Desolate World

"Let me cure you. I will do my best to cure you all," Cloud said with determination.

"Thank you," Noah said with gratitude. The other refugees seemed to be glad to get her help. Even some transforming people shedding their tears.

After that, Cloud healed and cured them one by one. It would take a few days to complete it, but she insisted on starting it right away. Ace understood that it was not all about kindness, but more because she wanted to redeem her sins.

Ace then explained to Noah and the others their battle with the vampires. He explained to them how they ambushed the flying vampires and because of that, all of the transforming people died in the process.

"We are so sorry. At the time, we didn't know that they could be saved," Ace said with bitterness.

"...," No one had blamed him. Some of them including Noah even averted their eyes.

"Actually, we did the same. Nila is one of the victims of our ignorance back then. Moreover, I can't see another way to stop the vampire. You have done the right thing. 

Because if they are left to go, I'm afraid they will come a few days later. So, we should be thankful for what you have done," A middle-aged man said. 

"Yeah, Elo is right. Where are their bodies? I want to see them, if you don't mind," Noah then asked.

Ace then took them to the place he put the bodies. While walking there, he explained his plan to bury them in the big grave. 

The refugees appreciated his plan. They also wanted to help, as the bodies were their former colleagues. With the help of many people and even some shovels, Ace was sure the grave will be finished soon.

While digging the hole, Noah, whose complexion was much better, said, "You know, we didn't only find our colleagues in the cave. There are also small people with the name goblins there. It seems they have experienced much more suffering than the transforming refugees."

'Goblins?' Ace stopped his digging.

He then looked at Noah, "Are they short guys whose skin color is green?"

"Yeah, they are pitiful creatures. It seems the vampires treated them as blood reserves. You know what I meant, right?" Noah said.

"That's horrible," Ace commented.

"Yeah… I also think so. I have tried to talk with them. But, it seems they didn't trust me," Noah.

"Is that so…?" Ace asked. Ace then asked about the details about the goblins.

Noah explained all he had seen, including the mushroom field and many handicrafts that seemed to be made by the goblins. He speculated that the goblins were the initial inhabitants of the cave. The vampires then came, detained, and treated them as food.

Ace agreed with Noah's speculation. He then explained to the leader of the refugees that the village was meant to shelter multi races. There were dragons, angels, humans, and soon, elves, dwarves, and gnomes would also come to take shelter. 

Ace then asked Noah if he could take him to the goblins. Noah thought a while, and nodded. 

Ace thanked him and they would come back into the cave after burying the bodies of the refugees and the vampires.

It took them half an hour to dig a large 2 meters deep hole. He then took them one by one into the hole.

Cloud was taking a rest because her mana was bottomed out not long before the hole was finished. She needed some time for her mana to recover. She had cured 2 people for the time being. It was because she prioritized healing the injured ones first, before curing the transforming refugees. Fortunately, her continuous healing was a perfect spell to heal multiple people.

And to cure a late-stage transforming person, she needed to do more than 15 times cure spells to completely cure her or him. Furthermore, the spell had 3 seconds cooldown, so it would take some time to cure one person.

Ace could see that she was getting emotional when watching the bodies were entered into the hole. It looked like she still blamed herself. 

Ace could only sigh. He felt guilty too, but not too much. Because he thought that they didn't have any other choice. Recently, he thought maybe it was for the best that they didn't know the truth back then. 

Because of that, they could attack the vampires without hesitation and saved Mila. If he knew before that the transforming refugees could be saved, maybe, they couldn't save anyone, as without doing surprise attacks, they weren't the opponents of the vampires.

After burying the bodies, Noah told the refugees to wait for a while. He would take Ace to meet the goblins. He told Ace's plan to convince the goblins to join the village.

"How if some of us go to pick up the other refugees? As we will go West, it will save our time to pick the others first, as we need 4 hours to get there, it will be dusk if we go now," A refugee said.

After thinking for a few seconds, Noah agreed, "Good idea. Elo, Take 100 men to pick the rest! You can take a rest there at night and come here tomorrow. Remember! Although there is no more danger of vampire attack, you must still be careful of the monster's attacks."

"Alright… Don't worry, Noah. We will not be careless. We will be extra alert on the way," Elo said.

While Noah was arranging who would stay and who would go, Ace discussed with Cloud whether he should take Geo with him. Cloud rejected his idea. She knew that it would be faster to ride Red to get there. However, she asked Geo to leave behind the rest of his pets to accompany her. 

She worried if while they were going, some powerful monsters would come and attack them. After finding that most of the refugees were below level 10, and only less than 20 people had level more than 10, she thought it would be hard for them to defend against the powerful monster's attack when Ace wasn't there.

Ace then only took Red, as Geo would stay to assist his grandmother. It made Geo pouted. But, he didn't refuse Cloud's arrangement.

After everything was arranged, Ace and Noah went into the cave by riding Red.

***