Chapter 17: Prince and the trip to the forest edge (4)

Fearless was the type of person who would do anything to keep his mental health positive, or so he would believe. He would get drunk and do stupid things to distract himself from grief and sadness, and FY would tell him that alcohol and those stupid craps he indulged himself, they would do him no good. Fearless did not think so at first but eventually, he realized that FY was right. But it was already too late.

When he was done with crying and yet, he could not sleep, Fearless thought of all sort of exercise he could do to pass the time. Admiring the allure of at Iliva’s defenseless body would be an excellent exercise, however, Fearless opted for a more meaningful action. His hand unconsciously touched the final wine sack, trying to unseal it. The rough leathery touch of the wine sack made Fearless realized that he was about to get himself dead drunk in the middle of the night. He shook his head and put the wine sack away. He decided to explore the limit of his skill “What you can do, I can do better” instead. At least, this type of exercise was more meaningful than emptied that final sack of wine tonight.

It’s a single target action skill, if this world was a game, he would need to hit the shortcut button for the skill, aimed his mouse cursor at his target and then click the left mouse button for the skill to be activated.

There were many hidden requirement that was not mention on the description for using this skill. First, he had to have visual confirmation of the target to use this skill. Fearless could not test the range limit of which he could initiate and use this skill yet. He tried to walk away from the camp as far as he could without losing his sight on Iliva’s figure and the skill still activate. While Fearless could not really test the MP consumption of this skill, he was certain that it was a very-MP-demanding skill. If his own WISDOM attribute translated to his MP just like the game, Fearless was sure that he could be counted among the list of characters with the highest MP pool in this world, and yet he had an inkling feeling that he could cast this skill six times in a row after his third time using the skill. Six, that was his limit for the moment.

Also, the skill could only work on living being, that dead Menace constrictor and moths, insects, plants did not count.

However, there was something Fearless could not understand from the skill description. It stated that he could maintain the transformation for a minute, and yet clearly, he could maintain the state of transformation much longer than that. He took form of Iliva and test her skills for a whole ten minute and still he would not revert back until he willed it himself. Fearless could not help but wonder if this was a bug or glitch, and then he cursed the game developers of ROC or whoever responsible for his current predicament for being too sloppy with the coding. Fearless could not remember the last time he cursed someone this much. Since the moment he came to this world, he felt like he had become Misery instead of himself, always cursing at the tiniest things that displeased him.

When morning came, Fearless told Iliva, “Iliva, fight me.”

“Sure,” she immediately replied, did not bat even an eyelid. Her face was full of anticipation, her eyes glistered.

“Wait, hang on. Your readiness scares me. At least show some hesitation,” Fearless took a step back, intimidated by Iliva’s willingness and eagerness. When Iliva stood on her arachnid legs, she’s a shoulder taller than him, that factored in the reason why he was intimidated by her.

“Why should I?” the spider queen nonchalantly asked, flexing her arms and legs and got herself into a fighting stance.

“Don’t you feel a special and growing bond connecting the two of us for the last few days like I do?” Fearless took another step back further. He did not think that the beautiful Iliva could be that scary, that time she tried to force Fearless into a double suicide did not count. He totally deserved that.

“No,” Iliva stopped to think for a moment and replied, crushing Fearless’ hope just like that while advancing slowly.

“Now, you are just being very mean,” Fearless retorted, taking yet another back step.

“So are we going to fight or not?” It was this moment that Iliva had enough, she wrapped her arms around her chest and asked in a exasperate tone.

“Yes and no, I’m just want to see if I could hold my ground against you while being you,” Fearless explained his intention. He had been wondering just how far his limit was when he transformed into someone else.

“So you want to transform into me to fight me?” Iliva asked, confirming Fearless’ intention.

“Yes, but I just want to test my strength. I don’t want to hurt you or anything,” replied Fearless. And instantly, Fearless realized that it was a very terrible reply.

“I would love to see if you could actually hurt me,” Iliva smiled and yet, it did not feel like she was smiling. Her red orbs burned in the flame of mocking anger.

“Actually… you know what? Just take this as practice and be nice to each other okay?” Fearless felt his cold sweats poured out. He didn’t prepare for this.

“You are a real coward for a human,” Iliva scoffed. She would take any opportunity to slander Fearless, well, it’s understandable since he has been playing tricks incessantly on her throughout their trip.

“I prefer the word cautious. Please give me just a few more second to prepare myself mentally,” Fearless smiled and reasoned. He had never bothered regarding the use of the word “coward” to label him ever since he was small.

His mom has always been very protective of him when she was alive. She would make the school exempt him from the PE session or any kind of physical activities that could potentially injured his hands. That reason alone was enough for boys of his age to turn him into a target for bullying.

Fearless could not forget about that even if he wanted to. The sweltering heat of summer, the noisy chirping of cicada, his wet shirt that smelled like dirt and chalk, the kicks that pummeled on his stomach and the sneering laughter echoed in his head. “Fight back, coward,” they sneered in their boyish tone. Fearless never fought back. Nor he found the need to fight back, the more the boys in his class bullied him, the more the girls doted on him and protected him. He had never had the real need to fight back no matter how much the boys told him that he was a big coward. There was nothing coward about being protected by women, whether it was his mom or the girls in his class.

His mom always tell him to treasure his hands and fingers and that he should treat them with extra care. Every time he played the piano, mom would have that beautiful smile on her face. She kept telling him that he was a prodigy with the piano and that he would become famous when he grew up. She was right in a way, he became famous when he grew up, but not as a pianist. She must be very disappointed in heaven. The piano he received in his fifth birthday was still inside his room, has been there for some time since she died, forgotten and left to collect dust in the corner.

“Now, you are just stalling,” Iliva scoffed.

Fearless put his left hand into his pant pocket to touch his magic coins, calming himself through the familiar metallic touch of the coins, “Let’s do it,” he casted the skill “What you can do, I can do better” and began the battle.

And Fearless thought that the battle has almost ended when it has just began, an arachnid leg violently plowed the ground where he stood half a second earlier. Iliva has just propelled herself through six or seven meters in the blink of an eye. This was an impossible battle, Fearless was screaming inwardly, sounding the retreat in his heart.

He had never really involved in a fist fight. His experience with hand to hand combat only consisted of being the practice partner for Alice in her kick boxing gym. He knew how they turned out. This was not the stuff for him.

He leapt backward, putting more distance between him and Iliva. Iliva chased after him, plowing ground in the process and Fearless retreated even further.

“Is running all you can do?” Iliva asked in an irritated tone.

He spammed all version of webs he could create with the Arachne’s racial skill toward Iliva, hoping to bind her. She nonchalantly shrugged them off with ease. The bluish wisps created with the skill “Fragments of the dark god” also proved ineffective against the spider queen. She fought fire with fire, using the same skill to nullify the blue wisps Fearless created as she advanced. In ROC, ‘Fragments of the dark god’ was a different version of ‘Eye of civilization’. This skill was only accessible to the intelligent monster races that were despised by the four main patron gods of Escana Sinintee, Wonten, Niwdar and Eogaill. It traded the destructive power of ‘Eye of Civilization’ for the better MP cost and more importantly the ability to parallel-cast, casting many spells at the same time. Another major difference between ‘Fragments of the dark god’ and ‘Eye of Civilization’ was that it could be soundless conjured without the need to give praise to any god or goddess, similar to how witches cast their fire spells. That similarity was one of the main reason why the witches were ostracized by the Great Temple due to the belief that the witches ungratefully used Sinintee’s power without giving praises to the Almighty god.

“The 36 winning stratagems created by Sun Tzu taught that running is the best option at any given time,” Fearless retorted to Iliva’s mocking question, still desperately retreating.

Iliva slowed down and asked, “What does that even mean?” She looked very bored with the result of the fight, of course, anyone would since Fearless only focus in running.

Obviously, Fearless would be surprise if Iliva knew about Sun Tzu. “Don’t mind about that. Just some nonsensical rambling.”

“Okay,” Iliva replied and suddenly the air around her warped, darkened. She activated the skill “Strength of the dark god,” a common skill for the boss units of Arachne and other monster races that were despised by the four patron gods of the intelligent races. However, despite its status being a common skill, “Strength of the dark god,” multiplied the user’s MIGHT by 1.5, effectively granted attribute boost to users’ HP, speed and strength, making it a very useful skill that can be unfair at some time depend on how high the MIGHT attribute of the user was.

Fearless did not think twice, instantly activated the same skill as he retreated. And all of sudden, his sight darkened and he felt crushed.

“You are such a bore, liar bug. Are you even trying?” Iliva had him pinned down. Her eight arachnid legs locked him down and her hand was at his neck.

Fearless knew what he did wrong. Iliva was more of a close and personal fighter who used her strength to dominate her enemies. She was never the type to spam skills or magic to fight her enemies at range in the same manner which he did. That’s why he lost. Fearless secretly tried to cast the skill “Heart of Champion,” and yet it did not activate. He theorized that when he was in the shape of someone else, he could not access to his own unique skill. “It may not look like it to you but I tried my best,” Fearless said, raised his arms in resignation.

“I can’t tell,” Iliva grinned, her rosy lips quirked in delight by Fearless’ defeat. The red orbs danced and glistered with pure joy. That scene brought a smile to Fearless’ lips. He knew Iliva had that much happiness in this silly victory because he had bullied and teased her too much. She had never won against him in anything from the beginning, whether it was a verbal argument or anything else.

“Hey, what’s that?” Fearless pointed his finger to the direction behind Iliva. His eyes widened with shock.

“What?” and Iliva poor Iliva turned her head, the force and pressure she exerted on Fearless’ body lessened tremendously, “I don’t see anything,” she said.

Fearless immediately took the chance to flip Iliva over and reversed the situation, pinning her down with the same move she did on him, “Guess what, I win,” Fearless grinned widely from ear to ear. He didn’t think that kind of silly trick would work and he was laughing of how Iliva’s mind worked like a child.

“Curse you liar bug, do you have no honor?” Iliva thrashed, but Fearless did not let her go so easily. Her crimson eyes flashed with anger.

“What is honor? Is that something you can eat?” Fearless allowed a sardonic smile floated freely in his face and prompted “Yield?”

“Never,” Iliva angrily seethed.

Iliva flushed furiously. Her eyes scowled, her long brows arched, a sight to sigh over. And Fearless felt his heart missing a beat, “What should I do with you Iliva?” He chuckled and undid his transformation. He got up and pulled Iliva up with him, “If you don’t yield then I have no other choice but to yield it myself.” He unconsciously stole her lips in her most unguarded moment. Iliva gasped in surprise but Fearless had already leapt away, giggled like a mischievous child.

“You are even more of a shameless trickster than Flóki,” Iliva hissed and dusted herself. Her pretty face instantly dyed in scarlet with frustration and embarrassment. Her cheeks puffed up, pouting.

“Ah, the laughing demon lord,” Fearless cackled. He thought that going to Madukat might not be the only option he had, staying in this god forsaken forest just to admire Iliva’s beauty might not be that bad of an option. “He’s really funny guy. I wish I could bring you to his standup comedy show. It’s really awesome,” Fearless scratched his chin and wondered of which answer would be the right answer for him, civilization or this beautiful Iliva.

“You know him?” the spider queen scowled her eyes.

Through the expression on Iliva’s face, Fearless finally remembered that all demon lord was supposed to be a real problem for every creature living in the world of Escana. He quickly said, “His voice actor to be exact.”

Flóki was the leader and the strongest of the Deceitful demon lords, a group of ten demon lords that boasted their ability to corrupt the mind of all living creatures and turned them against one another. Any single one of those Deceitful demon lords would make it a major pain in the butt for ROC players if they were summoned on their domain. These Deceitful demon lords were never as strong as the Mighty demon lords, or had an absurd amount of vitality as the Immortal demon lords, or having the ability to spawn infinite lesser demons like the Embryo demon lords, or as destructive as the Lonely demon lord, nevertheless, they were the worst of the bunch depending on the situations due to their racial ability to turn the units under player control into theirs.

“Voice actor?” Iliva adorably tiled her head, asking.

“Just think him as another personality of Flóki that had nothing with chaos and insanity,” Fearless scratched his head and explained.

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The first thing Iliva did after they finished their lunch was to challenge him to a contest of strength, and Fearless being himself, he has never walked away from battle that he could easily win. He didn’t know what prompt Iliva to do that, but he had no complain.

“So what’s the bet?” Fearless asked.

Iliva looked stunned, had not think about that obviously, mulling and her face flushed red all of a sudden, “Heart,” she mumbled.

And Fearless did not miss that, he almost chuckled, “Interesting. But you can’t bet what is not your.”

“What do you mean?” Iliva scowled.

“You cannot bet what is already mine,” Fearless explained, smiling.

“No, it isn’t,” her face went deep red.

“Yes, it is,” Fearless kept smiling. He could not help himself from teasing Iliva, it was just that addicting when her face turned bright red and when she scowled at him.

“No, it isn’t,” Iliva denied and shot a dagger glare at Fearless.

“We are wasting time here. How about I would name the betting prize instead?” and Fearless suggested.

“… suit yourself,” Iliva scoffed and hummed.

“If you win, you get back your pearl and I will agree to marry you,” he stated his bet.

Iliva instantly denied, “No, just give back my pearl. I don’t want you.”

“That’s not a wise decision,” and Fearless secretly laughed, that was Iliva’s only real chance of winning this battle. Had she accepted that condition, she might win, because only gods knew if Fearless’ mind somehow decided that he would lost on purpose to the allure of his defeat term. “And if I win, I will get to hug you whenever I want until we part way. Deal?”

“You want a hug from me, liar bug?” Iliva asked, looking very confused.

“Not just one, many,” Fearless emphasized, “As long as I want and as many as I want. Deal?”

“…deal,” she nodded after a long moment of contemplating. She obviously did not know that she has signed a devil contract.

And Fearless tried his hardest to not to laugh which might give away his intention. He could only amuse himself in secret. He knew what an adult kiss was since he was twelve and Iliva only knew that two days ago. He would be really surprise if she could win this contest, actually he would absolutely love it if she could best him in this contest.

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Fearless happily skipped down the foot path. His pack bag may be tiresomely heavy but his footsteps were light and full of joy. He twirled and pirouetted, humming a bubbly love song as he danced, o joy, life is full of joy and happiness. “Iliva,” he called the spider queen.

“What?” Iliva immediately gave Fearless his most desired dosage of angry scowl that he hopelessly got addicted to. It brought joy to his heart.

“Give me a hug,” he said and spread his arm, requesting her to hug him. A cheerful smile spread on his lips.

“Can you stop doing that?” Iliva asked with an irritated tone.

“No, Iliva, hug me,” Fearless shook his head like a spoiled child and begged.

“No, this already the thirtieth time you ask me to hug you since noon. Thanks to that, we haven’t even made any progress at all. You are delaying this trip,” Iliva fumed.

“Okay, that’s a fair point,” Fearless nodded his head in disappointment, his arms drooped in resignation, “So all Arachne are liars and cowards just like they said,” he mumbled inaudibly.

Iliva gritted her teeth dangerously, She obviously did not miss Fearless' demeaning accusation, “What? How dare you calling me a liar and coward, liar bug?”

“Is that not true? You lose that bet and refuse to honor it,” Fearless sulked, kicking a large tree root on his path which resembled the shape of the Menace serpent he killed yesterday.

“Because you keep doing it without giving it a rest.”

“I remember that our deal was I got to hug you as long as I want and as many time as I want. There is no limit.”

Iliva resignedly sighed, her eyes rolled in despair as she spread her arms, “Fine.”

“Yay,” Fearless immediately dropped his pack bag and launched himself into Iliva’s opening arms. “Iliva, you are soft and warm. And you smells so good,” Fearless said, resting his cheek on Iliva’s stout chest. The spider queen stayed silent and made no attempt to reply. “Iliva, can you squeeze me a little tighter in your arms? Otherwise, it would not be a hug,” Fearless requested and instantly, he felt like his spine was about to be snapped in twain. He smiled, “Thank you Iliva, I love you,” and allowed himself to sink into that tender warmth.