CHAPTER 34: CH 34: TO THE TOWN

’Just keep moving. Take one step at a time.’

Cane reminded himself as he moved through the harsh volcanic environment. Due to the lack of oxygen available around the area, his head felt light, and walking became difficult.

"Hey, are you alright? Can you keep moving, or do we need to stop?"

Cane looked at the green-haired female with disdain in his eyes, but her innocent face told him that she was genuinely concerned about him.

Unlike him, his green-haired companion was perfectly alright. Neither the heat nor the lack of oxygen seemed to bother her. Even the small monster sitting on her shoulder seemed to not worry her.

[Shura: Oh man-! Look at our washed-out hero. Are you alright, Cane? Do we need to send help for you?]

[Bugcontrol: Leave him be. That volcanic area is known to be difficult. You cannot expect a human to have the same resistance as an NPC.]

Clash Online was programmed to be extremely realistic, and that included the human body’s limits for most people.

As someone who was not used to sitting in an A.C. room and playing games all day, Cane was not used to this extreme heat. Still, he pushed himself and gave the female in front of him a small nod.

"I am fine. I just need to catch my breath."

Ai still looked concerned. But because he had assured her already, she did not panic like before.

They stopped halfway on the path to Alzar before they ran into their first obstacle — the monsters in front of them.

Cane was confident that he could take them on. But he was not confident in his ability to keep Ai safe. She was a bigger trouble magnet than he expected her to be, since monsters seemed to be attracted to her.

They also tended to get aggressive when Cane tried to send them away. They only calmed down once they were close to Ai. That had been the case with the low-level monsters. He did not want to think about what these high-level monsters would do if they got angry.

"Alright, got it. I will hide now."

Ai did not protest his plan (which he was thankful for), and she quickly went to hide. Cane prepared his gun before he took out a few monsters.

He got noticed soon enough, and the monsters attacked the tree he was hiding in.

Cane had to abandon the tree he was in as he jumped out of the monsters’ way, but they had incredible situational awareness and managed to track him down.

That was how he made them fall into his trap. Once they were near the edge, he used his stealth to get around them before throwing a bomb their way. It caused the ground to collapse, and almost a dozen monsters fell into the lava.

[Congratulations, you have defeated Monkey Guardian...]

The reward notification popped up on Cane’s system screen, but he was much more busy heading to check on Ai.

"You can come out now. It’s fine. The monsters have been dealt with."

Cane called out, and the female got out from where she had been hiding. Her eyes quickly looked around to make sure he was telling the truth before she let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh-! Thank you for saving my life. I will make sure to repay you for this later. Please, let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out."

Cane nodded, and they set off once more. It took them a whole day to climb the mountain and then another three hours to reach Alzar village. But as soon as they reached it, Cane felt a sense of relief.

[Ding! The familiar eggs have sensed a familiar presence in the surroundings. Please continue exploring in order to hatch a magnificent guardian to fight by your side.]

That message told Cane that he was on the right track. He quickly walked inside the town, and Ai followed his lead.

According to the setting of this world, Alzar was an abandoned town with not a lot of people. And even those who were left here were not healthy.

The only thing keeping this city alive were the quests that were based on this place.

"What a depressing place. I wonder what happened here."

Ai questioned as she stepped into the town first. She looked around, but only abandoned and half-demolished buildings reached her eyes. There were many such places all over this world, but since Ai had lost her memory, this was the first one she saw.

"Don’t feel too much empathy for this place. We don’t really know what happened here. For all we know, this could be a trap to make us lower our guard and then get attacked."

Cane warned the female, and she pouted. She did not believe that this could be a trap, but that was likely her Ai programming speaking.

As another program, Ai likely lacked the capacity to question these things, even if she could understand what he was saying.

Cane and Ai entered the tavern, the only functional place left in the town, and headed to the receptionist.

The man looked at them and made a small noise.

"You want a room? It’ll cost you 4 gold coins each."

Cane flinched at how expensive that price was. He was about to ask for two rooms, but paused.

On average, a player got close to 10 gold coins a month if he grinded moderately. To ask that much for a single night was too much.

Cane’s finances were not that tight because he could afford to sink real-life money into this game, but not everyone was as fortunate as he was.

"4 gold coins? Can’t you reduce the price a little? We’re your first-time customers. If you treat us right, we will make sure to spread your name around."

Cane tried to bargain, but the man at the reception refused to budge.

"Sorry, 4 coins or you do not get a room. Hurry up and decide. There are a lot of people who want to book this place."