Before long, Nawa arrived at the red dot marked on his system map. It was a large, single-story wooden house located on the eastern edge of the village, far removed from the main residential area. Surrounding the house were several nurseries and garden plots, clearly used for cultivating medicinal herbs.
As he drew closer, the air grew thick with the pungent scent of medicinal plants—yet, strangely, the aroma felt soothing to inhale.
*Knock, knock.* Nawa rapped on the wooden door. A moment later, it opened to reveal a woman in her early thirties.
"Excuse me... may I ask what you need? If you're here to buy potions, please come back another day," she said.
She looked deeply sorrowful—as if she had been crying so much she hadn't slept—and even as she spoke, she seemed to be stifling a sob.
"Um... well, I'm not actually here to buy potions. I'm following up on a quest from the guards in the town of Matterhorn; they asked me to find out why the herbalist, Mandis, hasn't delivered the medicine to the town."
Caught off guard by her visible distress, Nawa found himself stumbling over his words, inadvertently using the kind of phrasing one might hear in an RPG.
"So, it's true, then... *sob*..." With that, the woman collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down her face.
Taken aback and struck by a sudden sense of guilt, Nawa realized she must have already known about her husband's disappearance—his question had only served to reopen the wound. He knelt down, helped her to her feet, and said gently,
"Please, stop crying. If there's something weighing on your mind, I'm here to listen."
"Perhaps I might be able to help you."
After a while, the young woman managed to compose herself. Though she was still weeping, she was coherent enough to speak.
She explained that she was the wife of Mandis the apothecary, and that she lived with him and their young child. They made a living by cultivating medicinal herbs, processing them into potions, and selling them to adventurers in the village and the town of Matterhorn.
Last month, her husband had set off for Matterhorn on a trading trip, as he often did. He should have returned home two weeks ago.
When he failed to return, she asked the village chief to send a search party. Today, the search party reported finding the remains of Mandis's wagon near a nest of Lizardmen—but there was no sign of anyone in the vicinity.
At this point, the woman could no longer hold back her tears and broke down sobbing once more.
"Please, calm yourself, ma'am. Before I arrived here, I heard that the village chief has offered a bounty of 20 silver coins for the Lizardmen, which has drawn nearly a hundred adventurers. Surely, they will be able to rescue your husband."
"There's no need to offer me empty comfort. I may only be a housewife, but I know full well that those missions aren't aimed at rescuing my husband."
Hearing this, Nawa had to re-evaluate the woman before him. She was far sharper than he had initially assumed—and as for the mission announced by the village chief… The goal wasn't to rescue the apothecary, Mandis—it was to protect the village from the Lizardmen.
That was precisely why the village chief had set such a high bounty on the Lizardmen.
Before Nawa could say a word, a young boy, no more than six years old, ran out from the house and threw his arms around his mother's legs, his face streaming with tears.
"Mom, please don't cry! I'll go find Dad myself—I promise! *Sob, sob, sob…*"
The woman collapsed, pulling her son into an embrace as she began to weep.
The sight brought tears to Nawa's own eyes; he understood exactly how the boy felt. Kneeling down, Nawa gently stroked the child's hair and said,
"Kid, I'm going to bring your father back. In the meantime, you take good care of your mom, alright?"
"Don't lie to me! I heard everything just now—nobody's actually planning to save my dad! *Sob…*" the boy cried, tears coursing down both his cheeks.
"Please, forgive my son—he's just very upset, which is why he said that," the apothecary's wife said, her expression filled with anxiety.
"But I'm afraid I have no money to pay you; most of our funds went into making potions—all of which vanished along with my husband."
"I don't need any money," Nawa replied, his tone steady, though his gaze remained sharp and intensely serious.
"Just tell your husband, when he returns, to sell me some potions at a discount—that'll be enough." Far from mere empty consolation
"Why would you want to help my husband?" she asked, swallowing the rest of her words as she looked down at her child.
"Because your husband might just be the one who can save my father's life," Nawa replied. His tone was calm, yet his eyes and demeanor betrayed a fierce, unwavering determination.
"Are you really going to bring my father back?" the little boy asked, his voice polite and his eyes suddenly bright with hope.
Nawa gently stroked the boy's head, his expression filled with confidence.
"Leave that to me. I promise I'll bring your father back. In the meantime, you'll have to take his place—look after your mother well. Do you understand?"
The boy pondered for a moment before giving a small, firm nod.
"Yes—I'll take care of Mom, just like Dad would!"
As the boy finished speaking, his mother pulled him into an embrace, tears streaming down her face once more—but this time, they were tears of relief and newfound hope.
*Ding!*A familiar sound echoed in Nawa's mind, and a system window popped up before him.
[Quest (Rank B): Find Mandis the Alchemist and bring him back to Taiban Village.]
[Details: The village alchemist, Mattheron, has gone missing in the forest, taking a large quantity of potions with him. Locate the alchemist and bring him back.] ...safely to Taiban Village.)
( Reward: A discount of over 30% on potion purchases in Taiban Village. )
( Reputation: 150 )
( Reward: ???? )
Nawa studied the quest window thoughtfully. The fact that the system rated this quest as Rank B meant its difficulty was on par with the "Dealing with the Anacondominium" mission he had previously undertaken—the most difficult quest he had ever accepted.
Generally, the difficulty level of a mission corresponds to a player's strength. If a player's strength is lower than the mission's rank, the chances of success become extremely slim—while the risk of the player dying during the mission increases significantly.
Given Nawa's current level of strength, attempting a B-rank mission alone would be tantamount to throwing his life away—with an over 80% chance of a fatal outcome. Even so, Nawa had no intention of abandoning his goal.
He dismissed the idea of logging out; doing so would waste too much time. Although he felt confident that the alchemist was still safe, the unexpected could always happen. His immediate priority was to return the father to the little child.
Just as Nawa was about to take his leave, something caught his eye—a sight that momentarily took his breath away. It was a tree, seemingly unremarkable, growing in isolation beside a nursery. The area around it was enclosed by a sturdy fence, indicating that it had not grown there naturally.
When Nawa first arrived, the nursery had obscured it from view, which is why he hadn't noticed it earlier. Nawa knew very little about plants—and even less about the flora of "The Oneness"—but what he saw on this tree was something he would never forget: five bright yellow fruits, resembling pumpkins but roughly the size of oranges.
Nawa turned to ask Mandis's wife about the tree, and she answered him without the slightest hesitation. This tree had been planted by her husband many years ago.
Nawa tried to ask where he had obtained it, but Mandis's wife did not know; she only knew that her husband had brought back a sapling from one of his expeditions to gather materials.
"Would it be possible for me to buy one of the fruits?" Nawa asked, trying to keep his tone casual.
"Well… the fruit isn't for sale," Mandis's wife replied, declining the request.
"Why is that? Is it extremely expensive?" Nawa pressed, his face betraying a clear, unconcealable look of disappointment.
"It's not that. You see, a year ago, an adventurer took one of the fruits and ate it. Immediately afterward, he suffered severe injuries—not fatal, but his body was left permanently damaged. Ever since then, we've put up a fence to prevent anyone else from accidentally picking and eating them. We haven't cut the tree down because my husband is interested in studying its properties,"
Mandis's wife explained in a polite tone.
Hearing this, Nawa's mind filled with questions. He had, in fact, eaten a fruit that looked exactly like this one back in the Himaphan Forest. Far from causing him any injury or weakness, it had actually made his body stronger.
The primary reason Nawa wanted this fruit was to determine whether it was the same kind he had encountered in the Himaphan Forest. If that were the case, it would serve as solid confirmation that the Himavanta Forest—where Nawa had ended up five years ago—was truly located within The Oneness. Nawa gazed at the fruit once more, studying it intently.
*Ding!* The system's notification sounded.
(Sala Fruit: Would you like more information? Cost: 35 silver coins.)
(No) (Yes)