Desolate World

The goblins didn't reply. They just looked at the two humans with vigilance.

"We can free you, you know?" Noah said. However, he didn't get an answer.

"Don't you understand my language?" Noah started to be impatient.

Noah waited for their response for almost 5 minutes. But, the goblins were being stubborn. Whatever he said, they didn't respond.

"Noah, it's pointless. They don't want to communicate at all. We should go," Elo said.

Noah finally gave up. However, he felt it was wrong to leave them like that. They would die if they were left behind while being locked.

After sighing, Noah approached the bars that detained the goblins. It made them nervous and back off further.

However, Noah didn't stop. As he arrived in front of the door, he swung his ax towards the chain that locked the bars. Destroyed it instantly.

It made the goblins back off again. They started to make a commotion.

Noah then opened the door wide and said, "You are free. You can live whatever you want from now on. I'm leaving."

Noah then turned his body and left them with Elo. As they were a little far from the goblins. Noah heard a low voice, "Thank you."

It was unexpected to him. He then looked back and saw the goblins bow to him. It made him smile. However, he knew that they didn't want to have relations with him and the refugees. So, he just left and wished for the best for them.

'Maybe it is for the best,' Noah thought.

After coming back to the rest of the refugees, he didn't want to delay anymore and started their journey back.

***

It had already been an hour. But, Ace, Geo, and Cloud were still digging the soil not far from the cave.

"Dad, I'm tired, can I take a rest?" Geo asked.

Digging the ground without appropriate tools of course wouldn't be efficient. Because the hole they wanted to make was pretty big, the progress of their work looked slow.

Although Geo was pretty diligent for his age, he seemed to have reached his limit. It was definitely not physique tiredness but more about mental tiredness. As Geo's level was pretty high, it was impossible for him to get tired easily.

"Okay, you can take a rest. But, don't play too far away!" Ace said.

"Okay, dad…," Geo answered and then climbed a meter-deep hole that they had created.

After Geo left, Ace said to Cloud who was still digging the soil with her hands, "Ma'am, you can take a break too, you know?"

Cloud shook her head. While digging the soil, she said in a low voice, "Has Geo gone?"

Ace didn't understand what his mother-in-law meant, however, he still answered, "Yes, he went into the cave. I don't know what he wants to do. Maybe, just looking around the cave. Jumpy seemed to follow him. So you don't have to worry."

It was too simple for Ace to know his surroundings with his sensitive senses. At least, in a radius of 25 meters, he could detect even a soft sound and he could even feel the tremble of the ground that indicated the movement of things around him.

He had even thought that his job was one of the strongest jobs available. However, looking at his defense and vitality, he couldn't even imagine there was a job that was weaker than him. Even Cloud's vitality and defense that could be considered as weak in level 18 was stronger than his who was level 23. He could be said to be a glass cannon, no! A paper cannon.

Because of that, he always ran around when attacking monsters. Because he feared being locked by the monster's ability. He still couldn't forget how his brother's roar made him stunned when they had a duel in the training ground. If not because he threw a king card back then to create a barrier, he would definitely be defeated.

He realized that debuffs that could stop his movements or even just slow him down were as deadly as AoE spells. Fortunately, he got the vest from Phil. In his opinion, the effect of love's protection was the best thing he could get. This equipment gave him a second life.

"Is that so? Actually, I need to say something to you," Cloud said in a serious tone.

Ace stopped what he was doing. He looked at her. He saw a sadness in her eyes. Instead of asking, he decided to wait for her to talk.

"Apparently, we are wrong, Ace," Cloud said. After sighing, she continued, "We shouldn't attack them with AoE attacks. They can be saved, Ace. I can save them."

Ace became confused. He didn't understand what she tried to say. About the AoE attacks, he guessed that it was related to the ambush that they had just done. However, he was clueless about 'saving them'. Did she want to save the vampires? It was definitely impossible. Then, he thought of a possibility.

"Do you mean the transforming people? What do you mean by saving them?" Ace was a little agitated when asking. Because he had a bad premonition about it.

Cloud then explained her finding while curing Mila, that her 'cure' spell could negate the vampire transformation.

"Then, you mean we murdered them? But Nila said…," Ace said in trembling voices.

"She also didn't know. I think the refugees also didn't know. It was because of ignorance she was killed. And we did even worse. More than 20 innocent lives were lost because of our ignorance," Cloud said in a deep voice.

Ace felt terrible. Although he was in the game, he somehow felt his chest was tight. Although he knew that the ones who he had killed were just NPC's, but somehow he couldn't justify his murder.

He recalled the depressed Gon for the contempt he had received from his clan, then Adrian's decision to be their followers if they could teach his daughter healer job proving his unconditional love to his children, and then Phil's gratitude toward him for bringing them to the outside world.

Could he call them only data, after all emotions that they showed to him? No, even if the developer of Desolate World came to him with a lot of evidence, trying to convince him that they were just game characters, he wouldn't buy it.

Furthermore, wasn't Cloud one of the people who participated in developing the game? If even Cloud showed so much regret for killing the innocent NPC's, then they were truly not ordinary game characters.

'So, what were they?' Ace asked in his heart.