Ding!

  Tacha was shocked to read the notifications. She thought she had to suffer through all of her unkown dishes for all of her stay here. Though, she wasn’t completely cured from the blight. It just reverted back one stage.

  Does that mean that if she had activated it when she had just been afflicted, then she would have been completely cured?

  The granny shaked her head. There was no point in thinking about the what ifs, once she got out of here she would probably get naturally rid of the Voidblight. Now that the basement was decently illuminated, grandma Tacha could search for more clues to advance with the chain quest.

  In short, she had only to undertand how Layla became that… slimey thing. Well, it shouldn’t be that hard. Usually quests like these have all of the clues laying around.

  She thought for a bit. From where should she start?

  As she was reading the quest for ideas, the term Corruption catched her eye. It was the first time she saw it. There was no explanation if she focused on it, and none of the notifications before mentioned it. At least, she didn’t think so.

  Could it be some kind of Blight? The system did hint at multiple of them existing. Tacha frowned. She either didn’t met the conditions to get a tutorial about it, or the system notifications were sneakely concealing part of the information.

  She had to search the forum before logging in next time. If no one had ever heard of this term, then she had to change the way she looked at the system. If she trusted too much in its accuracy and definitions, she might one day make a fatal mistake during a quest because she had not enough information.

  As for the possibility of starting from the beginning… she had heard that it was a hassle. She was too old to have the patience to sit through hours and hours of paperwork.

  Stopping her wandering thoughts, she focused on the quest description.

  If we assume that the Corruption is a severe version of the Blight, then that would mean that Layla probably caught it here in this room. A prolonged exposure to the Blight would have worsened the disease and turned her into that slimey form.

  Still, it’s weird. Couldn’t she have operated the array? It seems like its main effect was to dispel the Blight. But what if she didn’t? If it wasn’t for the fact that both me and Fr?st were trapped here in the darkness, we would have never bothered to activate it. Unless it was for searching for more treasures. That is the most effective way to entice players.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  So, assuming I was a normal researcher, here just to take a look at the ruins, I wouldn’t carelessly touch some strange machine without understanding it first. It might be a death trap.

  Tacha nodded to herself. Then, if her suppositions are on the nose, then wouldn’t she have left some notes somewhere?

  Her eyes darted around the room. At last, stopping into a suspicious spot not far from the Metal Emblem. She crouched down; in front of her there was a little pile of muck that covered an exhausted magic lamp, of the same type she had brought back at the general store. The lamp didn’t look like anything special, but a small window appeared at the corner of her eye.

  The completion percentage of the quest seemed to have gone up. Was it a clue? She put it aside and the percentage didn’t decrease. It seemed like it wasn’t necessary for her to keep the item.

  Tacha got up, but halfway through she noticed that the slab where the lamp was before was slightly higher than the rest of the floor. Curious, she tried to raise it, and it came off with ease. Under it was a worn notebook.

  Bingo! With sparkling eyes, she checked its contents. In it there were various writings detailing the ruins themselves. From the suspected datation of the building, to an in-depth analysis of the murals found inside.

  However the latest entries were messy and rushed; quite a contrast with the neatly handwriting found at the start. The last few pages were completely ruined, with the slimey grime smeared all over it. Not that it mattered since the handwriting had already become unreadable by that point.