Chapter 25: A Plan, To the Lake Void?

Back in the town square the party reconvene and make their way back towards their house, on the way back someone runs up behind them waving their arms around trying to catch the attention of one of them. The entire party stops and turns to wait for this mysterious person to catch up to them, each member wondering what they might want from them. As the man catches the party, he introduces himself and asks if they are the party that was given the grand quest, which Ilev confirms, the man then asks the party to save his daughter who has been taken into the void zone near the lake. He goes on to say he has nothing that he can give them but is able to arrange transportation to the site of the void and back, to which Ilev replies that they’ll think about it and if they are to take his request on, they’ll be waiting at the adventurer’s guild at sunrise tomorrow. With that the party turn and head on their way back to the house once more, now with a slight incentive on where to go first. Back at the house the group have splayed the many maps and sheets of information across the dinning room table discussing where they should be heading first in order to clear the grand quest.

“Why not just go to the lake? We have transport there and back. And if we get his daughter back, we might be able to leverage him for transport to the voids that are further away, or even get us part of the way to the Dark King’s castle.”
“A valid suggestion from Arano? Unbelievable, who are you and what have you done with my friend?”
“Oh shut it, Aromi. What do you think Ilev?”
“It’s a good idea; the lake void is a far way to go on foot. So, it’ll be nice to have the guaranteed transport, and we can always tackle the void closer to the city as we come back if we feel up to it. If no one has any objections I say we do that.”

With no one else speaking, the plan was decided. The party would take on the man’s request to attempt to save his daughter from the Lake void zone, while challenging the zone closer to the city as they made their way back depending on their condition and the amount of rest they get in between cleaning up the Lake void and getting to the closer void site. With the plan in place Lekly, Suieol and Ami headed back into town to gather some supplies for the journey ahead leaving Ilev and the others to sort out the groups equipment making sure it’s in peak condition before they leave before sunrise tomorrow. After returning and setting the gear away after the final checks were completed, and packing away the newly bought supplies into bags to be carried by each member, the party got together to eat dinner and then turned in for the night. Once morning arrived, the party left their house with their equipment all set and made their way through the darkened streets to the adventurer’s guild where they would wait until the sun rose for their transport to the Lake Void. As they reached the adventurer's guild, they spotted the man from yesterday waiting on a bench outside the main doors to the guild. Once he spotted the party approaching, he leapt up and greeted the party once more before guiding them to where he had arranged for the transport to pick them up from, as they walked he mentioned that the plains they would need to travel over to get to their destination were a known place where monster attacks were commonplace so they would need to be prepared to encounter a few monsters as they travelled across the plains. The man helped the group load their gear onto the cart that resembled the back of a modern day Unimog with benches inside, once the gear was onboard the man helped the Shin’ya members climb aboard the transport before mounting the drivers’ plate and taking the reins up and having them set off towards the Lake Void. After a few days of travel the group had made it about halfway to the Lake Void, with no monster activity having been seen as they crossed the plains despite the warning they had been given back in Seolford about the increased monster activity in the area.

“We’ve not come across any monsters during the journey so far, are you taking us a safer route or was what you said back in the city outdated information?”
“No, no. When I was traveling this plain with my daughter the day, she was taken this place was teeming with monsters, I only just about made it back to Seolford alive myself. This is a mystery even to myself, as I have always known this plain to be the most dangerous part of any journey as you head out of the city in this direction. It was the same way long before the appearance of the void too, so this sudden change is most unusual. I wonder if it because they can sense the power you all hold and are afraid to come close to you.”
“We did see something similar happen when we were in the Valley Void not long before we arrived in Seolford, we defeated a powerful monster and we had very little trouble with the regular monsters living within that void, so you might be correct. But you shouldn’t let your guard down as you never know what might happen tomorrow or in the next hour or next minute. Speaking of time how much longer until we reach our destination?”
“We should reach the Lake by nightfall tomorrow if we are able to continue our current pace, and in doing so will be the fastest people to have ever made that journey.”
“Right then. Lexa, Arano you’re up first for watch duty tonight.”
“Sure.”

The night like all the others on this journey passed without so much as a firefly approaching the camp, as the sun rose over the plains the group mounted up once more and set off for what they hoped to be a final day of travel before they get to clear another void zone.