That was a knight clad in silver heavy armor, around two meters tall and impossibly imposing, standing in front of the gate. In his hand, he held an exaggeratedly massive silver-white lance, its other end resting on the ground, stretching roughly two point five meters long.
In his other hand was a giant oval shield. Encased layer upon layer in thick armor, there was not a single gap or flaw visible across his entire body. Portions of the armor plates bore obvious scratches, dents, and even scorch marks, yet they did not diminish its defensive capability in the slightest.
From Wu Shuang's perspective, he could only see the knight's back, but it was already shocking enough.
"Is this a living person... or some kind of decoration?"
Wu Shuang squatted down, pressing a hand firmly against his wildly beating heart, not daring to move forward any further.
Unable to tell whether it was a person or an empty shell, he hesitated for a few seconds before casting the Appraisal Spell on it. He then slowly backed away, keeping every step light to avoid making a sound.
He snuck all the way back to the third floor, only then feeling safe from immediate danger, and pulled out his handbook to check the information.
【???】
【Description: An old knight guarding the front gate of Baron Raymont's Estate. Bound by a certain obsession, he has been standing guard here continuously, as if waiting for someone.】
...
"An old knight?"
Wu Shuang couldn't tell the guy was old at all. If that suit of heavy armor were placed on him, he'd probably drop dead on the spot; it likely weighed a ton or two.
No wonder his Hero predecessors had all used ladders to climb out from the fourth-floor eaves. Wu Shuang intended to do the same.
After crossing the corridor and climbing another flight of stairs, Wu Shuang finally returned to the space below the attic. Once again, he marveled at how large medieval castles were—though it was a pity this one was empty. He wasn't sure who had ransacked it; it might have been past Hero predecessors, or perhaps it had been empty from the very start.
He climbed out from the corridor window and looked around to the left and right.
It was just past noon, and the sun was quite bright. The early morning fog had thinned out considerably, pushing visibility out to three or four hundred meters.
However, the moment he climbed out, he felt something was wrong.
As the sunlight fell on him, he couldn't feel any warmth at all. Instead, there was a chilling, shivering sensation, as if his body heat were being drained away.
"What the hell?"
Wu Shuang found it hard to believe. He looked up, the intense glare forcing him to squint, only able to make out a patch of light above the clouds—except the halo was blue...
That was it!
He had actually felt a sense of dissonance earlier, but after being disrupted by the insect-man, he had overlooked it. He had felt that this world was somewhat dim, hard to describe—not simply like an overcast day, but rather that the entire world's color tone was grayish-blue, leaning heavily toward cool tones. Now he knew why.
This world's sun was off. It was blue, and it couldn't warm a single thing.
Even the eaves under his feet—where the paint had peeled away to reveal dark wood beneath—were the same: damp, cold, and even slightly sticky.
He adjusted to it. Wearing his jacket, it was reasonably bearable. He squatted down to look around. Since it was quite high up and the eaves sloped downward, his legs felt slightly weak. After squatting for a moment to get his bearings, he pulled out his handbook to check the map.
He had noticed earlier while examining the handbook that map expansion was tied to line of sight. As a result, it only displayed the attic he was in and the terrain outside the window. It even showed names; the words "Baron Raymont's Estate" were something he had learned from the map.
...
Current Area: District 127
Location: Gulf Town
Time: 13:14
Weather: Clear, 18–26℃
...
The corner of the map also recorded the day's weather, location name, and other details. It closely resembled a mini-map in a video game, right down to the art style—a hand-drawn parchment map. It could be toggled to show building interiors, though unexplored structures remained blacked out.
Furthermore, it possessed a weather forecast feature, but that required money to unlock—specifically, 500 of those laughably fake Kingdom "Gold" Coins.
He adjusted his field of view while checking the map.
The estate beneath his feet was built on a slope, sitting at a noticeably higher elevation, enclosed by a rickety iron fence. It covered a vast area, truly fitting for a wealthy family.
However, there were only a few withered, rotting trees in the courtyard. Who knew how long they had been dead; most of their branches were broken, leaving them virtually hollow shells. On the ground were only sparse patches of yellowed weeds. The scenery was hardly pleasant.
"Not on this side..."
Wu Shuang searched for Paul's house on the map. Since Paul had been drawn over by his voice, he shouldn't be living too far away—at least, Wu Shuang hoped so.
If Paul had been drawn over while out for a stroll, that would be troublesome. The town wasn't small, and combined with the fog, unfriendly villagers, and terrifying goblins, running around randomly would basically be offering himself up as an extra meal.
He didn't rush to go down, nor did he fetch the collapsible ladder. Instead, he carefully walked along the eaves toward the attic.
According to the map, the attic window faced north, while his current position was on the west side. Walking all the way over, he might just spot Paul's house.
It took him nearly five minutes to make it to the north side. With the building walls no longer obstructing his view, everything directly to the north and even to the east was fully visible. Then, he made a discovery.
"That's a church..."
Looking directly east, behind Baron Raymont's Estate on a low hill, sat a church—or rather, a building that used to be called a church.
More than half of it had collapsed. Its proud spire was reduced to a stump, looking as though it had been bombed, with a gaping hole in the wall and its stained-glass windows shattered into fragments.
But that didn't matter. The key wasn't the church itself, but what lay in front of it... Wu Shuang spotted tombstones. Some had already been dug up, but there were bound to be ones that hadn't.
He had a target. The grave-digging quest might very well be completed there. As long as he found a shovel in Paul's house, he'd have everything he needed. The straight-line distance from the estate was less than 500 meters.
"Things are going pretty smoothly. Even if the system can't identify monsters properly, its grasp on the environment is pretty accurate. It won't issue impossible quests, so that's at least..."
Wu Shuang was in high spirits, feeling as though things were gradually turning around, when he suddenly heard the whistle of cutting air. An arrow thudded right beside his foot, lodging diagonally into the eaves with a dull thump, less than thirty centimeters from his leg.
He turned his stiff neck, looking in the direction from which the arrow had come. Outside the estate, in front of the iron fence, a tattered living corpse with completely rotted lips exposing crimson gums was aiming a bow at him.
Having missed the first shot, the living corpse began to nock another arrow, preparing for a second.
"Fuck!"
Wu Shuang bolted, retreating at a full sprint.
Rate on N.U.
