John walked through the gates first, Jake followed behind. The moment he stepped through the gates, it was as if he walked right into another world.

The inside of the ruins wasn't what he expected. From the name, he felt he would see some sort of forgotten or destroyed city, but instead, it looked completely normal.

The ruins had no direct source of light, yet it was bright as if it had a sun.

"The ruins are illuminated from the light above the surface, through a mechanism. It absorbs light and transfers it here," John spoke as if he knew what Jake would ask.

"This place doesn't exactly scream ruin," Jake said, looking at the city here. There were bars, restaurants, inns, and lots more in the ruins.

Adventurers were walking in and out of them, doing whatever they wanted.

"Because this is the closest part to humanity, everything dangerous has already been removed from here many years ago, and all that is here is a place for adventurers to rest and get ready.

"We won't be wasting time here. Our target is deeper inside the ruin," John said and started walking. Jake followed behind, looking at the city that they had built.

But the deeper they walked, the more scarce buildings became, and the ones they saw were also dilapidated and broken down.

Massive structures standing with broken parts. The air soon became heavy, their footsteps sounded lonely, echoing in the emptiness.

Jake turned back to see where they had just left, but he didn't see the buildings anymore.

"The ruin is easy to enter, but extremely hard to leave. It works on all your five senses—smell, sight, feeling, everything—in order to make sure that you can't find your way out," John said.

"Huh? Then how are we going to get out?" Jake asked.

"A map. Despite the fact that most of this city is still a ruin, it has still been mapped out over the years," John said. He pulled out a map and showed Jake before returning it to his storage.

They walked for a bit more and didn't see anything important until they came to a massive building. It had been broken at multiple places, but it was still very much intact.

The building had no sign to tell what it was used for, it was simply there.

"Master, there is something inside the building," Drake said.

Jake looked at the building. He turned to call John, who was walking away. "We should check this building," Jake said.

"Hmm? We are still pretty close to the entrance. There is normally nothing worth checking this early on," John said.

"Trust me," Jake said and walked towards the building. He walked inside; there was no door. Inside there, his footsteps pressed against the ancient debris and made a crunching sound.

They walked inside for a bit but saw nothing. Jake decided to climb up the stairs. It was barely standing, but he felt it would at least hold his weight.

But as he stepped on the stairs and went a few steps up, the stairs shattered, and then out of nowhere, a creature leaped from the top floor through the hole.

Jake reacted very quickly and rolled out of the way, getting on his feet and putting some distance between him and the creature.

When they looked at it, they saw a goblin, but it had black skin and purple streaks running down its body. Its eyes glowed purple, locked on Jake.

"It's a tainted. What are the odds we would find one out here?" John said. He pulled out his sword, allowing his cigar to fall to the ground.

The tainted saw John take out a sword and immediately took that as a threat. It rushed toward him at a speed normal goblins could only dream of.

It leaped into the air and opened its mouth. A long, squiggly purple tongue shot out, attacking John.

John took a step back, getting just out of reach of the tongue, and then he slashed, cutting the tongue clean off.

The tainted screeched in pain. It leaped back, its eyes locked on John now.

"Since we are on this, Jake, why don't I use this as a lesson in tainted," John said. "These creatures have abyssal energy inside their veins, and it's running around.

Their emotions or feelings are what make it spread and absorb into their bodies faster."

The tainted attacked again, lunging at John with all its strength, but he parried it and went for the counter. It was extremely fast and far away before the sword could get to it.

"The reason a human will turn into a full abomination when they are tainted is because we are the epitome of different feelings and emotions, and all that collision twists us," John said.

By this time, the goblin was no longer attacking. It simply stood there watching John. It seemed to have come to the conclusion that John was stronger.

"So you see, when the tainted start getting angry, it causes their absorption to be complete, and they mutate into a menacing creature, giving them more strength," John said.

He expected the goblin to do what he had just said about the tainted and getting angry, but instead, this tainted jumped through the window and began running in one direction.

"It's trying to get away," John said and immediately followed after, leaping through the windows and chasing that tainted. Jake had no other choice but to follow as well. They tore through the destroyed streets as the goblin ran for its life.

"Master, that creature is baiting you two," Drake said.

"What do you mean?" Jake asked.

"There are more and stronger creatures hidden ahead. It's leading you two to them," Drake explained.

Jake immediately wanted to tell John, but before he could, they had already arrived at the location. The goblin they had been running after for a while now suddenly stopped. It turned and faced them.

Seeing the unusual way the tainted stopped and turned, John also came to a halt. He could tell something was terribly off here.

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