The Homeseeker: Elemental Adventurer LitRPG [Isekai] (Series Complete!)

Rep and Zalan made their way through Nightfall, often staring at the sky or the horizon.

"What time of day do you think it is?" Zalan asked.

"Penelope told us it was morning," Rep said.

"Yeah, but like, crack of dawn? Is the sun over the horizon? How far into the morning?" Zalan gazed upward.

"I do not have the slightest idea," Rep said, equally curious.

They couldn't see a moon or sun anywhere in the sky. Zalan wondered how the town collectively agreed when morning and night would happen. Was it some massive circadian rhythm they lived by? Were they all awake at the same time, or did they stagger in and out of sleep? Zalan realized that it was possible that it was actually nowhere near morning. If the town agreed on what time it was in the veil of darkness, nothing could prove otherwise unless someone exited the town. Were times of day just an arbitrary time in the town? Additionally, he wondered what the edge of the town looked like. Was it a wall of darkness, separating the town from the rest of the world? Or was it more like a dome?

Rep and Zalan saw someone making their way across town, hauling kindling wood on his back.

"Excuse me, sir!" Rep waved to him.

"Looking to buy torches? Or firewood?" the man asked immediately.

"No, we are looking for the Depths of Despair. We were told it would be somewhere along this road. Do you know exactly how to find it?" Rep asked.

"The Depths of Despair?" The man shuddered and shook his head to himself. "Are you certain you want to go there?"

"Yeah, we're sure." Zalan nodded.

"You should take a torch with you, at least. The monsters there shy away from light," the man said, holding out one of the thicker pieces of wood he was carrying.

"We should be fine," Rep produced a flame from his palm. "We only require directions."

"I would still recommend a few torches," he insisted.

"One couldn't hurt," Zalan nodded, handing the man a gold coin for one. He gasped audibly.

"Just one?"

"With the power of flame at our side, yeah," Zalan nodded.

"I see." He adjusted the haul of wood on his back and flicked his head behind him. "The wretched mines are in that direction. Where exactly, I never dared to learn. You should ask someone who lives closer."

"Very well, thank you," Rep said, passing him by and extinguishing the fire in his hand. The man grunted and continued on his way.

At the next home, a woman was cleaning a bucket of clothes in the light of a torch planted in the ground. Zalan wondered if she was outside because she didn't have a torch for the inside of her home.

"Excuse me, do you know the way to the Depths of Despair?" Rep asked.

She looked up at Rep and Zalan, studying them. Water spilled down the side of the bucket and she wrung a pair of soaked trousers.

"Are you friends of Finnegan's?" she inquired.

Zalan raised an eyebrow. The name was familiar, but he couldn't recall why. He looked to Rep, wondering if it was someone he knew.

"No, neither of us are familiar with him," Rep answered.

"Then you do not want to go into the Depths of Despair. Men go in. Men do not come out," she said simply.

"We intend to go in regardless," Zalan said.

"And we will be coming out," Rep added.

The woman dunked the trousers back into the tub. They were shrouded by the darkness of the dirty water, unable to be seen even in such shallow levels. She focused on drowning the apparel for a moment before looking back up to the two friends. She gave them a dismissive shrug.

"Hmm… I do not know where it is, but someone down that way should be more aware. If you truly intend to go inside the mines, can you look to see if you can get Finnegan out? In the unexpected case you manage to find your way out alive."

Zalan frowned at her lack of confidence in them, but Rep looked unperturbed.

"Of course. Who is Finnegan?" Rep asked.

"He's younger than the two of you by a few years. A bit of a troublemaker around town, if I am being honest," the woman admitted. "But his parents were good people. They went missing a few months back and Finnegan has been acting out ever since. Steals from others like there is no tomorrow. Or… I should say 'stole.' He will not be doing much stealing from within the Mines of Madness. But we owe it to his parents to at least send someone to get him out."

"How many people have you sent before us?" Zalan asked.

"None," she answered like it was the only answer. "No one from town would risk their life to save him. No one cares that much."

Rep and Zalan stared at her. They were waiting for her to say something more, or correct herself as she sounded so heartless toward him. She had placed her attention back on the trousers she pulled from the water, scrubbing them against the side of the water barrel to brush out imperfections. She looked back up at them, surprise in her eyes at their still being around.

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"Is there something else you wanted?" she asked impatiently.

"Oh, uhh, no. Thanks," Zalan said, making their way further down the path.

They walked by a few more houses, growing anxious by their lack of distinct progress. Everything looked and felt dark ahead of them. It felt equidistant ahead and behind them. It was disorienting, and Zalan knew it was only going to get worse. They were making their way to the abyss.

"That was kind of messed up how she talked about Finnegan," Zalan mentioned.

"Living in a town of total darkness might do that to a person," Rep shrugged.

Zalan nodded, wondering how true that was. Penelope seemed nice, at least. They came across another man starting his day.

"Good, sir! My name is Rep. What might I call you?" Rep asked him with a gentle wave.

The older man looked him over, apparently surprised by the pleasantness.

"Seig."

"Well met, Seig. Which way to the Depths of Despair?" Rep asked, continuing his affable demeanor.

"You do not mean to end your lives, do you?" the man asked. He had turned immediately stern, the wrinkles on his face all trending downward. "The Depths of Despair are nothing to trifle with unless you have good reason."

"We have good reason," Rep assured him.

"Then you had better find a better reason not to go," Seig replied.

Rep and Zalan waited uncomfortably, not certain how to reply to that. Seig sighed.

"If you must insist on going, try and search for a young one named Finnegan. He is one of ours, from Nightfall. His parents are gone and we did a poor job looking after him in their absence. He acted out, unfortunately. And his parents were good people, that is certain."

"We can look for him if you point the way," Rep said.

Seig pursed his lips, the wrinkles on his face deepening.

"Are you certain? Do you know that the Mind of Madness lives in there? And many other dark monsters. And that the mines are in total darkness, almost eating away at any light? And that men even at Level 15 have gone in and never come out?" Seig listed.

"We are well aware of the dangers," Rep nodded. Zalan nodded in agreement, despite some of the dangers listed being a little new. Total darkness eating away any light sounded like a nightmare he hoped was only an exaggeration. And Level 15 seemed like a stretch, but he had no way of corroborating.

The man looked between Rep and Zalan a few times, scanning them up and down.

"Very well, but do not blame me when you end up as food for the Mind of Madness or other monsters in the mines," Seig said firmly. "And do not forget Finnegan. Even if he is belligerent with you."

"We've heard he's been stealing and acting out, but what exactly is he doing? Like, pickpocketing?" Zalan asked.

"He has been swindling visitors of any funds he can get from them. He asks for initial investments for convoys that travel into the Depths of Despair, promising huge sums of return. The mines contain valuable gems, after all. Of course, there are no such convoys. No one would willingly travel into the Depths of Despair for money…" Seig trailed and he looked them over with narrow eyes. "Are you going into the mines in search of newfound wealth?" Seig double checked.

"No, not at all," Rep answered.

The man nodded sharply, pleased.

"We tried to stop Finnegan from seeing those who would visit Nightfall, but he always found a way. He would even use our tactics against us. He told the people that the reason the city of Nightfall didn't want foreigners to invest was so that they would maintain much higher profits on the 'guaranteed' returns," the older man explained.

"He probably made a lot of money if he was charismatic," Zalan guessed.

"It was never enough for him," Seig lamented. "He was insatiable once his parents disappeared."

"What happened to his parents?" Rep asked.

"The city of Nightfall fell on hard times. They took it upon themselves to try and find us the money necessary so that we would not have to move away from our homes. They were wise not to go into the Depths of Despair when they were desperate for money. They ended up going to a castle in search of an old king's riches. And we never heard from them again. They were a formidable couple, the most powerful in the city. They must have been defeated by something very powerful," Seig suggested.

"His parents… Did they go to Castle Docrun?" Rep asked, his eyes wide.

Zalan twisted his head Rep's way.

"Errm," Seig rubbed his chin. "Yes, I suppose that was the name of it. Why do you ask?"

"They had passed away in a Chaos Chamber. We saw their bodies," Rep said.

"We did?" Zalan asked, surprised. He had hardly remembered the fact there were dead people in the Chaos Chamber, much less where those people came from.

"A Chaos Chamber! What a sinister way to die," Seig shook his head. "I knew that it was all but certain they had perished, but it is still saddening to hear it confirmed. In fact, I believe the reason Finnegan ran into the Depths of Despair was to escape the townspeople telling him his parents would never return. That he was doing an injustice to their names for all the thievery he was committing. It was clear the people of the city had no care for him beyond his parents. He could not take the news, especially when there was no one who wished to speak with him with care."

Seig reflected on his own words for a few seconds. Zalan wondered if he had recently said something to Finnegan that he regretted now that the young man had run off. Seig blinked his thoughts away and looked back at the duo.

"Do either of you have Elemental Powers that emit light? Fire? Lightning? Light?" Seig listed.

"I have Elemental Fire." Rep presented a tiny candlelight of flame on his index finger.

"Good. It is very necessary in the Depths of Despair. If you did not have it, I would say your deaths were guaranteed. To go there, you will need to follow the path out that way. There will be a trail of Nightbloom that takes you to the mouth of the mines… But do not feel shame if you wish to turn back once you reach the opening. Even the path there can have some wretched monsters lurking in the shadows," Seig explained, pointing the way.

Zalan peered out into the darkness, not able to see very far. The name Finnegan still nagged at him, but he couldn't place it. The name had a serious intensity to it, like he met him under extreme pressure.

"Do you have a wall between here and there? One that surrounds the city?" Zalan asked.

"No, the monsters shy away from our torches. And the Mind of Madness would ram its infernal head through any walls we made, reducing them to rubble," Seig explained.

Rep blinked in surprise. He had never heard of a city that didn't have a wall. He thought it was the first thing that needed to be built in order to call any location a city.

"Thank you for your time," Rep said, nodding in appreciation.

"You had better come back with your lives. Otherwise I will have wasted my time," Seig replied. "And be quick to find Finnegan! I fear every second spent in the mines could be his last."

The three waved each other off and went in opposite directions. It wasn't long before Rep and Zalan felt like they were at the edges of the city. The city's torches stopped lighting the way, and they were left only with Rep's Elemental Power held aloft for illumination. Rep made the flame large, trying to brighten as much of the area around them as possible. Zalan looked around, the visibility something that should have been a comfort to him.

Despite this, Zalan couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched by something he couldn't see. Something invisible and powerful.