Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

The entire day spent flying showed more than anything else how much of a lead Foast had, watching the sun start to set by the time they broke free of the woods and left the untamed lands of the planet, getting to see some signs of logging activity that had gone on down below, telling them all that some sort of settlement had to have been nearby.

"Thera, take us down lower," Ben told her. "Even if it's slim, if we see anyone, then I can check to see if they might have found anything."

"Got it."

Their craft descended but not so low they could touch the ground. With the light they still had, they could see Abel's monstrosities running ahead of them, following Foast's scent as they continued on, finding no one along the way until the edge of a village appeared in the distance.

"Abel?"

"He passed through it."

"Okay, good. For now, Thera, stop at the edge of the village and let us out. Since we're here, we're asking around. Everyone, break into your groups and talk to who you can about if any unfamiliar faces have passed through here in the last few days and if they noticed anything that stood out about them if they did. The more information we can get about whatever might have left Foast cutting contact, the better, even if it's going to delay us by a few hours."

By using the power of both Thera and Abel together, he was confident that they'd be able to catch up to him but with no knowledge still about whatever was happening, he judged it best to take the chance at reconnaissance while they had it for whatever clues it might give. With the speed they could move, they had to be gaining on him but still not knowing what they'd find, a couple hours of investigation might mean the difference between life and death.

So with the order given they got out and moved, breaking into their groups and splitting up once they got to the village, Abel quietly sniffing at the air and going of her own way with a look of confusion on her face while Ben and Thera walked by themselves, both instantly able to tell that something was wrong.

"Even if it's late, you'd still expect one or two people to be out at this time," Thera muttered.

"Yeah, you'd also expect some noise, or in my case, the presence of even a single soul to connect to in any of the houses we've passed."

"A ghost town then? It's not like it's uncommon for some villages to have been abandoned by this point. Not exactly safe to live on the edge of the untamed lands when it's the hardest area to clear out compared to any demons trying to survive in places with civilization around."

"Mmh, you're not wrong, but… something feels off."

The further they explored, the greater that impression got. Just walking down the streets, it was easy to see that a few doors and windows had been left open, not exactly a priority to deal with when abandoning a place yet still raised alarms in his head.

He was no tracker but he still noticed no signs of a rush, anything to imply that whoever had lived there had been chased out or been in any sort of hurry and without that, not bothering to even lock up behind them couldn't look anything other than odd.

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Which means we need to investigate the spooky abandoned town while it gets darker and darker. Ugh, I hate it here.

The atmosphere couldn't help but feel eerie no matter how silly that might have been. So long as it was within the range of his soul, nothing could hide from him and even beyond that, he had his sacrilege and soul sight to tell him if anything was hiding there. What even was there to fear? Ghosts, a phenomenon he'd encountered multiple times since ending up on that world? Monsters, like so many animals there would already look like to the humans of Earth?

Yep, being silly. Okay, for now, the streets aren't showing anything new. We need a change of scenery, which means…

"I guess we should explore a few of the houses," he groaned, remembering what a bad idea splitting up always was in horror movies and feeling a pang of regret that he'd gotten his group to do it before entering the village.

But, in my defense over any idiots deciding to split up while being hunted by a slasher, I'd been expecting a perfectly normal town!

Not bothering to look for any door that was opened, Ben instead went to the closest closed one and tried the handle, finding it locked. Not an insurmountable issue though as he felt it with his material senses to get the structure and used his magic to open it from the other side, frowning a bit as he did.

"I feel like how easy that was made for a decent sign that I should up our home security a bit."

"If someone really wants to break in, then I think they'll be able to no matter what you do," Thera pointed out.

"I mean-"

"And aunty isn't going to let you booby trap her home like you did your other place."

"I feel like I might be able to wear her down a bit."

"Our home also has three awakened skill holders plus Mora. What could anyone do if they wanted to?"

"That's only if anything was tried while we're there, but okay, I get your point. Improving our home security can be a future project. For now, what stands out here to you?"

"Nothing really, I guess it looks lived in."

The house wasn't large but it was what one might expect when walking into anyone's home. Some furnishing, a few knickknacks, and not completely tidy. An old glass of water was sitting on a side table, looking like it was waiting to be drunk, and a pair of shoes looked like they'd been kicked off without much care. A similar scene he would have expected to find if they'd walked into any home in Stonewall.

"But it also doesn't look like anyone's packed up to leave," he thought aloud. "If they did abandon this place to try and move somewhere safer, then they didn't bother bringing anything with them, at least nothing obvious. A few portraits on the wall didn't have enough sentimental value?"

"That doesn't mean anything for sure. Even if there's some emotional connection to some of this stuff, they could have left with the hope that one day they'd come back and only took what they thought was important."

"Mmh, true. Let's look around some more first, I guess."

With further investigation only strengthening Ben's feeling. While not much more to investigate, the bedroom didn't seem to have had anything packed away from it. Drawers were full of clothing and properly folded and when they got to the kitchen, there were a few dishes waiting to be cleaned with a cold box to store food still half full.

"Oh, that's a bad sign," Ben muttered as he looked in it, with Thera in agreement.

"Nothing rotten or spoiled. Definitely paints a timeline for how long it could have been abandoned for."

"An even shorter one than you think," Ben said as he examined the enchanted item. "This thing is painfully normal. No magic materials to power it and the enchantments had to be done by someone with around the fourth level of the skill which, while not bad for an everyday appliance, is seriously going to limit it."

"By how much?"

"Whoever owned this would have had to have used their own mana to make sure it kept working and those enchantments still had enough juice in them to keep them powered, even with no one here. Whenever everyone disappeared in the village, it could only have happened within the last couple of days."