Cemetery.

[Ace POV],

Looking at the moon In the distance that was slowly raising, I turned to Emma and spoke when I saw the certain sight in the distance.

"Let's walk," I said as we both slowed our charge and began walking forward.

Looking around as I moved forward, I remembered Sir Roland's words when he said he was the only one who could travel from the village to the nearest settlement and arrive in a day.

He wasn't joking because, on our journey from the village to this location, we didn't come across a single trace of any kind of settlement.

The village was essentially the only one within a few miles.

As I thought of these things, I finally got a little close to what made me say that Emma and I should slow down.

It was a forest, but unlike what a forest should look like, this one was a little peculiar.

As I was thinking of this, I heard Emma speak beside me.

"Is this the proper location for a cemetery?" Emma raised an eyebrow as she looked out at the forest in front of us.

I agreed with her because, aside from it being unusual to have a cemetery in a forest, the type of forest in front of me was even more unusual as a location for a cemetery.

Because of the situation in front of me, or rather the state of the forest in front of me, my thoughts were like this.

As far as my eyesight could see, there was a dark and gloomy forest full of dead trees.

The darkness that was falling over the environment as the sun set added to the gloomy image of the forest.

With one glance at this forest, the word 'dead' came to mind.

Everything in front of me was practically lifeless.

I couldn't find a single living tree that appeared to be alive until now.

As I continued to observe the outer area of the forest from where I stood, Emma's voice sounded as she addressed me.

"So, are we going in or not?" She inquired, and I turned to face her as I replied.

"Of course," I said simply as I walked into the gloomy-looking forest, my feet stepping on the black soil.

Emma, seeing this, followed me.

After a while of walking deeper into the forest and still seeing the same dead trees over and over again, I turned to Emma beside me who was now holding her wand, and asked a question.

"Can you sense anything?" I inquired, and Emma responded by shaking her head.

Seeing this, I said nothing else as we moved forward.

It wasn't until a while later that we abruptly stopped walking, and the reason was that Emma did.

Seeing this, I was about to speak when Emma conjured a light spear and shot it at a specific location before I could react.

When I saw this, I quickly turned to the location Emma shot the light spear at as I created several fire spears around me, and when I looked at the location Emma shot the light spear at, I saw two somewhat familiar-looking creatures and a pool of black liquid on the truck of tree a little bit far from my current location, and when I looked at the information of the creatures given to me by the primordial chronicle, I realized why I had thought they looked familiar.

[Rank 1 Stealth Oil Puppet Level 25],

[Rank 1 Stealth Oil Puppet Level 25],

'To think there were even variations among the oil puppets,' I thought as I realized why I hadn't detected the creatures' closeness before.

Emma and I stared at the creatures as they stared back at us as I reflected on this.

This went on for a few seconds before both creatures abruptly turned their backs on us and charged away.

When I saw this, I didn't wait for Emma to react before shooting the multiple fire spears that were already around me at the two oil puppets that were charging away from us.

As I watched my attack collide with the oil puppets, I saw them explode into black liquid.

Seeing this, Emma and I made our way to the location of the oil puppets, beginning with the one Emma shot down first, as something unexpected happened next as I watched the two oil puppets I had attacked earlier restore to their previous state.

When I saw this, I immediately summoned another round of fire spears, but Emma was faster than me, firing hers before mine as I watched the two oil puppets burst into black liquid once more.

When I saw this, Emma and I remained where we were, waiting for the oil puppets to resurrect, which they did not.

Seeing this, a thought occurred to me.

'So only the light element can one-shot them,' I reasoned, as I confirmed my suspicion that the oil puppet was related to the dark element.

That, or Emma's attacks are too powerful.

As I considered this, I turned to Emma, who also turned to face me and spoke.historical

"Looks like I was right about the cemetery being a clue," I said, and Emma nodded.

Because of the recent event, I was able to confirm two things.

One was that there should indeed be a cemetery here, and the other was that I was correct about the cemetery being a clue because if it wasn't, we wouldn't have encountered oil puppets of the same type that were responsible for the villagers' disappearance.

I was thinking of this as I watched Emma evaporate the black liquid around us as I extinguished the fire I made to the surroundings.

This was something I learned before I came to the true world though it required a little mana, I still did it because I didn't want to start a fire in a forest full of dead trees.

After Emma and I finished what we were doing, we continued our journey, moving deeper into the forest with our guards up.

....

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