{The first crystal is hidden in the city of Noxara.
We wish everyone the best of luck!}
Meryl exhaled all the air trapped in her chest in relief as she watched the countdown on the digital screen. Everything would begin in Noxara—and that was in their favor; it was their city, and they knew its areas and streets like the back of their hands!
"Do you think forty days is enough to find the crystal?" she asked Elena, who was standing next to her. The latter was still in shock.
"As long as they've given such a long duration, that means finding it will be very difficult," Alvin answered on her behalf, then added, "Let's head back inside and start planning the search for the crystal."
"Plan?" Meryl murmured in surprise.
—"Noxara is big and contains thousands of places. Searching without a proper plan will only get us lost."
The four of them sat around the table, each one silently staring at the other, their minds flooding with endless thoughts. Tulip was the first to take initiative, writing a message: "Why don't we look at the map Elena has?"
It was certainly a good idea—but most likely a failed one; after all, they weren't crazy enough to make the crystal appear on a map that had been given as a reward for a daily quest. Still, Elena pulled out the map and spread it out on the table. She dipped the pen in white ink and wrote: Noxara – First Phase Crystal.
Contrary to expectations, the map began to display Noxara's terrain, slowly shifting between its regions.
"Could it actually reveal the crystal's location?" Meryl asked in astonishment.
"The map's rank is 'Rare', and it was given to Elena by the Severins—the ones responsible for distributing the crystals across the Empire," Tulip wrote in the chat.
This opened a very real possibility: the map might actually be able to locate the crystal. But the question was: how long would it take?
They had forty days to search for the crystal. And even though they didn't want to waste any time, they decided to give the map a few hours to scan.
In the meantime, Alvin purchased a digital map from the store. It resembled an iPad, but was larger in size, and its only content was: the world map.
When he opened it, Alvin entered the name of the Royes Empire, then the city of Noxara. One of the advantages of this map was that it allowed users to browse cities and streets as if walking through them—via real panoramic images with a 360-degree view.
After seeing it in real life, Alvin realized it was worth the high price. "Where do we start?" he asked with a sly smile. The others thought for a moment, their eyes drifting around different parts of the house. Noxara includes many key areas—such as the residential zone, the commercial zone, the desert, the massive landfill, and other regions…
The first place that came to Elena's mind was the residential area. It's the largest zone in Noxara after the desert, with endless underground branches, and searching through it could take many long months due to its vastness.
Meryl tapped the table with her index finger while thinking. The landfill might be the most suitable place to hide the crystal, as it contains several towering mountains of waste. Hiding the crystal beneath those stacked piles is a very likely possibility.
As for Tulip, the only place that came to his mind was the desert—it's the only area he had ever seen in his life. What's in the desert? Sand, tunnels, and gypsy tents. And in his opinion, none of them were suitable for hiding the crystal.
Unlike the other three, Alvin had traveled extensively through Noxara before his journey to Serinthia and had seen many areas—both large and small. There are countless places where the crystal could be hidden.
What complicates matters even more is that half of Noxara lies underground. The power has been out for days, and people aren't bothering to turn on the electric generators, which means the mechanical ventilation system has already stopped working.
Traditional ventilation systems aren't enough, as the houses are buried deep underground. Surely, carbon dioxide is now accumulating along with humidity, and the air may become hazardous to health as the days pass—excluding the growing mold and foul odors.
In short: time is not on their side. The longer they delayed taking action, the worse the situation became.
"What's the most unexpected place?" Tulip asked. When he used to escape from the gypsies, he always fled to places they would never think of—and he always succeeded in hiding from them.
"Lady Grace's mansion…" Elna said after long thought. Few people knew about it because after the Emperor eliminated Lady Grace, he forbade any mention of her in the empire, and over time, people forgot her.
"Who is Lady Grace?" Tulip asked curiously. Meryl didn't know anything about her, and she had never heard of that mansion before, so she remained silent.
"She was once the First Lady of Noxara, and that was her mansion," Alvin replied as he moved across Noxara's map. His eyebrows furrowed when he couldn't find the mansion on the map.
That was impossible—Alvin had visited the mansion in the past. He was sure it existed. So… why wasn't it on the map?
"And where is it located?" Meryl asked with curiosity.
"No one knows. It's said the mansion disappears in winter and appears on specific days in autumn, in different parts of Noxara," Elena said calmly.
Those are just baseless rumors. Alvin had visited the mansion during the winter, and it was there—far in the northwest. But what he couldn't understand was: why doesn't the mansion appear on the map?
"Meryl, if I gave you a specific location, how long would it take the house to get there?" Alvin asked in a calm tone. If the mansion didn't appear on the map, that might mean the crystal was hidden there.
"It depends on the distance," she replied briefly.
Alvin wrote down the mansion's location on a piece of paper and handed it to Meryl. She stared at it for a minute before giving the address to Miss cloud.
"It's two past midnight. Let's sleep and rest until the house reaches its destination," Alvin suggested, then quietly stepped away, picked up a mattress for Tulip, laid it out on the floor, and then did the same for himself beside it.
He grabbed two blankets and two pillows and called Tulip over to sleep.
At the back of the room, Meryl laid out bedding for herself and Elena, and they fell asleep without any small talk. They needed the rest.
__________
The next day, they found themselves in front of a forest with dead trees, human skulls of various sizes hanging from the dry branches.
"Guys, are you sure we're going into this forest?" Meryl asked nervously. The skulls looked disturbingly real, with all the scars and fractures on them.
"I'm scared too!" Tulip wrote in the chat while clinging to Alvin's hand, refusing to let go.
"If the crystal is here and we don't get it, we'll die when the first phase ends," Elena said calmly, hiding her worry deep inside. The place felt… haunted, especially with the faint sounds coming from within the forest.
"Enough whining—let's go in," Alvin said coldly, then walked ahead of them with the frightened Tulip by his side.
"I wish I had half his indifference," Meryl whispered to Elena.
Some thin branches cracked beneath their feet as they walked. Contrary to their expectations, the forest was eerily quiet. They thought something might suddenly appear—maybe a corpse? Or a monster! But there was nothing except the faint sound of wind passing through the skulls, turning into a haunting whistle.
Alvin led the group, since he had been here in the past, heading straight toward the mansion at the center, surrounded by trees from every direction. Looking around the forest, Alvin didn't notice any changes, even after the monsters spread across the empire.
And that worried him. It was hard to believe that the monsters hadn't reached this place in recent days, even considering the forest's remote location. The monsters had even been seen in the scorching desert—so why not here?
Moreover, the number of monsters had increased since nightfall. They should be here too! Or… are they inside the mansion?