Cedric’s finger stopped on the map, steadily drawing a circle, his deep voice carrying a hint of seriousness:
“It’s here—the cemetery outside Olivius City.”
Helos and Julius both leaned forward to look at the map.
“A month ago, the cemetery’s Caretaker came to find us.”
Cedric raised his gaze and looked at the two of them. “He said that traces of the Undead have appeared in the depths of the cemetery.”
“The Undead?”
Helos couldn’t help but interrupt him. Her purple eyes suddenly lit up, and a bit of excitement flashed through them instead. “Is it a Wraith? Or a Skeleton?”
Julius glanced at her, a vein on his temple throbbing slightly.
Most people would feel their hearts tighten upon hearing such things, but this girl was different; her eyes were practically sparkling with stars.
However, Cedric shook his head:
“Neither. It’s just some Will-o’-the-wisps condensed from resentment.”
“Will-o’-the-wisps?”
Helos blinked and asked with some surprise, “Isn’t that just a natural phenomenon?”
“Natural will-o’-the-wisps are just simple flames, completely different from the Will-o’-the-wisps among the Undead,” Cedric explained.
“The Will-o’-the-wisps I’m talking about are classified as Undead because they can attach themselves to objects, corpses, or even living creatures. If they aren’t cleared out in time and gather in large numbers, they can easily cause a disaster.”
Helos held her breath, her eyes shimmering with unconcealed curiosity.
“However, they aren’t actually that much of a threat.”
Cedric continued, “Before possession, they can be completely destroyed with just Holy Light. Even after possession, Holy Light can greatly weaken their mobility.”
He paused and stared at the two of them before continuing:
“According to the Caretaker’s description, Will-o’-the-wisps emerge from the depths of the cemetery at irregular intervals. He has cleared many with magic during his daily patrols, but they keep popping up every few days.”
“Therefore, your mission is to investigate the cause of the Will-o’-the-wisps’ appearance and clear some of them out while you’re at it.”
The room fell into silence.
The light in Helos’s eyes grew even more intense, while Julius simply took a deep breath and nodded solemnly:
“Understood, Teacher. Leave it to us.”
Early the next morning, as the sky was just beginning to turn pale, the gates of Olivius City slowly opened.
The heavy iron gates let out a dull roar under the pull of magic, as if foretelling the start of a new journey.
Helos carried a small pack on her back and gripped her slender rapier tightly, her spirits as high as if she were going on a picnic.
Her silver-white hair fluttered gently in the morning breeze, and her eyes were bright, filled with anticipation.
After all, the cemetery wasn’t far from Olivius City; the distance from the Cathedral to the cemetery wasn’t even as far as the Duke’s Mansion.
Julius, on the other hand, had a somewhat solemn expression. He was dressed in light armor with his longsword hanging at his waist.
He hadn’t just prepared his sword and armor; he had also asked Helos to prepare a few extra potions for him, just in case.
“Hey.”
He looked at the girl beside him and sighed. “You aren’t really just coming along to watch the show, are you? We’re going to investigate the Undead.”
“Hmph, what do you know.”
Helos put her hands on her hips with full confidence. “For a researcher, seeing the Undead with one’s own eyes is a rare experience!”
“Besides, with my constitution, what kind of Undead would be so tired of living that they’d dare to approach me?”
Undead tired of living?
Hearing this, Julius couldn’t help but hold his forehead.
That’s a contradiction, right? It has to be.
But coming from this girl, it seems oddly fitting?
“Sigh, whatever. You have a point.”
The two of them, one after the other, walked out of the city gates along the stone-brick road.
The morning sun spilled across the land. In the misty distance, the outlines of the forest and the cemetery were faintly visible.
The road wasn’t exactly quiet; occasionally, a merchant caravan would pass by with their wagons, or a hunter would come the other way carrying their prey.
But as they gradually approached the cemetery, the atmosphere in the air grew increasingly cold and desolate.
Overgrown paths replaced the flat stone road, and the sound of the wind blowing through carried a chilly aura.
“We’re almost there,” Julius reminded the girl behind him.
Helos looked up and gazed down the road ahead—it was a cemetery surrounded by low stone walls, with moss clinging to the tombstones as if whispering the history of people from the past.
***
In front of the cemetery gates, a middle-aged man in a gray robe leaned on a wooden staff, yawning out of boredom as if waiting for something.
“Are you the Caretaker?”
Julius stepped forward and spoke politely.
The man looked up, a trace of exhaustion in his eyes.
“Are you the ones sent by the Church?”
He looked Julius up and down, seemingly recognizing his attire.
“Yes,” Julius nodded. “We’re here to investigate the Will-o’-the-wisps.”
“I see…”
The Caretaker sighed softly, sounding both relieved and more worried. “How could those guys send two children over?”
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter.”
Before Julius could respond, the man waved his hand and pointed toward the depths of the cemetery. “Follow me. The place where the Will-o’-the-wisps appear most frequently is in the innermost Old Cemetery.”
The two exchanged a glance and followed the Caretaker into the depths of the cemetery.
Along the way, stone tablets lay tilted, weeds grew in abundance, and dilapidated tombs looked like beasts with gaping maws, emitting an old and eerie aura.
The wind brushed past, rustling the withered yellow grass.
“This is the Old Cemetery.”
The Caretaker pointed ahead.
Helos looked up and saw that this part of the cemetery was even more desolate than the previous one.
The tombstones were crooked, most with names so blurred they were illegible, and some were merely broken stones barely standing.
The air was filled with a damp, cold chill that felt somewhat out of place compared to the outside.
“Most of these graves are unclaimed,” the Caretaker continued to explain.
“No family members have come for them, so the bones are buried here all alone. Normally, it wouldn’t be strange for resentment to brew in a place like this, but—”
He paused, his brow furrowing deeply:
“No matter how I clear them, the Will-o’-the-wisps always come back. It’s as if they’re being constantly driven by some source.”
“Hmm…”
Helos muttered softly, her purple eyes shimmering with intense curiosity. “In other words, this place was already prone to Will-o’-the-wisps, but the frequency has been unusually high lately?”
“Exactly.”
The Caretaker nodded.
Julius had a solemn expression as he gripped his sword hilt and looked around warily. Even if it was just a cemetery, he couldn’t feel even a shred of peace at this moment.
Helos, however, was not as tense as he was. Instead, she looked around excitedly, her gaze seeming to memorize every inch of the place.
Suddenly, a wisp of blue-green light emerged beside a tombstone not far away.
The speck of light flickered uncertainly at first, then gradually solidified into a swaying flame, suspended in mid-air.
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Awww, baby’s first adventure.