Walter was making his way to Akara, however, a certain Amazoness decided to stop him for obvious reasons~
Cassandra who was now fully healed giving him a gaze full of battle lust asked(demanded) of him while pointing at the goat man that ignored her existence completely since she wasn't an enemy.
"Let me fight your monster!"
Walter didn't know what to think, His summon sure as hell didn't want anything to do with her, but whatever his master decides the Goatman will follow.
The man really just wanted to get his quest done so he replied.
"Sorry, no, I need to finish my quest before things get even worse for me."
Walter said that while pointing a thumb at his ruined eye, thanks to whoever cursed him, it was bringing more problems for him as some parts of his nose and cheek closest to the cursed area started to feel like when the curse struck.
this made him fear the chance that it was still spreading.
So he needed to see Akara NOW!
Cassandra grit her teeth with a growl before clicking her tongue then spouting a taunt as he walked away from her.
"Fucking coward!"
Walter, on the other hand, didn't care, the prickly feeling that was starting to grow was making him very anxious and he knew better than to lash out at one of the rogues of the encampment as the sense of urgency was forcing his hand.
That strange dream didn't help either!
Upon reaching Akara she noticed the urgency of the man so she went straight to the point.
"It is clear that we are facing an Evil difficult to comprehend, let alone combat. There is only one Horadrim Sage, schooled in the most arcane history and lore, who could help us... his name is Deckard Cain. You must travel to Tristram. I pray that he still lives."
Walter who wasn't familiar with this world couldn't help but ask about his current problem.
"Yeah while I'd love to do that, can you first help me with this curse problem? I think it's starting to spread!"
Akara's eyes widened upon hearing that before doing one thing that scared the shit out of him as his summons had already returned to his body on the way here.
She pulled out a knife then stabbed the cursed eye then ripped it out!
Like any regular person, he shrieked out loud thinking that she was trying to kill him!
Three long and loud shrieks to be precise, first when she pulled out her knife, second when she suddenly stabbed it, then third when it was ripped out!
For a moment Walter thought that she betrayed him but then he noticed one odd thing, the eye that just got ripped out there was no pain...
Nor was there any blood and the scary part about this all, his eye that was stuck on her blade did not look like a friggin regular eye it looked like one of those floating eyes with tentacles!
Just really small this time.
Akara released a sigh of relief before she started to heal him then she told him of his current problem.
"Whoever cursed you, definitely wanted you to suffer."
Walter was scared yet at the same time furious since his eye became some kind of monster but curiosity was getting the best of him as he asked Akara in an irritated tone.
"Oh, How so?"
Who wouldn't be, should you lose an eye permanently!?
Akara being the understanding healer explained it as calmly as possible for him.
"What you had is called the Curse of corruption. this is something demons employ to make their victims suffer the most as whatever is curse would eventually turn into a monster that would try to take control of the host, thus my drastic measures earlier sorry about that."
This made him gulp at what could've happened to him should he had taken too long!
But there was one more thing he was worried about.
Was he still under the curse?
He asked Akara who gave him a reassuring smile as she stated.
"no, the source has been dealt with I wasn't sure at first what kind of curse you had, So it wouldn't be wise of me to make any hasty actions, which is why we NEED to have Deckard Cain brought here, his knowledge can save so many lives as well as help you on your journey and should you ever have such curses applied to you again he can help prevent it from happening again or downright cure it!"
Seeing the importance of this one individual with the fear of being cursed in such a way Walter was more than pumped up to rush to the location!
But the next words were like a pail of ice water being dumped onto his enthusiasm!
"Tristram is too far to journey by foot... Cain would likely be dead when you arrived if you journeyed there the regular way. However, there is a magical portal that will take you there instantly. To open it, one must stand within the circle of Cairn Stones and touch them in a certain order. The proper order can be found in the runes written on this bark of the Tree of Inifuss. I have translated the runes to unlock the Stones' mystic pattern. Now You must find the Cairn Stones and touch them in the order that I have written."
Walter inquired, as to lessen any possible mistakes that can be made.
"What's a Cairn stone?"
"They are monuments covered in runes at the stony field."
Her answer, again, was straight to the point as she was truly marveled at this young man that lacked the common knowledge that even children knew of.
Walter remembered those strange boulders that he saw before while traveling with Trisha, having an idea as to what he might be looking for he then headed to Charsi to upgrade his gear.
With stronger armor made from double hardened leather with metal plates in between, Lightweight steel spaulders with spikes on both arms with the right side connected to his steel gauntlets, Charsi gave him a good deal with the new knife of his in exchange for a pair of gems he had, it had five sockets!, his steel greaves protected him better with fewer gaps, he just needs to be careful when he crouched as his nuts could get caught between it, He gained a named bow thanks to trying his luck once with Gheed who was rather upset that he didn't spend more gold.
His throwing knives were restocked in case he wanted to avoid using his ability quill shot, the best part was he managed to snag a 3-row belt from Charsi allowing him to stock up more on potions.
Now fully stocked on supplies and putting a cracked skull into the knife as an experiment this allowed him to discover something rather cool about socketed items they gain quite a boost according to what was added~
According to Charsi, the skull that he attached to his knife added the ability to steal life from whoever is struck with this blade!
For Walter, the life steal was still something that he welcomed at any time now in this world.
As he walked through the portal, one certain young rogue that wanted to make for her errors bit her lower lip before following him to the stony field!