Although a period of ten breaths passed, not a sound was heard inside the tent; the fact that there wasn't even a scratch on me after the ice and fire attack he performed had caused the mysterious man to pause.
"Ha Ha Ha, so you ended up next to those two freaks too!"
While expecting another attack, cheerful laughter had surrounded us; the stranger wearing the mask of a long-nosed creature was obviously quite amused.
"Tell me, how are they? Is the old dotard still hitting on the beautiful woman to seduce her?"
I was dumbfounded by the coming question; especially when the man who attempted on my life just a moment ago sat down cross-legged in front of me, I was about to get flustered.
My mood must have reflected on my movements too; after my stiff attitude, our uninvited guest started acting intimately toward me as if we had done military service together.
"I won't lie; I came here to kill all of you, but it looks like things will change. If you tell me what you experienced in that cave, maybe I can change my mind!"
Even though the man started acting quite warm-blooded, he didn't hesitate to make us feel that our fate was in his hands between the lines while speaking.
When his speech ended, I thought for a moment; what happened had happened, there was no benefit in worrying about it hereafter.
I started telling all the events that took place in the dungeon where I received the Blessing of Fire and Ice word for word; as I spoke, my stiffness dissolved, and I satisfied all the curiosity of the man listening to me constantly with exclamations of astonishment.
"Wow, so it was in destiny to fight with you; those old folks are really something to be afraid of!"
Words like war and killing were coming out of the mouth of the man hiding behind his wooden mask comfortably like bread and water; while thinking inwardly that this was too much, I didn't know that I hadn't heard the real bombshell yet.
"You know the meaning of coming out of that dungeon alive, don't you?"
The question was very sudden; although I thought for a while, I couldn't find exactly the answer requested from me.
"I mean, you also actually know what this world is!"
Here was the moment when the ropes slowly stretched by this interesting night snapped; these words had made me remember a truth I had actually forgotten long ago.
"No need to hide it; I am sure you also heard the annoying voices of those brats like me!"
There was no doubt; the man opposite me possessed the memories of his previous life just like me.
"Yes!"
There were three more people in the environment besides me and the wooden-masked man; to not confuse their minds, I would answer with only a single word.
"No need to hesitate, my friend; this is a cycle. It is a rule here that the same phenomenon occurs every hundredth anniversary!"
Bombs were exploding one after another inside the small tent; at the same time, the words of one of the old folks were echoing inside my brain too.
"Whereas we had the chance to see someone for the first time in a thousand years!"
The ugly man had said exactly this; there was no doubt he was talking about the person who came to us swinging his arms by overcoming the poison fog while saying these.
"How quickly time has passed; so it has been a hundred years since the last kid!"
From the attitude of the man getting up from his place with a sigh, it was understood that his interest in killing us had dissipated; like a child who lost his enthusiasm, he had started walking back and forth in the small tent.
"Shall we do this? I have been in this world for a very long time, and I can be considered your senior; with a few small helps and information, we can make this business much more fun!"
I would be able to comprehend that I hadn't spoken for a long time only after hearing the words addressed to me by the man experiencing an explosion of self-confidence; since the fantastic situation I was in had been carried to another dimension, I guess I was just trying to digest what happened.
"I am listening to you!"
I spoke briefly and concisely; to show that I trusted myself, I had ended the last word from a higher pitch.
"Here is the spirit I was looking for!"
The man, clapping his two hands together in a satisfied manner, started conveying his thoughts without losing time after fixing his slightly slipped wooden mask.
"From this hour on, I am withdrawing completely; everything will happen between you and the actors of the game I set up. As an indicator of my sincerity, I will give you two pieces of information; when you hear one of them, I am sure you will be very surprised!"
"Starting with the most important one for you, you can bring your dead friend back to life!"
It is impossible for me to describe that moment; I cannot put into words the lightness created by learning that there is a cure for the trouble I suffered from.
"Only this job is not easy at all; the necessary materials are very important objects for the five civilizations!"
"Tell me quickly what is needed!"
I had heard what I needed to hear; the rest of the process couldn't go beyond being a detail anymore.
"They are all written on this paper; if you ask my opinion, I say start from the Wild Swamp continent because the thing you need to take from there is depleting day by day!"
"Let's come to the second piece of information; although I don't see it as very important since it is impossible for me to realize, it can be quite useful from your perspective!"
"There is a privilege granted to the person who conquers all the dungeons in this world, a right to a wish that will be accepted no matter what!"
The masked man was spilling all the beans; I was tongue-tied after the news coming one after another.
"Why are you telling us these!"
Within the flood of emotions I experienced, I had lost my ability to think logically, but a person present in the same environment seemed to have undertaken this task on my behalf.
When Khan asked his question, the man treating those other than me as if they were dead slowly turned toward him.
"Like everything in this world, this is also a game, my friend; together with a material required for the resurrection process, I want to watch what you will do while waiting for you in the last dungeon!"
On the night when extraordinary developments happened, we had heard our uninvited guest's voice for the last time; while leaving suddenly as he came, he had left deep traces behind him.
After her last word, the female orc would scatter the emotions accumulated inside her into the air like a pigeon released from its cage by sighing deeply; Nafız and Alyon, unable to realize how time flowed under the tree they sat, continued talking until the night surrounded them with all its darkness.
While learning what happened caused the gray-haired orc's heart to squeeze, at the same time, he was shaken violently by a feeling he hadn't felt for a long time.
They had a new target now; the road was long and arduous, but holding onto a hope for the future was enough to remind him that he was alive again. The tension given by the fact that he would face an opponent possessing superior power was kindling the flames of the desire to gain power again in Alyon.
"Now you have learned everything; I can't force you just because you got into this business with me!"
Nafız had brought her friend to the Wild Swamp continent by tagging him along, but his presence here was purely because he belonged to the orc race; when the mission history loaded on him was completed, he could return to his long life that he could maintain comfortably.
"Did the soft tempers of the Druids affect you too, Nafız? Just as we fought together yesterday, we will continue in the same way until we die!"
Alyon's attitude was clear, his words were open; even if no one knew, the war between the two sides had already started inside the small tent on the Glacial Region long ago. How could he leave his friend alone in this struggle after listening to the whole story?
While the frail female orc hit the wide shoulders of her friend, with whom she stood back to back, hard, the grin settled on her face was advancing up to her ears; the man next to her might not be very strong or smart, but she knew that no matter what the conditions were, this hulking orc would do his best.