Ball of Nothing

It took Zero and Truen ten days to finally reach Half Moon Village. While the walls were huge and still in construction, Zero could already sense the difference from outside. The village was a lot quieter than he remembered it to be. There were also lesser people on his minimap, indicating that it was half-empty.

Worried, he proceeded with caution. Truen also sensed the difference in the atmosphere. Usually, it would be bustling with activity and other times, it was festive. The village was constantly finding an excuse to celebrate something. Then again, Zenobia mentioned that many villagers had to be at different places so the ones who remained weren't many.

Zero entered the village's main square and saw that nobody was really around until he heard something swishing through the air heading for him at an extremely fast pace. Truen reacted faster than Zero and the archer threw up an arcane shield to deflect the arrow. There was no bloodlust but the hostile message was loud and clear.

"State your business and identity. Half Moon Village doesn't welcome strangers. Even if you are a friend of Zero's, we do not entertain guests that Zero didn't inform us about. The chieftess is not here, please bring your guest back another time."

Zero grinned from under his hood. Crudgel was good with his arrow but his hostility was misplaced. The doctor removed his hood and beamed at the centaur.

"Hi, Crudgel! How has everyone been? The village is rather empty today, is everything alright?"

The centaur was slightly taken aback when the elven maiden called him by his name. He didn't know who she was. Could Truen be a traitor and shared their identities with her? Who was she?

Zero paused when Crudgel's frown became deeper and his glare more intense. Truen cleared his throat and reminded his friend that he was still in his healer vessel. Zero made a tiny oopsie action then went to his control panel to change it back to his default vessel. The long brown hair tied up in a ponytail at his nape and familiar brown eyes made the centaur's jaw drop.

"Z-Zero?"

The doctor grinned and gave him a victory sign. "I learned how to use the transformation skill. How is this? Do I look better now?"

Crudgel couldn't speak and Truen rolled his eyes as Zero wandered off to meet everyone else. The wood elf simply tied the sand walkers near the entrance of the village and went to search for vegetables that he could feed them with. Zoe should be in the kitchen and he wanted to spoil the beasts a little before they had to carry them through the desert in a few weeks.

Zero became sidetracked when Crudgel gave Zero a report about everybody's situation. The village leader listened carefully to the report but was distracted by the gaudy decorations all over the village.

"Sorry Crudgel," Zero interrupted. "Can you explain to me what all these decorations are? I didn't know that Half Moon Village had a custom of placing scribbles all over the place."

The centaur looked at what Zero was referring to and shook his head. "No, this is the village's way of teaching baby Seff written language. He is currently learning how to read and write so Karris and Zoe decided to paste colourful charts all over the village so that Seff can revise them when he plays. Ruth helped out. Grandma Moppo has taken over to be in charge of that rascal's education but he doesn't listen. Only Ruth can control him now and he has been trying to sneak into the portals even though we've repeatedly told him not to. Lovina came down from Arabesque to set up a barrier to only allow certain people to get through it just so that we can keep Seff out. I think he's currently in his rebellious phase."

Zero ringed. It had only been a few months but already the village was close to unrecognisable. Raising a child sure sounded difficult. Still, he didn't understand why it was so different. Sure, a few people might leave to do things but isn't the lab usually a lively place? The kitchen and the play area for children should also be noisy. Not to mention, why wasn't he seeing anyone on patrol? Before this, Clowis and Lowis often sent warriors to patrol the village. Now, only Crudgel was here.

"Where is everyone today? How come there is only you in the village?"

The centaur smiled. "The chieftess has brought Amaraline and the merchant to Rocket Mountain. Vrald and Gerlad are on a mission as you've sent them. The gardening team is currently in Heaven checking on your pastures and harvesting them. Wiser and the lab rats are currently at the Spring of Vitality to check on Robo Mike and the new miasma converter. Sekkin took most of the warriors and Leon to the abyss, Amon is organising a special training camp. Roovan is away to pass a message to Mitchnew in Smargdas so it leaves only a few of us in the village. Oh, and Ruth is currently taking care of Seff in the abyss at Hua Tuo's hospital to give Karris a break."

Zero blinked. The village was really short-handed. "I see. I guess the chieftess was really desperate when she said she wanted to mass recruit villagers. We're really short-handed, aren't we?"

Crudgel smirked. "That's for you to decide, village leader. We're only doing our part. I received word that you would be stopping by but Amaraline failed to inform me that you would be coming incognito. Sorry about that earlier."

Zero laughed. "No worries, you did well. It was my fault for not giving word in advance. I wanted to surprise everyone but I guess the village is half-empty at this point so there really wasn't a point in me doing that. Say, do you have any idea where Bob is? I came back to settle a few things before heading for Derby Desert."

The words "I'm here to collect my dragon" went unspoken but it was understood. The centaur told Zero that Bob was still in Sleepy Cave with Kerberos. They were beating the monsters in the cave up and bullying it. Endow Hill's air had gotten a lot more hostile and the mana was way too dense these days. It was also why more villagers chose to escape. It was getting harder to breathe for those who lacked magic resistance.

"Oh, Manny, Peter and Soon are still in the village if you want to talk to them. I think they're the only ones benefiting from this insane amount of mana in the air. I was a little worried when Lovina said she would be studying alchemy with Merlin for extended periods of time in Arabesque but I think my worries were unfounded. With this much mana in the air, Soon won't run out of mana anytime soon, no pun intended."

"None taken," Zero chuckled in amusement. "I think I'll search for Bob tomorrow. We've travelled a lot today so I will be resting in a guest room. Is Grandma Moppo around?"

Crudgel nodded. "She's in the field earlier but judging by the time, she should be in the kitchen with Zoe. They would be making meal deliveries soon."

Zero nodded. The dimensional box that Baal gave Lovina from the Sin Eating event was being put to good use although he didn't know if they were still using Baal's mana to transfer food. Regardless, Zero was still happy that he had someone to talk to. If there was anyone who was capable of giving him advice as a village leader, it would be Grandma Moppo.