These Familiars Are Strange

Though it was a camp on the edge of the battlefield, it wasn't just that alone.

There were actually children and women that were here. There were even the elderly that were wandering around the camp.

Rather than looking like a camp that was on the edge of a battlefield, it looked like some kind of village made of tents.

In the distance, it even seemed like there were people running stalls and selling their wares.

This really didn't seem like a place that was right beside a battlefield.

The sand people that led us into the village suddenly stopped once we were a bit into the village.

The one that spoke for them suddenly turned around to look at me before saying, "Please help yourself to anything that you need from our village. We hope that it will aid you on your quest in putting our king out of his misery."

They didn't say anything else as they suddenly turned around and walked off.

With the way that they walked off, it really seemed like they were nothing more than NPCs in a game. It seemed that once they fulfilled their roles, they no longer had to stay here.

But that meant that we had no idea what to do.

There were sand people that were staring at us, but it didn't seem like any of them were going to approach us. With the way that they just stood there, it really seemed like all of them were nothing more than NPCs in this dungeon.

It really was creepy the way that they just stared at us.

In the end, I said with a sigh, "Let's see what we can find out from this place."

The other two nodded in agreement, but it didn't seem that they were comfortable enough to split up to gather information. Both of them remained behind me as if they were prepared for any traps to suddenly appear.

But nothing like that happened.

The sand people just went about their lives while still staring at us from time to time.

Seeing them go about their lives like this, it really felt surreal given the situation that they were currently in. But it just didn't seem like any of them were bothered by where they were.

After a while, I went over to a few of the sand people and asked them a few things.

Only no matter what I asked them, it seemed like there were only a few things that they were capable of saying. It didn't seem like they were capable of saying anything other than these few things.

Normally in games, NPCs would be a source of lore.

It was just that this wasn't the case in this village.

The only thing that they could say to us was them welcoming us to the village, asking us if there was any way that we could help them, and to tell us to save their world.

It was just like the NPCs that one would encounter in any beginner village in a RPG game…

Eventually, I got tired of talking to the NPCs since there was nothing that we could gain from them. It seemed that no matter how I tried, there was no secret hidden dialogue option.

Regardless of who we talked to, it seemed that all of them were saying the same thing.

In that case, the only thing that was left to do was try to get some items from them.

I didn't know what kind of items they had, but it was better to have them than to not have them in this case.

The problem was…

"It's just five hundred gold."

The merchant said after I pointed and asked for one of his daggers.

A bitter smile appeared on my face when I heard this.

I knew that it would cost money to buy something from him, but I had been hoping that it would be some kind of other form of currency. Or at the very least, he would give us a few things since they had said that they would help us however they could.

But in the end, it seemed that this place followed a strict system and the system that it followed really was just like how a RPG game would play out.

In the end, I wasn't able to get anything from the merchants since I didn't have any money, but I could guess where I would get that money.

Other than helping their king pass on, they had also asked me to take care of as many Abyss Demons as possible. In that case, the Abyss Demons should be the mobs in this RPG game, the ones that would give experience and money if they were defeated.

Though I was also curious if the Abyss Demons would give anything else.

There was one more place that I was interested in visiting while we were still in the camp of the sand people.

It was the place that the skeletal rat had found the diary.

It was one of the tents that was in the housing district of this camp.

And when we arrived…

"What can I do for you?" The sand person that I approached asked in the same way that all of the other sand people reacted.

I just looked at him without saying anything before raising the diary that the skeletal rat brought.

All during this, I looked at him as I waited for a reaction from him.

But even though he was looking at his own diary, it didn't seem like the sand person reacted at all.

When I looked past his shoulder, I could even see that there was another book that was in the exact same place that the skeletal rat found this diary. At the same time, it looked exactly the same as the diary that I was currently holding.

Seeing all of this, I couldn't help feeling disappointed.

After a moment of silence, I just shook my head and said, "It's nothing."

The sand person didn't even flinch as he gave a nod and returned to what he was doing.