The Tales of Draconic Warlock

I hope I can find out what that sound is. No matter how I think, I couldn\'t understand it. The sound felt like a calling. As I said, it is not a language that I heard and it doesn\'t qualify as a language with respect to the standard terms at present.

It could be a language but not native to Ragos or simply can\'t be defined by the standard terms of Ragos.

The standards are based on the languages that were known to the civilized races of Ragos. There could be a new race that is emerging or it could be a dead language that no one speaks anymore and someone or something is using that language.

As long as that thing didn\'t have anything to do with the disappearance of the merchants and their party, it won\'t be problematic but I feel that the sound is the reason behind their disappearance.

It is going to be a problem.

---

I searched for an hour around the area where I stopped hearing the sound. I was immersed in the fighting and didn\'t recognize that the sound stopped. So it took a minute to adjust my mind and find the position where that happened.

I found the position quickly but even after searching for an hour, I didn\'t find anything,

Wait, what is that?

I am standing in front of what appears to be an entrance to a cave.

I cautiously entered the entrance which led me into a big cave. It was a big cave, but what fascinated me was the markings on the cave walls. They are not drawn randomly, though someone of lesser intelligence could say they are random.

They are purposely placed in the spots where they are supposed to do something.

There are a few questions.

What is it?

Whether it would be dangerous?

Can this lead me to the missing party?

I mean, they could have deviated from the path just like I did, after hearing the sound. That could have easily led them here. If they were led here, what would happen afterwards? The answer could possibly be in these markings.

Let\'s check this. This one looks promising.

Maybe this one would tell me what happened to the merchant party.

I chuckled when I thought that, but still, I didn\'t think like that just to be funny. I have this feeling that there is much more than what meets the eye here.

These markings are not just any random drawings. As I said before, they looked as if they were where they were supposed to be. If that is true, a bigger secret is behind this.

If I can solve that secret, then I am sure that I can solve the puzzle of the missing party.

The question remains, How?

---

The first thing I did was to see if there were any residuals left behind by the party if they stopped here.

Anywhere someone visits, there would be something left behind. A trace of their presence there. It need not be a major one but could be a minor one.

Nothing.

There was not even a single trace that anyone was here ever. That can\'t be possible. Even if humans didn\'t, a monster or two must-have.

It is an enigma and I feel that the markings would give me the answer.

I can\'t read them, maybe they are like runes that do something when needed.

Let\'s see if something happens if I touch them. I know that horror movies\' first rule is never to touch unknown things. There are many things that you don\'t understand and it\'s best to leave them as they are.

Many horror movies start with some idiot touching something that he shouldn\'t.

Though I have never read about the mentioning of ghosts in this world, there is a high chance that they exist in this world. There are souls in this world belonging to both humans and beasts. This is a magic world. So the chances that the ghosts exist are very high.

Thinking by that logic, I shouldn\'t touch anything in this cave but I need answers and I believe that these answers are found in these markings. Though I am not someone who would act recklessly, I can\'t be a coward. I need to verify things once in a while. There won\'t be always someone to check out things for me.

---

Huh, nothing happened. I started to touch every marking on the wall that was accessible to me. There are markings that are way out of reach, at the top of the cave.

Except for the markings that I couldn\'t reach, I touched every marking but nothing happened.

There might be three reasons why nothing happened.

First, the ones that I need to touch could be the ones on the top of the cave.

Second, they need to be touched in a certain pattern.

Third, it needs something to activate the markings, most likely an energy source.

There is a chance that all three are the reasons why nothing happened. I can only check them one by one.

The first two would take some time and effort, so let\'s try the third one and see if it works. If it does, it would save me a lot of time and effort.

Let\'s inject some magic power into this marking.

Whoosh!

---

Huh?

Where am I?

This is not the cave that I was a second before. Wait for a second, after I injected some energy into one of the markings, a lot of energy gushed out of the other markings...it looks like it transported me to some place outside of that cave.

The question is, IS this a Secret Realm? A Dungeon? or just a random place on Ragos?