Two hours passed. Vain could now see the formidable looking walls of Wysteria. The walls were grey in color, possibly made out of a polished stone, and eight to ten meters tall. As Vain got closer to the town, his brows furrowed. He didn't notice anything, and that was a problem. He couldn't see any people entering or leaving the town, there were no guards by the gate, Vain couldn't even hear a sound. When he got close enough to stand in front of the giant metal door, he finally heard a soft, muffled sound coming from the inside. He had no method or power to pry open the giant metal doors so he backed up and used devastating leap to jump to the top of the walls. Vain could now see the situation of Wysteria clearly, immediately understanding the abandoned feeling the town gave off. Vain was no stranger to this sight. It was the Pallid Rotwood Blight. It was everywhere. The blight covered the wooden buildings, houses, the ground. Everything was covered. Right when Vain was observing the town, he heard the same faint noise he heard just a few moments ago. Vain was very curious and tried to find what was making the sound, but from where he was, he couldn't see anything. Thinking this, Vain jumped down onto a roof, then from roof to roof, he constantly leaped in the direction of the noise. After about thirty seconds, the noise became distinct and he could finally understand that the noises he's been hearing were shouts of distress. What's more, the shouts were full of vulgarities and sounded like they were coming from a young girl. Vain's curiosity was peaked so he quickened the pace at which he used devastating leap, approaching the shouting girl's location rapidly. After only about ten more seconds, Vain saw a young girl in ragged clothes running from a few mindless humans that must have been infected by the plague. Vain didn't care if she lived or died but she was the only living person he could ask questions, so he had to take action. Right when Vain leaped down to the muddy ground from a nearby roof, the young girl tripped, cursed and skidded a few meters before falling face first into the mud. Vain who was usually indifferent, let out a few soft chuckles at this sight, but he quickly took action using bloody needle to destroy all four of the infected humans heads, instantly killing them. Vain then absorbed all of the blood and rot out of the bodies out of habit, not thinking much of it at all. A few seconds passed before the young girl recuperated and stared at Vain in a daze. She saw an extremely handsome young boy, so handsome that royal bloodlines would be jealous of his looks. His aloof gaze paired with his long white hair that flowed like moonlight along with his pinkish eyes gave him the temperament of an immortal king. Her heart couldn't help but skip a few beats before realizing her current situation. She quickly stood up and tried to wipe all of the mud off of her body, but there was too much mud so in the end it just smeared making her appearance worse. Vain chuckled again. After hearing Vain chuckle at her, the young girls face turned slightly red, but there was too much mud on her face, hiding her complexion completely, so Vain didn't notice it. The young girl then thanked him gratefully.
Young girl - "Thank you very much."
Vain - "No problem. Are you alright?"
Young girl - "Yes. Thanks to you."
Vain - "Ok. Can you tell me what happened here and why you're alone?"
Young girl "It's a long story really. Can I wash up first?"
Vain "Oh, yeah of course."
Young girl - "Ok, follow me. There's a bathhouse around the corner here."
Vain - "Um, what about the rot here?"
Young girl "I'm immune to it and im guessing you are too since you dared to come in here."
Vain - "Alright, lead the way. Im in a bit of a hurry if you don't mind.
Young girl - "Of course. We can talk while im washing up."
Vain - "Sure."
The girl lead the way, making small talk until they arrived at the bathhouse a minute later. It turns out that her name is Mira and she's fourteen years old. Mira entered the small punlic bathhouse and looked at Vain with a hint of confusion flashing across her eyes when she saw him stop at the front door. "Aren't you coming in?" She asked. Vain simply shook his head which caught Mira off guard.
Mira - "Wow, you pass the character test."
Vain - "Character test?"
Mira - "Yes. You wouldn't even believe my bad luck recently. Every person I've met has either been a bitch or a bastard."
Vain - "Oh."
Mira closed the door mostly, only leaving it open a crack so her and Vain could continue the conversation.
Mira - "You dont like talking much, do you?"
Vain - "I dont hate it."
Mira - "... Ok. So you know about me, what about you? How old are you? What's your name?
Vain - "My name is Vain, I'm twelve."
Mira - "Vein? What a strange name. I'm older than you? Wow. You're very strong for your age."
Vain - "Thanks."
Mira - "No problem. So um, what do you want to know?"
Vain heard the young girl Mira enter the water in the bathhouse, but he could care less. He was a grown man in his previous life and in this life he wouldn't care about women until he was strong enough. Let alone a little girl.
Vain - "Do you know how the Pallid plague spread here?"
Mira - "I dont know how true it is but, I remember overhearing someone say that an elder of the Divine Green Vine Sect brought it back from the Pallid Rotwood forest. But who cares? Those fuckers deserved it."
Vain was caught off guard by the girls vulgar mouth, but he kept the conversation going smoothly.
Vain - "What's the Divine Green Vine Sect? When did this happen?"
Mira - "Oh, umm, maybe two or three weeks ago? And You don't even know those assholes? They were the strongest sect of Wysteria. Were you raised in the mountains or something?"
Vain - "...did they have a member named Bellamy?"
Mira gritted her teeth so loud that Vain could hear it from outside the bathhouse.
Mira - "That bastard! Im going to kill him if its the last thing I do!"
Vain - ".... he's dead"
Mira - "He's dead? How did that despicable bastard die? Did he catch the plague?"
Vain - "I killed him."
Mira - You... you... How did you kill him?
Vain - "Um, you're very young. I don't want to go into detail about it." Vain did not actually care about describing how he killed the man named Bellamy to Mira, but he did not want the young girl to connect the dots between Vain and the elders spreading the plague. He also would not purposely kill the innocent girl just to silence her. So he remained silent.
Mira - "Hey, hey. I'm older than you, just tell me how you killed that bastard."
Vain - "I sneak attacked him, stabbing him in the head."
Mira - "Hmph. That bastard deserved a far slower death than that. But at least he can't torment people anymore."
Vain - "Ok. Do you know about the unique space north of here?"
Mira - "Of course I know. Who doesn't know about the Serpents Hollow?"
Vain - "Serpents Hollow?"
Mira - "Oh. You really are a country bumpkin."
Vain - "...Where can I find it? When does it open?"
Mira - " You want to go there? Its north of here. There should actually be a trail going there made by the noble families of Wysteria. Oh and you won't have to worry about those scum. There was a kill order to wipe out everyone that lived in Wysteria to stop the plague from spreading."
Vain was stupefied. Him letting four old men live for a little longer actually lead to an entire town being massacred. How ironic he thought. Vain felt a little guilty, but what could he do about it? Almost all of his combat power was derived from his blood, which contains the Pallid blight and his other powers are also tied to the rot right now. It's just how it is. Vain then heard Mira get out of the water while saying, "Thats why those brainless corpses were chasing after me in the first place. When I tried leaving the town, a bunch of old bastards chased me back in here causing a commotion, attracting those dead idiots right to me."
Vain was going to reply, but the overly talkative girl beat him to it saying, "So now we're trapped in here and there's no use in running. Those old bastards outside are in the Organ Conditioning realm and the dead bastards in here are all Human Rank or Bone Conditioning. We're screwed either way." The door to the bathhouse then suddenly opened and Vain saw Mira who was still dripping wet, head to toe in her muddy clothes. She pouted and went to speak again but Vain stopped her and said "You know where the trail to that unique space is?" Mira nodded but said frustratedly, "Didn't you hear what I said? There's organ conditioning realm old bastards outside the walls." Vain said calmly, "Take me to the trail." Mira frowned thinking that the boy she was talking to was deaf and went to start nagging but he actually turned around and started walking away. Mira was alarmed. She didn't want to part with the only person thats treated her kindly in the last few months to leave just like that. To be honest, she was feeling great loneliness and suffering from depression after all the abuse she's suffered from these last few months. She really wanted to have someone to rely on and she didn't know why, but she felt that the boy in front of her was the person she needed right now. Mira hurried after Vain. She quickly realized they were headed towards the northern exit of Wysteria and gritted her teeth saying, "Didn't you hear me? It's too dangerous to leave." Vain kept walking without paying the girl any mind. He was in a hurry to find the unique space and now that he knew there was a trail leading to it outside the northern gate, he quickly made up his mind to go and find it. Mira, seeing Vain not pay any attention to her, almost started crying. She stopped in the mud, clenched her fists and yelled at Vain, "Jackass, idiot, fine! Fine! Go get yourself killed! Why should I care?" Her loud voice echoed through the desolate town reverberating on the nearby buildings. Immediately after, the ground seemed to start shaking, making Mira know that she really f*cked up this time. Suddenly, groans and roars could be heard coming in her and Vain's direction from all sides. It was the previous inhabitants of Wysteria that went mad from the Pallid Rot plague. Mira's little face paled as she looked at Vain with the most apologetic face a person has ever had. But confusion soon struck her when she saw that he was completely calm. It was as if the boy that was two years younger than her didnt have a care in the world even when facing death. Before Mira could react, tens of plagued townspeople were already in sight and closing in on her and Vain rapidly. She wanted to grab Vain's hand and run but they were surrounded. There was no place to run to. To make matters worse, it was only a few minutes ago when she engaged with the mindless things and had to flee, exhausting her spiritual energy. Mira couldn't think of what to do and started crying out loud, drawing all of the attention of the blighted people to be focused on her. After only a few seconds, the rotten people were within ten meters of her and Vain, destroying all the hope she had left. However, in the next moment, her eyes opened wide with her pupils shrinking to the size of pin needles. That's because right in front of her, she saw Vain flick out his hand, killing half of the infected in a blink of an eye. In another blink of an eye, the other half were killed. Just like that, Mira watched Vain effortlessly kill tens of infected. She was so shocked that her mouth opened into an "O" shape. Vain then stuck out his palm and right before Mira's shocked eyes, she saw the blood and rot within a distance of fifteen meters flow into his body. Mira felt as if her brain was melting. She didnt think, but her body moved on its own as She walked forward like a robot and clung to Vain's arm.
Vain was a little confused by her actions so he asked blatantly, "What are you doing?" Mira clenched Vain's arm tighter, smearing the mud that was still on her clothes all over Vains beast skin cloak and said sternly,"I'm going with you." Vain asked, "To the trail?" Mira shook her head and said firmly, "into the Serpents Hollow unique space."
Vain stayed silent for a moment before saying "No."
Mira started squeezing Vain's arm even harder before she said, "Im very useful. I can tell when someone is lying. Also, my physique gives me the ability to resist poisons and diseases. That's why im not infected with the blight. Um, you need someone to carry the treasures you find in the unique space right? I can be your pack muel. I'm very beautiful as well. You can have your way with me when you want." Vain was absolutely speechless, but the girl kept on going regardless of Vain's reaction "I have an A grade talent and im already in Bone Conditioning eight at the age of fourteen. I dont have any valuables on me, but we can take some valuables from the wealthier district to sell for easy coins. Um, I--" Vain put his free hand over his forehead, not believing what he was hearing. However, he had to admit that at least she was giving it all her effort. Thinking about this girls efforts, Vain thought "Why not?" Besides, he really would feel bad about abandoning this little girl after spending some time with her. What's more, if she's telling the truth, her special physique will be extremely useful. Vain said "Ok, ok. You can come with me." Mira looked at Vain with disbelief in her eyes, but she had excitement flowing throughout her entire body, but this excitement made her want to cry for some reason. Not wanting to attract anymore of the infected in the town, she burrowed her little head into Vain's shoulder and started crying. Vain was at a loss for what to do now. He was a grown ass man. He would not hug a random little girl just to comfort her. Vain thought long and hard about what to do to comfort this girl Mira, when suddenly, a lightbulb lit up in his head. He used his free hand and gently patted the young girls head saying, "Alright. Let's get you some new clothes before we leave." Mira, hearing Vain's words, pulled her head out from his shoulder, wiped her tears away and nodded readily. Vain smiled and thought to himself, "What girl doesn't like new clothes?" After calming down, Mira led Vain to the wealthier part of Wysteria and entered a large home that looked relatively in tact. Inside the home, there were many different rooms of all kinds. Fortunately, they soon found a room that belonged to a young girl that was around the same age as Mira. Mira entered the room and looked back at Vain with a blush creeping up her cheeks, all the way to her ears and asked quietly, "D - D - Do you want to watch?" Vain pulled the door shut without hesitation and waited for her to finish changing outside of the room. A few minutes passed and the beautiful young girl came out of the room with a slight smile on her face. The plain white dress she was wearing paired with her light green hair tied behind her head, golden eyes, and soft pink lips would drive any little boy mad, but Vain was no little boy. Seeing that Vain still had an aloof look, Mira asked "How do I look?" "Good" Vain replied blandly. Mira let out a "harumph" sound before scolding, "You really aren't good with women are you?" Vain looked at the girl with a gloomy expression and asked, "Are you a woman?" Mira clenched her fists asking, "Do you think I look like a boy?" Vain cooly said, "No I think you look like a little girl." Mira scoffed, walked out of the room and started bantering Vain on their way out of the lavish home. "I'm older than you. How can you say I'm a little girl? Look, im even taller than you." Vain thought that in both of his lives, he's never met someone that liked talking so much. However, in a way, it was refreshing. While Mira was in the middle of praising herself, she grabbed the beast skin cloak Vain was wearing and pointed at the mud she previously smeared on it saying , "Ok let's get you some new clothes now." Vain definitely wasn't going to change out of the beast skin cloak that Uncle Ale made for him so he firmly shook his head saying, "It's only some mud, who cares?"
Mira rolled her eyes and said, "We're going to the Serpents Hollow and there will be a bunch of noble families of the Southern Region. There might even be two and three star sects there." Vain didn't care at all. Mira saw that he didn't care and was slightly surprised. She thought "What is wrong with this boy? Doesn't he want to make a good impression?" However, she dropped the topic about changing clothes and went to start talking again, but Vain stopped her asking, "Is what you said before true? You can tell if someone is lying and you have means of detection?" Mira chuckled and puffed up her chest proudly saying, "Yes. Now you understand how awesome I am right?" Vain did not indulge her in her arrogance but instead said,"Let me know when you sense something. What realm they are, how many there are. If people are telling the truth or not, ok?" Mira nodded saying, "Leave it to me." Then, she thought for a moment and asked with a little doubt, "Wait you can't sense the energy on people?" Vain shook his head, "I can't sense energy at all." Mira the loud mouth opened her mouth wide in disbelief and started asking him a bunch of questions, but Vain didn't answer them. As they walked, Mira pointed in the directions she sensed the infected townspeople, but ultimately they didn't change course and headed to the northern gate. It only took a few minutes to get there because the town of Wysteria was only about two kilometers in length from end to end. Once at the eight meters tall gate, Mira asked, "How do we get out of here?" Vain just picked her up without saying a word and leaped to the top of the wall. Then, while Mira was still screaming, Vain leaped off of the wall, landing smoothly on the ground outside of Wysteria.