Chapter 111: Akara

Exodus Tales Exodus Tales

‘Hello, traveler:

Our blindness allows us to see the future, but it does not allow me to know who you are. Well, I’d like to tell you about our story, so please don’t let our existence disappear from this world.

You are in a training base that’s set between heaven and hell. It’s an unfortunate place, indeed. Challengers come from the heavens to test their strength against the demons. At the same time, the demons tempt those challengers and corrupt them to side with them. The battlefield was set here, right in our homes.

To increase the chance of survival, the archangel, Tyrael, was sent by the heavens to lead our way. While the rogues have learned to use bows, the lancers have learned to use their mana, and the swordsmen have learned to use magic. Just when we thought we could hold our ground, things only got worse for us.

All the capable fighters were sent off to fend against the attacks of the demons. Over the past years, countless blood has been shed. Everywhere there is a rogue’s encampment, and only corpses are left as the rogues tried to stop the invaders.

Blood Moor, Cold Plain, Stoney Field, Dark Forest, Black Moor, Tamoe Highland, the prison, and the cathedral; Every site owned by the rogues was taken, and almost all of their guardians were slain.

As the recruiters grew in their numbers, the rogues could no longer meet up with their demands. When our race was on the verge of extinction, Heaven left us to perish. They left us, even though we have sacrificed so many lives for them.

Then, the demons began their extermination. Our civilization is gone, and Warriv has been killed. We had no ship to sail to Lut Gholein, so we have lost all our contacts there. Gheed has not appeared in the rogue’s encampment for a long time. We have lost all our sources of food.

Finally, the circumstances became so dire that not even the demons had any interest in us. After they’ve left us, the blacksmith, Charsi, returned to the embrace of the Rogue goddess. Kashya went to the Sister’s Burial Ground. She went there so she could reunite with her sister, Blood Raven, in death. There are no rogues in the rogue encampment anymore. Only I am left, a priestess who serves this place.

After leaving this message, I will head to the cathedral as well, and I will reunite with the rogue goddess for the rest of eternity.

Travelers, please, don’t forget that we existed. Don’t let our deeds fade away from history.”

Abel wiped away the tears off his face. He was in the world from Diablo after both Heaven and Hell had left. The rogue encampment was gone, and all that’s left were abandoned buildings with no one inside.

Akara kept pleading Abel to not forget about them and how their civilization had existed. “I will always remember you,” Abel thought to himself, “As long as I live, I will never forget how your kind survived till the very end. I will pass your legends to the next generation, and the generation after me will pass it onto the next one! Your history will be remembered!”

As though responding to Abel’s oath, the diamond piece split into pieces in the air, and the image of Akara disappeared.

There might be some survivors left. But, to get to the closest city, Lut Gholein, Abel would have to obtain a boat to travel across the ocean in the east. Right now, Abel had no way of doing that.

Abel took the night pearl from the portal bag and walked into the tent. The tent suddenly became bright. According to legend, Akara’s tent was enchanted with special magic that could manipulate space. The tent might look small from the outside, but a lot more area was revealed when the night pearl was taken out.

Abel spent almost an hour cleaning up the dust in the tent. Apart from the table next to the door, there were many crystal bottles with magic powers over the alchemy table.

On the other side, there was an alchemy table for drawing scrolls, some ink, and a rune pen.

Abel stepped forward and opened the ink. The ink was completely dried up, but the rune pen seemed to be working very well. Abel didn’t know what the pen was made from, but he could feel the magic coming out of it even after it has been unused for so many years.

Abel placed the rune pen into the Horadric Cube. He wanted to observe the properties of the rune pen, but apart from a dark gold text stating “Akara’s rune pen,” no other information was conveyed.

As it turned out, not even the Horadric Cube could find much information related to this rune pen. Only its name could be displayed.

So that’s how Abel obtained his first dark gold quality equipment. The rune pen might be a support item, but it could do a lot for the user.

Thinking back, Akara was a master of scrolls and potions. She was the one in charge of making all the scrolls and potions inside the rogue encampment.

Abel turned to look at the magical fluctuating bottles on the alchemy table. He picked up one of them and placed it in the Horadric Cube. He focused his power of the will on the bottle, and then the bottle showed a row of dark gold text stating “Akara’s Alchemy Bottle 1/10.”

The 10 bottles on the alchemy table were a set of experimental equipment for alchemists. All the bottles and jars were of dark gold quality.

Abel had to learn alchemy before he could use “Akara’s alchemy bottle.” He would very much like to test the running pen’s effect right now, but his current priority was to scout across the whole encampment.

Abel went out and headed to the blacksmith’s shop to the north, where it belonged to the blacksmith Charsi, a lady with a tall and robust body. During her time, she was the only blacksmith inside the rogue’s encampment.

The wooden shack in the smithy had collapsed, and some of the blacksmith tools buried could be seen. The most noticeable part, however, was the fire that was emerging from the crack on the ground. Even after so many years, the flame never stopped raging for even one second.

This fire was originally used as Charsi’s personal stove. No matter how fine a piece of material was, this fire would always be hot enough to melt it down to liquid form. It was the perfect fire for any professional blacksmith.

Abel’s muscles were very powerful at times like these. The magic sword was used as a shovel, and he dug out the buried blacksmith tools from the collapsed wooden shed. Although these tools were buried for a long time, they were not damaged too much. Not a lot would have to be done for them to be usable again.

Pretty soon, Abel’s built himself his own blacksmith’s workshop here. If he wanted to create something here, he could always visit this workshop in the future.

The sun came up when Abel was just about to be done. He could now see what the whole rogue’s encampment looked like.

The rogue’s encampment was built next to a river leading to the sea. On each one of its sides, there were gates made of thorns to hide what building that was in its center. When Abel touched the spiky fence with his hand, he could feel a lot of light energy coming out of it.

No wonder such a small camp could remain to this day, even when there were demons around before.

Inside the square where Abel came from, the mysterious box suddenly appeared again. If Abel remembered it correctly, it was a magic item that could store a large number of items.

Abel approached the box and tried to open it. As soon as he came into contact with the box, a message popped up.

“Do you want to open the private collection box?” the text read.

“Yes,” Abel said bravely. As an experienced gamer in his previous life, he was not weirded out at all in this situation.

A dark golden light flashed in front of the wooden box, and the lid was opened to reveal the vast space inside. Abel could feel it with his power of the Will. The box was connected to his soul. From this point on, no one except him would be able to open it.