Page 1/5 The Guild Leader Omar brought us a Senior Contract; the exploration of Turayne Village. Heck no! Turayne Village was destroyed during the wizards' war and became a nest for Undead. He said other guilds would join in for the exploration, but I still didn't like it. On top of that, one of the joining guilds was only a relatively new one. Their name was the Order of the Swan, and to be honest, the bird on their seal looked more like a duck. I found a scroll about Turayne Village and gave it to the smartest-looking member I could find, Clay (as he was the only one wearing glasses, so he must be smart... right?). I expected what's written in the scroll would scare them away, but he just thanked me and put it in his bag without reading it. I insisted he read it right away, but then another huge man who was watching children suddenly approached us with an angry face, so I stepped back. The huge man seemed to be curious about the scroll. Clay showed him the parchment and said something I couldn't quite hear. Then, the man lost interest and left to see after the children again. Another mean looking woman standing beside them spat on the floor, as if she was upset. Then, Omar came back with a young woman and a middle-aged man. The young woman with a stern look was the Guild Leader of these ducklings, Jean Roen, and the man was Labeed, a geographer who was going to guide us though the village. I tried to draw Omar's attention, but more guild leaders came and I couldn't even get closer to him. Looking at them discussing the schedule and required equipment made me realize that there was no way out. Einar, please save me! Page 2/5 We gathered in front of Turayne Village at the cold dawn. The place reeked of death and corruption. The huge man I saw yesterday was named Gerad. He stood at the front and led the march with a magnificent looking shield. I could tell that it was actually a magical artifact. I wanted to ask him about the shield, but the man just wasn't interested in talking. Turns out I didn't really need his explanations, though. When we entered the village, the shield began to vibrate. A shield that could detect evil things... I didn't want to die on that spot so I retreated back to where my colleagues were. As expected, the village was filled with skeletons and zombies. At first I did what I could to look after the Order of the Swan to help them in case they were in trouble, but they were much more proficient than I expected. Especially Gerad. He was so brutal, he almost made Roen and Clay look meek and gentle. When the sun was right above our heads, we found a huge crater. It seemed like a scar created by an exploding Manastone during the war. While others explored the crater, Labeed found a temple-like structure. We entered the building while Roen and Gerad blocked Undead from approaching. The first person who entered the building was Roxie, the mean-looking archer from the Order of the Swan. She had been cursing all the time since we came into this village because of the horrible smell. Inside it was dark and had a different kind of stench. It made Roxie even more irritable, so I tried to keep my distance from her. We used the Lunar-0 Diston that Clay brought to look around. We hoped to find some sort of protective stone that might help the two people outside of the temple, but all we saw were human remains. These skeletons were not Undead, and they were unusually clean. While we were examining the skeletons, Lunar-0 began to speak, as if it sensed something. Page 3/5 Clay used a magic orb to light up the area. There was a large round atrium in the middle, with a waterway circling around it. Fountains were placed on the waterway with very lively looking gargoyle statues on top of them. When the light from the magic orb touched the ground, Lunar-0 murmured something again. When I approached Clay, I could see something was written on the floor. Clay said that Lunar-0 was reading something written in ancient Trutizan. Then, the temple began to shake. Clay must have realized something was amiss, because he tried to stop Lunar-0. But the golem didn't stop. It was as if it was being controlled by another force. Omar ordered us to retreat. My guildmates who were near the entrance crossed the waterway, but when I tried to jump I bumped into Gerad who was rushing in to help, and I fell to the dry waterway. My leg was broken. When I looked out from the waterway, the atrium was filled with purple light radiating from the writing on the floor. I saw a huge shadow rising from the ground. I've never seen such an enormous skeleton before. The skeleton roared something; its voice was hoarse and rattling, but I could definitely understand what it was saying. "Who dares awaken the Great Tevent?" With this cry, other skeletons began to rise and they soon swarmed the Order of the Swan. People standing across the waterway tried to help from the distance, but the situation was getting bad, fast. Clay then took out a black crystal from his bag. The warriors fought hard to give Clay some time to prepare the spell. Roxie was especially stunning. But when she stepped on Lunar-0's head to jump and kill a couple skeletons that were coming after Clay, Clay was so startled that he dropped the crystal before his spell was ready to be cast. Page 4/5 Roen was quick enough to catch the falling crystal, which threw out a murder of inky crows. The raucous cawing, the sound of shrieking skeletons, and Roxie's happy shouts thundered in my eardrums. This drove Tevent mad, and he began to fling fire from his hands. Those who were caught in the fireblasts collapsed in agony to the ground and spread the flames to their comrades. Gerad, who was bravely blocking the fire with his shield, was knocked down. Roen picked up Gerad's shield, but she too was hit by the fire and got thrown into the air. Tevent grabbed her and opened his horrible maw. I began to scream in horror when Roen suddenly exploded with a huge sound and light. When I looked up again, Tevent's arm was gone. There was a sudden, strange coldness on my back- the gargoyles had begun to spew water. Gerad jumped into the waterway to extinguish the flames burning him. Once the fire was out, he called out for the others. Everyone was able to submerge themselves. They were finally safe from the fire, but Roen was still lying motionless on the ground. Some of the surviving skeletons began to move toward her again. Gerad ran to Roen, but the rest of us were too dazed or injured to do anything. Our stupor was broken when Roxie started swearing and yelling at us to retreat. So we began to run, or hobble in my case, towards the exit. Tevent tried to cross the waterway to come after us, but then he screamed painfully and fell back. I could have sworn he said something like "the Barrier of Sylaveth," but I can't be sure. Clay was still back with Lunar-0, too terrified to run. We wanted to help him, but he was too close to Tevent, and no one dared to approach. Page 5/5 Just when Tevent was about to bite off Clay's head, Clay flew and landed on the other side of the waterway. It was Roxie's rope arrow that ultimately pulled him out. Roxie's hands were bloody with abrasions, but she didn't care. She picked up Clay, and bravely ushered us outside. Labeed, who was waiting outside the temple, took us to a relatively safe area. We settled down with gloomy faces. It was obvious that Tevent and his skeletons couldn't come after us anymore, but we left behind two of our party still in the temple. The sun was setting, and everyone was looking at the temple anxiously. Suddenly, Roxie whistled. We saw a huge shadow walking toward us. It was Gerad, and he was carrying Roen in his arms. Omar let out a long sigh, and we all shook and laughed as if to celebrate our survival. I went to Gerad, along with my guildmates, to give him our compliments and offer wishes for Roen's fast recovery. We also thanked Clay for his amazing magic spells. But Clay humbly deflected our gratitude, saying that it wasn't really his own power. I wanted to ask him more about it, but Roxie just growled at me, so I gave up. While we survived, almost everyone in our guild was seriously injured, which meant we needed some time to rest. After a week, Omar brought us the payment and other related documents for this contract. The documents were about the Third Great War of Solisium and Trutizan, as well as the Grand General of Trutizan, "Kurt." According to the documents, when Kurt was newly appointed, he offered an Oath Artifact to his king. After the great war, Solisium, the victor, took five Oath Artifacts from Trutizan as their spoils of war. Tevent at the temple was one of such artifacts. The documents also detailed that Tevent could be awoken only by reading aloud the ancient writing on the floor. Meaning that Clay's stupid little golem was responsible for this whole catastrophe. I threw away the documents, thinking that golems were just stupid piles of rocks after all.
