Haven Online

Melting Snow was anticipating that there would be something incredible in this hidden room. Although he knew he shouldn't get his hopes up, because like Drifting Cloud said, this was a farmhouse cellar, but he just couldn't help himself.

Especially after he had found all of those awesome things earlier in the tree grove. Right now, his expectations were soaring through the sky as he walked closer towards the opening. 

However, the closer he came towards the opening, the more he wanted to recoil away from it. There was a distinct musty smell coming out from the hole, and it was beginning to overwhelm him.

The scent was a lot stronger than the dusty smell that the overall cellar had. It was as if it was more concentrated. 

Not wanting the smell to overpower him, Melting Snow halted in his steps, not daring to get closer. He tried to use his hands to cover his nose, but the damage was already done, and he began to violently cough. 

They were so severe that his entire body began to shake with them. It was similar to the time when he was five and decided to see what pepper smelled like.

Although he was young when it happened, he remembered the burning sensation in his nose vividly. That's when he learned that a person shouldn't try to smell certain things. 

Which made Melting Snow curious as to why he chose the Beastman race. He knew that this race's senses were more sensitive than any other species. They had enhanced hearing, eyesight, taste, and, most importantly, smell.

He usually keeps his enhanced senses settings on medium, and only puts them on low if the place is sensory overloaded. But there are times when he likes to put it on high, which is when he is eating Drifting Cloud food. 

It's a very high-end experience, but sadly this time, he forgot to put his settings back to normal, and he is paying for it. Hearing his friend's worried voice, he knew he needed to rectify his mistake.

Swiftly opening his interface, Melting Snow found the settings icon and clicked on it. After turning down his senses, he felt as though he could finally breathe again. 

~

Leaving the red alder wine racks behind, Xinya walked over to the mysterious wall opening, ready to explore the room on the other side. However, just as he was close enough to peer inside the dark opening, a powerful cough from behind made him pause mid-step.

Startled, he turned around only to see that Melting Snow had stopped about a foot away from him with no intention of moving closer. His hands were covering his nose, and he looked as though he was about to cough up a lung. 

If Xinya didn't know any better, he would say that the boy had gotten sick somehow, but he did know better. Something like getting sick was utterly impossible in this game.

Even though this game was incredibly realistic, he knew for sure that the DEVs weren't stupid enough to add any kind of illnesses to this game. Well, real ones.

Players were able to get ailments from certain monsters, but he knew that wasn't the case here. 

"Are you alright, Melting Snow? What's wrong?" Xinya asked worriedly, walking back over towards the boy.

But Melting Snow stopped him from coming closer with an outstretched hand. Xinya could tell that the boy was doing something inside of his interface because the boy became entirely well after a couple of seconds later. 

"I had had my sense of smell turned up on high, and the moldy smell coming out from the opening was too much for me to take. But after turning it down, I'm fine now," As if to prove his point, Melting Snow took a big sniff. "See, completely fine, so let's go check out the room."

"Are you sure you will be alright to go inside?" Xinya asked, still a little worried about the boy. 

From his understanding of the beastman race, their senses were very keen. Even in the lowest setting, their senses were still above the other races. This meant that if something smelled gross to him, it would be unbearable to the boy.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I put my setting on high when you were cooking the goodbye picnic and just forgot to put it back to normal," Melting Snow stated, before grabbing Xinya's hand and pulling him towards the opening.

~

The first thing Xinya noticed when he was pulled through the wall's opening was that the new room they were in was an office. A very luxurious office at that.

Taking in the entire room, Xinya saw that there was a writing table made of lacquered birch that was positioned in the far left corner of the darkest part of the room, the black leather chair behind it facing the wall. 

On top of the desk was a small golden lantern; next to it, there was a tower of parchments, not papers but curled yellow parchments. This indicated that the office, or the NPC who had used this office, had an abundance of coins. 

This surprised Xinya, for he thought that the NPC who lived here was a simple farmer, but he had an inkling that he was wrong. And the more he looked around, the more prominent that feeling became. 

There was a big piece of processed animal skin that hung on the wall next to the writing desk. Similar to a bulletin board, the animal skin had a bunch of parchments stuck to it. 

At the distance where Xinya stood, the writing was intelligible, since the letters were quite small. Although curious as to what was written on them, he wanted to take in everything first. 

Continuing to look around, he saw that on the ceiling that there were little pumps that could circulate the air inside and warm the office during winter. In the middle of the office, a sofa was filled with small handmade pillows and laid on top of a soft rug. 

In front of it was a small round coffee table that only reached up to Melting Snow's knees. And the walls were filled with shelves, which made sense since there were no windows underground.

There were 5 shelves filled with books and documents, one shelf was filled with ceramic glasses and some kind expensive liquor. The only reason why he knew that it was expensive liquor and not the cheap kind was because of that vile stepmother of his.

Xinya could still remember her whining to his father about how their friends served them some cheap rum, and she could only drink the clearest of liquors. Shaking his head in remembrance, he looked over at the other shelf.

This shelf held more books, but what caught his eye was an antique silver jewelry box with a jeweled lock sitting in the middle. He was quite interested in what could be inside of it. 

Deciding to find out, Xinya walked over to the shelf, as he did so, Melting Snow, who was also checking out the room, let out a sigh of disappointment.

'I guess Drifting Cloud was right. There's nothing exciting down here,' Melting Snow sighed, his expectations crushed. But then he thought about it. 'Although there is nothing mysterious down here, maybe there is learning material.'

Melting Snow still wanted to learn to farm, and he believed that one of these books would give him some insight into where to start. So with that thought in mind, he went over to one of the book-filled shelves on the opposite side of Xinya and began to read the book titles.