Nightmare Fantasy Online

*Ptui!!*

This tastes awful! Why must these potions be "potions"? Couldn't it have been some sorta button we just need to push!?

It was the day after the frog hunt and I looked over the additional rewards I'd gotten from fighting the eyeball frog. Meaning high-quality materials from the frog. Such as eyeballs, its skin, eyeballs, tongue, eyeballs, meat, eyeballs, and eyeballs. How many eyeballs does one frog even need!?

As for the other reward, it was a Darkness element-limited Skill-Up Potion. The good part about it is that it's not randomly choosing the skill, even if it's only for Darkness skills. The bad part is that it's on my top 10 list of bad food and drinks. Strangely, most of the members on that list are related to this game...

Oh, and the potion is a standard reward for when you beat an "area boss" the first time. One potion is connected to the boss' main element. And regarding what the area bosses are, just think of them as rare monsters that appear when special conditions are satisfied. Like preparing tons of frog eyeballs as bait.

The first time you beat one of these bosses, you'll get a random variant of that potion instead of EXP. But if you do like me and be the first to kill the boss in the game's history, you get the selectable potion and a set of materials from the boss. Still no EXP though. Not sure if I can make use of those eyeballs..., and the other stuff. 

I leveled up my Talent skill with the potion, but the best part about defeating that frog was the info about the Darkland Pass.

The "wild" areas of NFO are divided into regions, with the Darklands being one of them. And in each of these regions, there are various fields like the Darkland Plains where the frogs jump around.

These areas are normally a long road away from the nearest village or town, but there exists a shortcut. You clear some special requirements, like defeating an area boss, and are allowed to take a shortcut through a normally impossible method. 

The Darkland Pass is one of them. As for why it's dubbed "impossible", that's for me to go and see. Not that I can start decorating the new 4th floor I added to the Fort. I don't have enough DP for it. 

---

Welp, finding the Pass was easy. I'd bought a few maps during the event from the few players who'd invested time and resources to reach the Darkland Plains and cross-referenced them with my own to find this place.

It's a huge mountain wall. Too steep to climb, and I can see the shadows of some flying monsters on the top. They don't seem to be interested in the stuff here on the ground, luckily for me, but climbing up and entering their territory is something I can imagine would be a fun experience.

The only way past the wall is to either go the long way around, the official way, or you can try to brave through a special fortification that's practically built into the mountain wall. This is the special area, the Darkland Pass.

Most of the place is covered in mist, but you can see the faint shape of a fortress made of rock. The problem is the various reactions I get from [Detect Monster]. And they're moving so smoothly that I bet they're not affected by the mist at all, unlike normal players like me.

This gives the monsters one heck of a home-field advantage, Even Evil Eyes will be useless in this mist. Why does my favorite skill have to have so many weaknesses?

My goal here is not to go through the fortress but through a special tunnel. A little away from the main entrance to the fortress is a huge door that leads into the mountain wall. This should be the real shortcut to get to the other side of the mountain wall. 

When I touched the huge door, it opened with anticlimatic ease and led to the tunnel. It took a quick walk, and I arrived at the other side..., wait, is this a teleportation tunnel?

I looked at my map and saw that I had indeed switched areas. My current level in [Auto-Map] doesn't let me compare the distances between two maps over different areas, but it's easy to guess that I've crossed a far larger distance than what the small walk I did in the tunnels would suggest.

The Darkland Pass behind me is still covered in fog, but the area in front of me looks like your typical forest. Green trees, lush grass, and I can even hear birds singing. A big difference compared to the dead and dark Darklands. 

But I feel horrible. There's a big, stupid lightbulb up in the sky. I'm already hating that thing in real life, and it still wishes to mess with me here. My demonic self hates you, oh wretched sun~.

Jokes aside, the decrease in stats doesn't feel that bad. Compared to how horrible it is walking outside in the real world, this is way easier. 

That's all of a sudden. 

Is this some tutorial-like Quest for players who've finished their Racial Start or have been in similar situations?

From the sounds of it, it seems that I can use my Player Room to reach this village after registering there.

Just hope that they won't attack me all of a sudden. I did some research regarding the [Dungeon Ruler] title, specifically, the NPCs that would see red when they lay their eyes on me who has this thing. 

Lucky for me is that the Darklands are close to Umbral, the Darkness capital. One of the few places that don't act all fanatically against Dungeons, so I should be fine in some of the more remote towns..., I hope.

I followed the forest path as I followed the descriptions that had appeared on my mental map of the area. This gotta be a tutorial. No way a normal Quest would be so helpful.

It was then I noticed a signal from [Detect Monster]. Something in the bushes is getting closer to me. I fired a Fireball at the sneaking stalker and burned them out.

"...a wolfie?" - Garami

The "monster" seemed to be just a normal, black-colored wolf. Then again, a wolf is far from anything "normal" you can encounter in a real forest, but this is a game world. Different places, different rules.

The wolfie charged at me, but I side-stepped and slashed at its side with my dagger before shooting a [Mystical Thread] at its cranium for good measures. The wolfie died so easily that I feel bad for it.

"That's what you get for trying to take on someone who grew up in hell." - Garami

After making a joke to the disintegrating wolf corpse and confirming there were no dropped items, I continued into the forest.

---

A few wolfies and rabbits later and I arrived at the village. 

It's, what should I say..., rural? It's a village in the middle of a big clearing in the forest with huge walls made from timber to protect itself from monsters. The walls look like they've been attacked by monsters more than a few times. Claw- and fang marks all over the place. That doesn't mean the wall looks unstable or anything. I believe they may have used magic or something to enhance it.

While enjoying the sight of the primitive architecture that's rare to find in the real world these days, I walked toward the entrance to the village. Multiple men in armor were standing guard there, probably guards of some kind.

Hmm? Did middle-age villages (I presume that's where the developers got their inspiration from) have proper guards? Weren't hunters and their likes the best such a remote village could hope for? 

I entertained these thoughts as the guards started to scramble around over there. What's gotten them in such a hurry? ...what are they carrying? Chains...-!? *CRASH!!*

Guuh-!? Wh-what kinda guards..., throws massive..., chains at..., strangers...?

---

...okay, I don't get this situation. 

"STAY CALM AND DON'T MOVE!" - Scared guard #1

"B-B-BEHAVE YOURSELF!" - Scared guard #2

"*Shake, shake, shake, shake*..." - Scared guard #3

If I had to explain the situation to the extent of my abilities, then..., the heavily armed, heavily numbered guards freaked out over little me getting close to the settlement and are now cowering in front of me who's bound with chains big enough to contain an elephant while pointing their weapons at me.

And if I had to guess, they're too scared of me to even get closer than 5 meters, and they haven't even tried to move me from my spot. Is there some "no demons allowed" law in this village? 

...no, I don't get it. Not one iota of it. What's going on? Was I using that fear-based skill I got from evolving without noticing? No, it's still turned off. Then why?

I simply looked at the so-called guards who were acting like they were facing a demon lord of terror or something. Am I that scary to look at? That's sorta hurtful. Or rather, these guys look so pitiful that I can't even get angry for them almost crushing me back then, or for their outbursts toward me. I think some of them even spoiled their pants...

And speaking of appearances, aren't these guys strange? My intel-gathering told me that the capital of Umbral was supposed to be filled with demons, but the guards looks like humans, elves, and even a few furry Beastkins. One was the kind that only had animal ears and tails, but still, no demons. 

While the questions kept on piling on in my head, a figure came running out of the village. Like, running for real. He must be faster than someone on a bicycle. The guards, having noticed that I was staring at the guy behind them, turned around and got visibly better faces when they saw the running figure. 

"What are you nincompoops doing!?" - Running guy

But hope is so easy to turn into despair. The running guy did a lariat on one of the guards and sent them flying into the "lucky" guys who'd escaped being hit directly and sent them all flying into the trees. 

What a power move! This guy isn't your everyday old man. Because that's what he is. Far bulkier than your average joe, but his hair's revealing that he's getting by the years. You could call him a dandy silver fox.

There is a slight chance that he may be older than even what his appearance may suggest though. Because, on the top of his head is a pair of horns, similar to my own. 

The old dandy turned to me and did a 90-degree bow and said:

"Please excuse these foolish brats! They are the snotty children of nobles who cannot inherit their houses, so they were sent here as part of a subjugation force to defeat a threat in this region but were left behind because of their incompetence! Please have mercy on them! Their families will make a ruckus if something happened to them, to say the least, so please, for everyone's peaceful everyday life, let this matter be!" - Old dandy

No, didn't you just send them flying? But the old man's powerful words made me swallow those comments and instead said:

"...okay. But you owe me." - Garami

"As you say, ma'am! ...hey, you're one of those Migrants," said the old dandy as he rose his head and got a better look at me. "And in chains. Fredrick!" 

"Coming, coming," said a rat-looking man who was outta breath. Did he come running after the old dandy? In any case, he got the chains off me in a split second, so I don't care if his stamina can't match that macho-dandy. 

"*Cough*, again, excuse me for not supervising those blockheads. I'm the Union Master of this village's Adventurers' Union, Carnet Belford. If you have any problems, just come to the Union with them. That's the least we can do, seriously." - Carnet

Oho~? You don't say~.