Quest 10: Preparation?

“What? Your friend was taken? How long ago? What did the beast look like?”
“Uhh well, yes, she was taken after the beast grabbed her with its mouth thingy, she was unable to escape because of an injury. It happened last night and remember the beast you killed when you found us, it looked like it was just a bigger one of them.”
“I see. It was probably the Grand Void Wolf, as per my observation it seems to be the alpha of the void wolf pack and maybe even the leader of all void beasts. At least you’re hasn’t been exposed to the void for too long so there’s a good chance they’re still alright, as long as the wound they suffered wasn’t still open.”
“We managed to get the wound mostly healed in Daphnie where the Owlin’s live, and what do you mean exposed?”
“I forget you’re not from here, the void supposedly leaks an energy that corrupts living beings that are exposed to it for too long. The bigger the being the longer it takes for the energy to do what it does, it’s how the void beasts came about. When the void formed all the animals that were inside and got exposed to the energy the void emits for too long and so they transformed into what we now know as void beasts.”
“Isla what happens to humans that are exposed for too long?”
“I can’t answer that, as I myself do not know the answer. As you can expect no one really wants to willingly volunteer themselves to exposure to void energy so that others can find out what happens, and researchers don’t want to do it themselves for the same reason. But if I had to guess, I would assume something similar would happen to any living being.”
“Well that’s concerning. Isla how do we kill one of these void beasts? They seem stronger than normal.”
“And how are we meant to navigate the void to look for our friend if the energy it releases is gonna do that to us?”
“One at a time, Ilev you are right they do get stronger when they absorb the void energy, makes them more resistant to any attack that can’t cut through the surface, but even then it makes those attacks harder to inflict a lot of damage. It also makes them weaker to any magical attack, as apparently void counts as an element which means adding more through magic causes them to experience an elemental overload, according to some information I overheard. As for what you asked about Arano, at the moment we have no way of navigating the void without exposure to its energy. The only way to not end up corrupted is not to stay inside for too long, and no we don’t know how long is too long as you can probably imagine no one really wants to find that out either.”
“Yeah I really don’t want to find out either, that kind of thing is scary.”
“I agree with Ami, I’d rather not spend more than an hour or so inside with such little information.”
“Well I’m not going to force either of you to come with us but it would be a huge help if you came with us, Lekly and Ami, but as I said I will not force you to come along. And that goes for all of you.”
“I’ll come with ya, if magic is their weakness, then I’d be a good fit. If we find somewhere that can teach or give me spells to use.”
“I will also accompany you for the same reason as Lexa, we’re the best shot we have at killing those beasts.”

As the rest of the gang all agreed to enter the void and the prospect of finding out some of the secrets to this world and maybe a fix to the source of these bugs, Ami changed her mind and decided that it would in fact be worth going. Lekly on the other hand decided that they would stay behind and wait for the rest back in Daphne. Isla however avoided committing either way saying that she’d have to see how active the beasts were outside of the void before being able to come with us, as she was the only one defending the forest villages from more frequent attacks from the beasts. As everyone sets off for their own assignment the main group of the Shin’ya guild start walking through the forest following some instructions and taking a small sum of money from Isla they set off to find the nearby merchant guild so they can get some weapons and gear to help protect themselves.

“So Lexa, question are you just not gonna wear those shoes anymore?”
“Nope, not much point. They’re so destroyed that they don’t actually offer that much protection anymore so they’re useless.”
“Fair enough, so according to Isla the merchant guild should be past the decaying tree on the left as we approach, and then we should see not too long after a boulder and carved within should be the entrance to this guild’s market.”
“As well as that they should have armour, weapons and if we’re lucky the collector of magic scrolls should be back from their expedition to the northern lands. I hope that they have some cheap elemental weapons so that me and Ami aren’t completely useless.”
“We’ll just have to see, remember we don’t have much to spend, and our priority is getting any elemental magic so that Lexa and Aromi can be our main vanguard. But whatever we’re able to get after that we will, but we will have to spend on things that will be useful for this quest alone for now.”

As the five remaining members of the Shin’ya guild walk, they finally come across the decaying tree and take a left, only to immediately encounter a small wolf like void beast. Taking what Isla had told them about killing a void beast while totally unarmed the group moved in and started attacking the beast from all angles, not allowing it to move or pick a single target to try and attack, eventually the beast succumbed to the relentless blunt force attacks and left behind a small gemstone like object that Arano picked up after the group decided to take it with them to the merchants to try and sell for a bit of extra coin to use on gearing up for their quest into the void.