Quest 8: A Bug? What was that?

With the beast gone, everyone in the square was in a stunned silence over the whole encounter with the void beast. Panic set in over what the beast took from the building that Suieol was in, each member of the party took off in the direction of the building worried about the friend they left in the building. As they all reach the building their fears are realised as they find the room empty, the thing that was hanging from the mouth of the void beast was Suieol. Everyone slumped against a different object in the room with Eule just standing in the doorway not sure what to say or do.

“I think it’s finally time we ask about ability appraisal here, we need a way to defeat that thing and get Suieol back.” Ilev declared.
“Agreed. Failing that just some weapons would be nice to have so that if we have to fight something we don’t just have our hands.” Arano replied.
“Eule, do you have an appraisal orb or someone that can tell us if we have some special magical abilities or something that might make us more useful in fighting things or doing other tasks?”
“Well I do not know, maybe Ural will be able to help.”
“Who is Ural?”
“They are the village not so elder, elder apparently they are very good at recognising people’s latent skills or abilities. However, they do charge a high price for their services, and considering your current position it might be hard to convince them to help.”
“Well we had better try. But what we really need is more information on the beast. Do you have anything more you can tell use Eule, and would anyone else in the village have any information on the void beast?”
“I do not, everything I know I have shared with you already. And because of our fear of the beast none of the village have followed it or even tried to keep detailed notes about the beast.”
“Well that’s annoying, guess we’ll have to adapt on the fly like normal. If you could take us to Ural that would be great Eule.”

As Ilev finishes speaking Eule is already half out of the door, ready to lead the party to the leader of the village so that they might give some insight into the abilities or lack thereof of the party. As they walk through the village, a place that only a while ago had been full of life, was now shrouded in an eerie silence only broken by those on their way to meet Ural. As they arrived at the village hall a nervous air settled over the party from another world, as this meeting should finally clear up the doubts put into their head by the crown. They enter the village hall and take a seat waiting to be seen by Ural.

“Ah Eule, it appears you have bought guests for me. Why might they be here, hmm?”
“Uncle, these people before you are six of the seven other worlders that appeared not too long ago near Ehccihster.”
“Ah, well? What are they after?”
“They would like to know if you could perform an appraisal on each one of them to determine what other worldly powers they might be in possession of.”
“Hmmm. Knowing that you have nothing to give in return for my service you still come to see me. Why?”
“The void beast took our final party member when it attacked, and we want to know what power we might have so we can defeat it and get our friend back, sir.” A perfect formal response as the group has come to expect of Ilev. The elder across from the visitors remains silent as he contemplates the answer that he has been given by the other worldly visitors.

“Very well, I will accept your request for an appraisal. On the condition that you eliminate the void beasts that threaten this community. What say you?”
“We will agree to those terms. As we were planning on doing that anyway.”
“Then before my appraisal, I will give you a final piece of advice, seek out the void hunter. They live deep in the forest near the outer limit of the void, but be warned many void beasts litter the way there. Now onto the appraisals.”

After a while each member has been appraised and each has a skill that matches their role in the development of the game. With Ilev getting a leadership skill that can provide buffs, Arano and Ami are both able to adapt to any weapon quickly, Lexa and Aromi both getting increased spell capacity and finally Lekly had the ability to alter matter with relative ease like an alchemist. With the group finding out they had at least some rarer abilities for humans to possess they went back to the house they had been allowed to rest in to formulate a plan of action for any situation that may involve a fight, as they could not afford to be ill-prepared for the upcoming journey as they still had no funds to be able to purchase weapons or gear from the village, meaning their survival would come down to strategy and a little bit of luck. After a half day of devising plans and backups the group decided to spend the night in the village, trying to scrounge up as much information on the forest the villagers were willing to give out for free. After getting a proper night’s rest for the first time after being transported to this world, the group made their final preparations before leaving the village and heading towards what had been referred to by all as the void. Which engulfed an area along the far edge of the forest and made the environment there uninhabitable for anything, but the creatures born of it. While also keeping an eye out for the ‘Void Hunter’ who was someone who was experienced in dealing with navigating the void as well as killing the void beasts that came from within.

“Right then, if everyone is ready, let’s head out. We’re going to get Suieol back from that damned wolf thing.”