You have collected the [Eyes of a Human]. Eyes of a Human: Exhibiting the adaptability of humanity, your eye colour can now freely change to any in the Collection at will. You have collected a pair of eyes to add to your [Eye Collection(7,246)]. You have collected a pair of eyes to add to your [Eye Collection(7,248)]. You have collected the [Eyes of a Surface Dwarf]. Eyes of a Surface Dwarf: Adapted to life on the surface, your eyes have become less affected by intense light rays. You have collected a pair of eyes to add to your [Eye Collection(7,252)].

“If there's a hell here, I might be going to it.” I thought to myself, with the tendrils returning back to me. “I better keep my Seer powers in check before I can’t control them and they start taking eyes they shouldn't be, but something about uncollected eyes, especially new ones, just calls to me…”

Then recalling the whole fight, I started to think "Even though they were only Lv.6-7, and that I just leveled up in the Dungeon, I still got enough Experience from killing them to level up again.” Feeling uneasy about it, “I just hope other Players don’t realize killing each other is the best way to level up, or if they do they don’t act upon it.” Thinking “I’ll probably be forced to annihilate them again if they ever come after me.”

Letting those thoughts pass, I read the notifications I ignored during the fight.

Dodge increased by 1 Level. Archer’s Dash increases by 1 Level. Leaping Shot increased by 1 Level. First Aid increased by 1 Level. Arrow Shower increased by 1 Level. Archery proficiency increased by 2 Levels. Archer's Confidence increased by 1 Level. Charged Arrow increased by 1 Level.

Covering my mouth and nose as I approached what’s left of Lenny’s bloody body, I recalled them telling me about Players dropping loot when they die, but there was nothing from what I could see. Deciding to search the bodies for the loot, an Inventory screen suddenly popped up when I reached out to Lenny’s pocket, and from the name at the top and stuff inside, I knew it wasn’t mine. Excited about finding the loot, I didn’t hesitate collecting all of it.

Spending only 4 minutes, I dragged all the bodies together and collected: nine Common Lv.1-4 weapons, six Uncommon Lv.3-5 weapons, the seven Uncommon Lv.5-7 I already put in Infinity, 16 training arrows, and 46 Gold and 83 Silver. I left all the armour as they were just the starting ones, and I stored everything else in Infinity; but when I put the money in my Inventory, I was pleasantly surprised to see it turn into 51 Gold, 51 Silver, and 30 Copper instead. "Must be the bonus from 1% Title." I thought, happy with the haul. I then opened up the Player Kills Rankings, curious about how they would look now.

<— Player Kills —> 1st- Eyes Thalion 5 Kills 2nd- Lenny 4 Kills 3rd- Little Lady 3 Kills 4th- Bobon 3 Kills 5th- Casey Harris 3 Kills 6th- Tobias Casper Grim 2 Kills 7th- Kill U 2 Kills 8th- Red Rum 2 Kills 9th- Menace 2 Kills 10th- Ericson 2 Kills …

“That’s not good, they didn’t get removed from the Rankings, just crossed out.” Thinking, “It’s basically telling us ‘if you want a higher Rank, kill more and pass them’.”

Just about to start digging them graves, in case they could also come back like Sister Maebel mentioned, but I stopped when I heard the sound of a few dozen guards marching behind me.

“Hey you! Are you the one who attacked the walls!” I turned to see a group of 30 town guards lighting up the darkness with their torches.

“Look behind him!” One of the guards shouted.

“Those are dead bodies!” Another shouted.

Putting my hands up, I said “ Wait, this isn’t what it looks like, I mean I did kill them, but—” They all instantly pointed their weapons at me. “Probably shouldn’t have said that.” I whispered to myself.

“Stay where you are, you’re under arrest!” The main one leading them shouted. “And don’t even think about running away, or the archers will shoot!” Spotting 8 archers aiming their bows at me.

“Well I definitely shouldn’t do anything to these guards, I don’t wanna make even more trouble for myself, explaining the dead bodies is enough.” Then realizing Infinity and Shame were probably gonna get confiscated, I quickly reached behind me and stuffed Shame into Infinity, and stored Infinity into my Inventory.

“Hey, don’t try it!” As a warning shot was shot near my foot.

“Where did your weapons go?” The main guard asked, cautiously walking towards me with the others following behind.

“What weapons?” Showing him my empty hands and weaponless back.

“You 5 check the bodies, and you 6 restrain and check him for weapons.” The main guard ordered.

“Yes, Sir!” They answered, doing what they were told. Complying, I let them restrain my hands and arms in rope, as the guards began to pat me down. Finding nothing, the 6 guards surrounded me and held their swords to my side.

While the 5 guards checked the bodies, one of them said “Sir, these people look like adventurers, and they’ve definitely been killed recently, they’re still warm.”

“This is a misunderstanding, I can explain.” Trying to move and speak to the main guard directly, but stopped by a sword tip pressing into my side.

“Save it.” He told me, telling the guards “Bring him to the Hold, I’ll stay here and investigate the bodies.” And 20 of the 30 guards started to escort me back, watching closely in case I tried anything.

“I just had to tell them the truth, what an idiot.” Kicking myself a little.

Arriving at the gate entrance, I noticed a group of guards a little ways along the wall, and they all stood around inspecting a destroyed chunk of the wall, and indented inside was my shot arrow. “Did I do that? I can’t believe that a charged arrow flew all the way to the wall and still had enough power to destroy a part of it.” Imagining “If that’s what a Lv.1 Charged Arrow can do, I wonder how strong a max level one would be.” In awe of the power of the Skill.

Escorting me back into the familiar barracks courtyard, I saw that the guards were actively training harder in both archery and swordsmanship, and even spotted a handful of Players who had joined the town's guard—identifying them by their low levels and white coloured names. “Interesting, I wonder if they can get a new Class or Subclass by joining the guards, just like how Mako did to be a apprentice blacksmith.”

“Guards, stop right there!” Galen stopped us, and walked straight to me. “I know you, you’re the one who scammed me out of my bow. Where is it?” I stayed silent, “Don’t wanna talk I see...Guards, what has this man done?”

“Vice Captain Sir, the western wall was just attacked by this man, and he even destroyed a small part of it.” A guard answered.

“What, impossible! Not even the Goblin Attack damaged the walls.” Galen was shocked by the news.

“It’s true Sir, but that’s not all.” Reporting, “He was also found standing over 5 recently killed adventurers, and he even admitted to the crime already.”

“Wait no, just let me—” Galen cut me off.

“Why am I only hearing about this now?” He asked.

“Well to quote you, Sir, ‘Can’t you see I’m busy, right now?’ That was when you were hitting on some of the new recruits.” The guard answered.

“Ahem...don’t go spreading lies, Guard. Understand?” Galen placed his hand on the guard’s shoulder.

“Yes, Sir...” The guard answered timidly.

Turning his attention back to me, Galen said “Well, well, well, I knew you were trouble the moment I saw you. Now where’s my bow?” Galen demanded, but I already knew talking to him would be a waste of time. “Not gonna talk? Well how about I teach this murderer a lesson? Bring him to the middle so everyone can see.” The guards pushed me to the center and pointed their swords so I wouldn’t run, while I could see Galen put on some studded metal gloves. “Still not gonna talk, murderer?” Amused by the situation, I smirked, and almost immediately Galen started wailing punches into my entire body.

“Fuck, these punches hurts!” Not avoiding a single one. “He’s right to call me a murderer though, and I know it means nothing, but I’ll take all his punches. I need even a minor punishment to soothe my guilty conscience, if only a little.” Relentlessly being punched all over, I noted “He’s only doing 18 damage per punch, this could last a while...”

The continuous beating lasted for 5 whole minutes, until Galen actually tired himself out. I could barely feel my face anymore as it was extremely bloodied and swollen, my body was bruised all over with a few bones I felt were cracked or fractured, but my Health was still over 500. “What a joke this was, it wasn’t even close to being enough of a punishment, and I can already feel my regen making it all meaningless.”

“H-Had...enough yet?” Galen tiredly asked, grabbing me by the hair. “Wait, since when was this crown on you?" He sounded surpised by it. "Are you playing king or something...actually, I kinda like it. If I can't get the bow back, this will do.” Galen grabbed the crown and tried to remove it from my head, but it wouldn’t budge in the slightest, and instead started to glow red. “What the hell?” In an instant, Galen fell to his knees screaming out in incredible pain—pulling the crown and my head down with him—and I knew that it was the same thing that happened to me when I first put on the crown. Almost as if Galen wasn’t able to let go, the red glow drifted down and coursed through his whole body, causing him to pass out still holding the crown.

“What the hell did you do!” A guard shouted, pinning me to the ground, and Galen’s unconscious body followed.

“I-I didn’t do anything.” I answered, not expecting this would happen if someone tried to take off the crown. The other guards came rushing in to help Galen, all tugging on his arms while being careful of the glowing red crown. But even with 10 people helping to pull, Galen’s unconscious body wouldn’t let go of the crown: until finally a new message appeared, and they all fell back with Galen’s body being freed.

A creature has sacrificed 35 years of their remaining lifespan to ‘The Cursed Crown Of Royalty’ attempting to break the curse between you two, but as the amount did not exceed the 240 years needed to overcome your growing bond, the lifespan was instead sacrificed to you, strengthening the bond and extending your everlasting Royalty.

The red glow from the crown then coursed through me again, but unexpectedly it wasn’t the least bit painful, and was actually kind of pleasant—rejuvenating my body a little. Watching the guards all check on Galen’s still unconscious body, I thought to myself “The crown never mentioned anything about taking the lifespan from others, let alone being able to be removed if someone sacrifices more of their lifespan than I did.” Wondering “Is it some sort of hidden effect? and are there more hidden effects I don’t know about?” Noting “I better be really careful of letting people touch it then, especially if they're Human.” Getting a better look at Galen, and seeing he aged significantly—from his late 20s to his early 40s.

Pressing a sword to my neck, the guard said “I’ll ask you again, what did you do to the Vice Captain!”

“I told you...I didn’t do anything.” I insisted.

“Someone get Captain Wyn!” An older guard ordered.

“We’ve already sent a few people after the attack on the walls to go get her, Sir.” A newer guard answered, “But it was Captain’s day off today, so we don’t exactly know where she is, and it’s taking a while to find her.”

“Look at the state the Vice Captain's in right now!” Pointing to the weakened Galen, “Don’t just send a few people, send everyone to find Captain! Now!”

All the young newer looking guards answered “Yes, Sir!” and left the barracks, while the older veteran ones stayed and glared daggers at me.

I also heard one of the veterans ordering a few young ones, saying “You four, go ask for a Healer from the Twin Church.” and they all listened.

“Let’s bring him to the Hold, and wait for Captain Wyn to arrive.” The guards then aggressively pulled me up and dragged me inside the barracks building.

We entered a large communal area with lots of tables and chairs, and I could see all the guards inside had their hands on their weapons. Dragging me past the area, there was a wooden staircase that went up and stone staircase that went down, and as expected, I was dragged down the stone staircase. Making it to the very bottom, to a barely lit stone hallway, I saw multiple prison cells on each side, and they all had wooden doors with a small slit opening. Dragging me down the hallway, I got a glimpse into a cell that had an open slit, and saw an unusual modernly dressed man sleeping on the floor—bottle in hand, and a cowboy hat covering his face. I tried to look at their name, but I was dragged off before I could. "Was that a Player? What'd they do to end up here?" I wondered.

Pushed into the last cell at the end of the hall, it was the only cell with two layers of doors. The first one being wooden, and the second one being metal bars. They then strapped my wrists and ankles to chain cuffs attached to the wall, spat and kicked me for good measure, and closed the doors behind them—hearing a bunch of locks being locked.

Tugging on the chains, I thought “I can break these, but I really shouldn’t…I guess I’ll just try leveling up my healing while I wait for the Captain.” Casting First Aid to my face and body a few times.

“Well I’m back to full now, but it’s already been 15 minutes, how can they not have found their Captain yet? I might just break-out out of boredom at this rate.” Bored of waiting and fiddling with the chains.

A few moments later, I heard the guards outside talking louder, one of them saying “Captain Wyn, the suspect’s in here.” Hearing the locks being unlocked.

Opening the first door and observing me through the bars of the second, a casually dressed Lv.35 Dayla Wyn said “All of you leave, I want to talk to the suspect alone.” Entering and closing the barred door behind her.

“Yes, Captain!” The guards answered, pretending to leave, but stopping halfway down the hallway to watch.

Being face to face for the first time, I looked Dayla over and realized she really was on her day off; wearing a loose long sleeve white shirt, beige cloth pants, and brown leather boots, but she did carry her greatsword on her back. A human woman in her late 20s or her early 30s, she had dark coloured skin, short afro textured black hair, and two different earrings that shined brightly to my eyes. Hanging on her right was a gold sun, and hanging on her left was a silver crescent moon; both hollow in the center, they had tiny jewels of their respective colour lining the outlines of their shapes.

Dayla spoke first, “Do you know who I am?”

“I believe you’re Little Dayla, right?” Her face twitched slightly when I said Little Dayla. “Or do you prefer something else?”

She took a breath to stay calm, saying sternly “You will address me as Captain Wyn, only Lady Odelia may call me by that name.”

Feeling like I’m already in trouble, I wondered how much I could get away with, and said “So Little Dayla, are you going to let me go? I promise I’m mostly innocent.”

Dayla loudly exhaled, looking already annoyed with me, but she still said “Tell me, was it really you that attacked the wall? Who killed those adventurers? And what exactly happened to Galen? Because when I quickly investigated before coming here, I came to the conclusion that these situations were no ordinary matter.” Telling me, “I’ll decide your crimes after I hear your side of the story.”

Laughing a little, I told her “You seem like a good one.”

“What do you mean a good one?” She asked, confused by what I meant.

“I mean you didn’t just assume I was guilty like your guards did, but actually questioned what happened and if any of it was true. A good one.” I clarified.

“I see, looks like I should train those simpletons to think more.” Turning back to give them a look, already knowing they were trying to watch and listen. “Now can you tell me your truth?” Dayla asked.

“Before that, can I at least get out of these cuffs first, they’re pretty uncomfortable?” Showing my wrists being pinched by the cuffs.

“Sorry, no key.” Dayla shrugged.

“That's alright.” Simply breaking the cuffs by hand instead. “Much better.”

Dayla put a hand on her greatsword, and asked “What are you doing, were we not gonna talk?”

“We are, but knowing how strong you are, I don’t feel comfortable being cuffed up while in this enclosed space with you.” I explained, rolling my wrists and ankles.

“You know how strong I am?” Tightening her grip on her greatsword. “You know I can’t just let you be unrestrained like this, right? You're still a suspect after all.” She informed me.

“Oh I know, that’s what I’m hoping for, this way I don’t have to ask and sound like a weirdo.”

“Wha—” I rushed towards her, and immediately she drew her greatsword and swung it at me.

Surprisingly fast, it just scraped the top of the low stone ceiling, and struck me diagonally in the chest, sending me back against the back wall. Not stopping from the pain, I used Archer’s Dash to close the gap between us, and shoved her to the side so I could make it to the door, but just barely grabbing me by the collar, she hurled me back into the wall again—my head slamming against it.

“Stop! Why are you acting like this? I thought you were trying to plead your innocence?” Dayla asked, holding her greatsword in a thrusting stance, and with the guards now blocking the doorway.

“Hahaha…” I laughed, telling her “No, I plead guilty to all of it, I did everything your guards told you I did.” Confessing everything, “I killed those 5 adventurers in cold blood, the wall was just collateral damage from my excessive attack, and I stole Galen’s lifespan.” Smirking, “Poor guy should only have 35 more years to live.” And the guards' faces were both shocked and angry.

“Why? Why are you confessing like this? Why didn’t you escape earlier if you could break out so easily? Just...why?” Dayla questioned, confused but trying to keep her focus.

“I told you…” Taking out Infinity from my Inventory and grabbing both Shame and an arrow out of it. “...because I’m guilty.” When I made the motion to draw the bow, a blue aura surrounded Dayla’s body, and in a hastened charge, she appeared in front of me. Finding it impossible to breathe and coughing up a huge amount of blood, I looked down to see her greatsword halfway through my chest—impaling my body to the wall.

“I understand now…” Dayla whispered. “You wanted to be punished…”