himself for now…
Though he did wonder how or why an old village would suddenly manifest like this, if the Red Guardian showed up, then Edrick would probably be able to bring this up without awakening any suspicions. If anything, it would be weird for the scion not to mention the thing that had appeared out of nowhere.
In any case, the noble put all of his loot into a bag and made his way out of the basement and out of the village itself. He brought everything back to his camp and safely stored everything inside his tent, wrapped in several layers of beast skin.
‘I spent quite a lot of time in the village… What else could I do today? Just start training or…’
Edrick smiled, whistling for the Grass Buffalo herd to gather around him.
“Make yourselves useful, and help me keep this Wood-Antler Deer herd in place”
They couldn’t understand him at all–They could only understand the intents he conveyed, and what he desired was not outside the realm of their capabilities. In fact, scuffles with groups of Wood-Antler Deers were common enough for them to know exactly what to do.
The Grass Buffaloes were going to please their master–In a way different from usual.