The wind rushed by my ears as I galloped past the fields atop my Charger. Dusk had fallen and the lens flare of my machine bighorn sheep thingie glared a bright blue light across the road ahead leading to my current destination. Which so happens to be none other a cauldron, or in this case; the 'haunted ground' as people tend to call it. From what I had heard, that cauldron was different from any I've ever seen and not in a good way. Because everyone seemed pretty terrified of it from how they start shitting ingots every time I ask about it until an Utaru scout told me a few words of warning.
Listen, Carja. There's something you need to know. To the far north, there's a forest infested with evil spirits. Many have ventured there and were never heard from again. There have been sightings of a group of dead bodies scattered above a metal ground by a triangle shaped door. You'd best stay clear of the Haunted Ground.
Got it! Going to that place it is, then!
I'm so paying that Haunted Ground a visit. If there's ever an opportunity to uncover a mystery and learn something new in the process, I gotta clutch it between my teeth. And it's not just about the override. Because apparently that cauldron has something that no other cauldron possessed and whatever that is, it caused a lot of trouble and tragedy. So I gotta see what all that is about. Meanwhile let's recap to a couple days ago.
***
Killing machines is one of my specialties. And that specialty, understandably so, is in high demand when you have killer robotic animals for nextdoor neighbors. Now I have another job requiring said specialty, and that would be assisting a group of Utaru farmers with their struggle against the deadly junkyards. Classic.
It was thanks to this little tip I had heard from that Tenakth scout this morning that I was able to learn about this whole issue. Those guys sure are right when they say that you need to keep your ears strained for every nitpit of information when it comes to survival in the wild, whether mine or anyone else's.
"Watch out, Outlander. Southwest of here is a Grimhorn site that's causing trouble for a small Utaru settlement. You might want to provide assistance." And that's exactly where I'm planning to head off to whenever I could. After thanking the woman for providing me with the piece of info, I went to scrap some jobs off of my do-to list of upgrading my arrow pouch, my spike thrower – which I refer to as my boomstick – finishing a contract and helping out folk from the other tribes. The Utarus should be okay for a couple more hours before I show up, no?
And off I went to do my next job, which involved around this one Oseram chick who told me to find her missing cousin. She said that the last time she'd seen him was when they got involved in a fight and like an anime character, he ran off in distress. This wouldn't be the first time I get exposed to drama like this when I get involved in a missing person's case and sure as hell wouldn't be the last.
And so I did the routine job of heading over to where the girl had told me she saw her overdramatic cousin run off to, and did the routine of using my Focus to track down the guy, and did the routine of finishing off some machine bitches on the way. Until I have finally found him seeking refuge atop a boulder surrounded by a trio of Leapslashers, who had received the same treatment I provide to most machines I meet: stuffing them with arrows.
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