The merchants' early evening dinner of porridge soup was disrupted by the loud roar in the distance. It sounded like a mountain had just erupted and caused the entire land to shift to the side.
"What was that?"
"Guards, can you please check that out?"
The caravan of merchants employed adventurers to protect them in their travels. So when the loud guttural roar appeared, they were the one tasked to ascertain the safety of the entire group.
The four adventurers, one tank, one swordsman, one mage, and one herbalist raised their weapons in the air as they faced the source of the sound.
"GROOAHHH!"
Another roar caught all of them by surprise. It sounded closer—much closer than they would have liked. It was as if the monster was already right in front of them.
The adventurers looked out into the darkness of the forest, when all of a sudden, the ground underneath them exploded outwards, sending them flying backwards into the merchants camp.
Soil and rock rained down on the entire camp.
Everyone stood up and slowly backed away as they looked at the giant creature that emerged from the ground.
Its entire structure was made out of soil-like minerals that was usually found only in the depths of the ground. Its two trunk-like feet were planted squarely on the ground, supporting the rest of its enormous body.
Its upper body mimicked that of a burly man's physique, with large stones acting as its pectoral and abdominal muscles.
The arms on its side resembled that of a thick tree's branches, with roots still growing up its arms.
Above its body were two glowing sources of red light, acting as the eyes of the monster itself. The rocky mouth beneath its large nose opened wide, showing a crystal-like material on their gums.
"GROOAAHH!"
Its roar was akin to two continents crashing into each other. It was deep and soul piercing.
The adventurers looked up at the rocky creature with horror painted on their faces.
"A…Rock Golem…," the tank muttered under his breath, his voice cracking.
"6-star…a 6-star monster…"
Their fear was not without merit. After all, their adventuring party was only rated for monsters 4-star and below. Defeating a creature two stars above that was a guaranteed impossibility.
"Ru—run!" the swordsman screamed to the merchants.
It was only now that the caravan of businessmen moved with haste. They started bolting opposite of the Rock Golem.
But it was at that moment where the ground exploded once again, catapulting the fleeing merchants back into the feet of the Rock Golem.
Everyone despaired as they saw three more Rock Golems emerge from the ground, each one as gargantuan and as powerful as the first one.
"No way…"
"We're dead!"
Surrounded by these four monstrous creatures, the caravan of merchants thought they were close to seeing their end. They had no way to escape.
The four Rock Goldems raised their branch-like arms up in the air, intending to smash these humans into bits. Even the tank's shield won't protect against the onslaught of these four monsters.
While the humans were in this state of terror, five Fairies fluttered their wings as they looked down at the emotional scene.
These Rock Golems were their own construction, and they used it frequently to create a high-stakes and tense situation for humans to experience.
After all, their innate skill as a Fairy [Consume Emotion] allowed them to reach down the metaphysical dimension of human emotion and use all the complex and passionate feelings they had for sustenance.
The pink-haired Fairy who was slightly bigger than the other four led the ritual for today's fine dining experience..
She danced in the night sky, letting the small powder of golden sand-like particles float down into the ground.
A Fairy's dust not only allowed a person or object to float, but it also heightened the emotions of humans who came into contact with them.
So, the merchants and the adventurers felt the fear of their lives even more as they faced the four Rock Golems.
Vivi looked at the humans and saw the chubby middle-aged man as the perfect candidate. He was the one showing the most emotions.
She swooped down on top of his head as a tiny magic circle appeared on her hands.
'Come down my pretties,' Vivi whispered to her Fairy friends above.
The four Fairies floated down as well and chose their own targets. The magic circles they conjured allowed them to harvest the emotion and turn it into usable energy.
'Hihi!' Vivi laughed. 'Let's eat! Golems, do it now!'
Finally, the Rock Golems brought down their arms, making the humans clench their own bodies out of fear.
In that moment, it was as if time itself had slowed down for the Fairies. The intense situation brought a vulnerability within the humans and allowed them to see through their memories and their emotions.
Vivi licked her lips as she sorted through the different lights of emotions present in her target's head.
She immediately looked for the purple lights in his memories. This was the emotion of fear, specifically: the fear of death. It was the strongest of all emotions and gave the most amount of sustenance for the Fairies. This was why they tolerated those brutish Bastard Bandits. They were the ones who regularly put the fear of death into people.
'Bon appetite!' Vivi said.
But just as she was about to consume the violet light, a new light suddenly caught her eye.
It was just peeking down below from the Fear Emotion.
Curious, Vivi pushed aside the violet light and saw a unique and new color she had never seen before.
It was the color blue, which was mostly associated with sadness or regret.
However, this shade of blue was different. It was lighter. Much lighter, as if the emotion in the memory was something positive instead of it being filled with regret.
What was interesting about this was that this sky blue color was almost the same size as the violet color, meaning this emotion almost overpowered the fear of death itself!
Vivi decided to consume this blue emotion first, curious to see what kind of emotion of memory this would invoke in her mind.
She closed her eyes and inhaled with her mouth.
The sky blue light in her target's mind started to be sucked into her lips like smoke, allowing her to consume the emotion and briefly make contact with the memory associated with this emotion.
Now, the memory she sees within this emotion wasn't exact, but she was able to see glimpses of images from the person's perspective.
As Vivi consumed the blue light, she started to see just that.
The picture of a grand otherworldly city showed itself to her. She was looking up at the tall buildings defying the laws of gravity, almost as if it was one of those spires that magicians built as their base. But these buildings weren't made of mana. In fact, they used no mana to remain constructed at all!
The image soon faded, and more pictures of life in this city flashed through Vivi's mind.
She couldn't understand most of what these images meant, with one of them being the depiction of a man striking a ball with a bat and people cheering loudly beside her.
However, there was one clear emotion that she did understand.
It was longing. It was a desire to go back to this city.
And as she sucked in all of the emotion in her target, there was one name that stuck to her mind.
Reborn.