Peaceful Life System: I only need to live peacefully-Chapter 99: Meeting Elara’s father (1)

Riku gently patted Elara’s back.

"Lila’s right. Let us take a detour right away to look for your father."

Elara, however, shook her head gently, wiping her slightly teary eyes. "It is okay. Let us not take a detour for now. I don’t have anything that belonged to him, and we left our little belongings in Oakhaven. We will have to go back to search for something that belonged to him, though I doubt if we can still find something there."

"Didn’t you and your father put up in some place in Luxia? We could try to get something from there." Lila suggested.

Elara gently shook her head. "Well, we did have a small storage space for storing our trading merchandise. We could go and look for it later. Though most of the things belonged to others and would not have his scent."

"Then let us go there. I want to go and look for anything that might help locate your father. We might find just the clue there." Riku wanted to head to find Elara’s father immediately. For him, Thomas was not that important.

"Really?" Elara asked, her voice a mix of skepticism and pleading hope.

Riku offered a reassuring smile. "Of course, Elara. If there’s a chance, we have to take it. Thomas’s trail can wait for a bit. Finding your father is just as important." Lila nodded in agreement. "Lead the way, Elara. We’re with you."

"Okay, thanks a lot, both of you. Let’s go!"

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A renewed sense of purpose seemed to fill Elara. She led them away from the poorer districts and towards a more respectable, though not overly wealthy, merchant quarter. The streets here were cleaner, the houses more sturdily built. She finally stopped before a rather ordinary-looking two-story townhouse, its paint slightly faded but otherwise well-maintained.

"This is it?" Lila asked, looking a little surprised.

"It looks like a normal home."

"It is, from the outside," Elara explained, her voice hushed. "Father always said it’s best to keep valuable things hidden in plain sight. The storage is... not obvious."

She led them around to the back of the house, to a small, overgrown yard. After glancing around to ensure they weren’t observed, she knelt beside a weathered stone well that looked like it hadn’t been used in years. She pressed a sequence of loose bricks around its base. With a soft click and a faint grinding sound, a section of the well’s stone casing slid inward, revealing a dark, narrow opening.

"This way," Elara whispered, taking a deep breath before slipping into the darkness.

Riku and Lila exchanged a glance, then followed.

The passage was tight and descended steeply via rough steps. It opened into a surprisingly dry, torch-lit tunnel that seemed to run beneath the house. After a short walk, they arrived before a heavy, iron-banded wooden door. But it wasn’t the door itself that caught Riku’s attention. It was the intricate, shimmering web of magical energy that covered its surface – a powerful warding seal.

"What is this?" Lila breathed, instinctively stepping back. The air around the seal crackled faintly with suppressed power. Riku’s eyes narrowed. "That’s... a high-level containment seal. ArcMage level, at least."

He looked at Elara, a new question in his eyes. "Elara, did your father ever mention anything about magic like this?"

Elara shook her head, looking just as bewildered. "No... never. He was just a merchant. He knew a bit about identifying magical herbs, but... nothing like this. I had no idea this was even here."

A simple merchant with an ArcMage level seal on his storage? Riku thought. Who exactly was Elara’s father? It seemed like the mystery deepened.

"Stand back, both of you," Riku instructed. "This will take some effort." He focused, drawing on his knowledge of dispelling magic.

Grand Disjunction (-50 Goodwill Points)

Goodwill points remaining - 215

Riku extended his hand, complex runes forming in the air before coalescing into a beam of disruptive energy that struck the seal. The shimmering web flared violently, then shattered with a sound like breaking glass, the echoes quickly absorbed by the earthen tunnel.

However, the moment the seal broke, a wave of that familiar, acrid, metallic stench – the unmistakable odor of the Crimson Creep – washed over them, far more potent than anything they’d encountered before.

"The mist!" Elara cried, recoiling.

A wave of Red Mist attacked all other them at an alarming speed. Riku reacted instantly.

Aegis of Light (-10 Goodwill Points)

A barrier of white light surrounded the three of them. However, the creep seemed to be able to push through, reducing the halo of the barrier.

The Creep here is much stronger than anything I have seen before. Riku mused. However, it was far from being able to do anything to him.

Reinforced Agies of the True Light (-20 Goodwill Points)

A barrier much thicker and stronger appeared around the trio. This time, the Creep’s mist swirled against the magical shields but could not penetrate, showing its usual inability to interact directly with his protective magic.

"Stay close," Riku commanded, his own senses on high alert.

He pushed open another heavy door. However, what he saw this time left him completely shocked.

The room beyond was larger than he expected, a vast underground storage space. And it was filled – not just with crates and barrels of mundane merchant goods, but with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of the dark, Creep-infested stones, piled haphazardly. The red mist hung thick in the air, emanating from the stones.

Interspersed among them were other, ordinary-looking rocks, as if used to try and camouflage the sinister ones. The sheer concentration of the blight here was overwhelming.

"So many..." Lila gasped from within her barrier, her eyes wide with horror.

"Yeah, it looks to be much stronger than the mist we had seen earlier in the Whisperwoods as well," Riku said thoughtfully as he observed the strong mist coming from the stones.

It looked like this matter was much deeper than what he had expected it to be. Someone was planning something big