Profile

Name Ikite Level 2 (169 EXP to next level) Race Descended Human Class Scavenger/Diplomat Status Peasant of Hell Family Name Dorau Age 18 (+2) Strengths Diplomacy, Running, Fast Reflexes, Curiosity Weaknesses Thinking, Engineering, Curiosity Perks

Aligned Perception, Extension

Statistics

Strength 5 Intelligence 2 Dexterity 4 Constitution 4 Sense 2 Charisma 4 Comeliness 3 Adaptability 6 Unspent Base Stat Points 12

* 2 Years Later *

The wicked wind rustled the sand and gravel through the army camp, pestering the soldiers performing their daily tasks. Some sat on primitive stools, hunched over a small burner with their dinner stew boiling over the fire. I stood, solitary at the observation post, silently watching the horizon for any sign of monsters.

Two years had passed since I had been conscripted to the army, forced to take my fathers place. I had leveled twice since then from fighting wild monsters for food. Because of my class as a scavenger, I was often sent out to collect the loot and remains from the bodies of the monsters killed by the actual army force, where I would meet the occasional stray enemy. I was unofficially recognised as a freeloader and a trash within the camp.

Today, like all days, I was on duty being the lookout for the camp and if any monster came up on the horizon in the four hours that I was on patrol, it was my job to sound the alarm. Boring, boring and even more boring work. The only interesting - if not dangerous - thing that I got to do for the past two years was to shoot the occasional blow dart and collect some loot - loot that I could never have.

I yawned twice before checking the time once more. Finally, I was off my four hour shift.

The walk back to my tent was short, but it couldn’t have been longer. I had to pass through a few dozen tents that housed most unfavourable people. The attack force. As I walked through the line of their tents, they wouldn’t hesitate to verbally abuse me and sometimes pull on my tail. The cargo pants of the army uniform had an obscenely large hole at the back for my tail, which, unfortunately, attracted more attention than I wished for.

Today was no exception, as the largest and cockiest member of the attack force, a teenage awakener named Ragachi yanked my tail, hard, as I was passing by. It hurt. Oh it hurt like hell. Which is why, I say, it was perfectly understandable that I turned around and punched him in the face.

Unfortunately, the general didn’t seem to think so, which is why, instead of spending a nice, relaxing dinner in my tent, I was sent outside to gather mushrooms for tomorrow's breakfast. What did he think I was? A forager?

Oh how I loved this life. Not

* * *

I walked briskly through the dark forest, keeping my eyes peeled both for mushrooms and for monsters. Armed with only a shortsword, pipe and a couple dozen blow darts, I wasn’t exactly prepared to go head on with a wolf, or worse.

As my boots didn’t make noise on the damp mud of the forest, I wasn’t all too focused on trying to mask my presence while searching for mushrooms. However, I immediately ducked down and looked for cover when a piercing whine echoed through the forest.

A beast was about and boy, it didn’t sound happy. I was about to run in the opposite direction when a girl’s cry followed the whine.

Oh dear, oh dear. I was in a dilemma. Was I supposed to run away from the sounds with my life? Or go towards and perhaps save someone else's. It was at this time that I wished my intelligence stat was higher.

Suddenly having a brainwave, I called out Kimi, who I instructed to put two of my unspent stat points into intelligence. With two additional points in intelligence, I could make the best choice in this situation.

My thought process was that I could scout around where the noises came from, assess the situation, then run if need be. Then, without further hesitation, I ran towards the noises, deeper into the forest.

* * *

As I got closer, the whines of the beast became more frequent, whereas I didn’t hear the girl’s voice again.

A few minutes of running later and I stumbled upon an open section of the forest where the noise seemed to have originated from. I peeked out from behind a tree and drank in the sight with my eyes.

Two large, majestic horses with feathered wings leant against each other in a huddle at the centre of the open space. One was a jet black while the other a pure white. They were both frothing at the mouth and snarling at something on the other side of the clearing.

“Kimi, what are those?”

Still behind the trunk of the tree, I called out Kimi once again for her information.

“Those are pegasus, mythical creatures that live in Heaven. I’m not sure why they are down in hell though.”

I thanked her for the info and looked at the profile window that had appeared over the black one’s head.

Animal Profile

Species Pegasus (Alpha) Rarity Legendary HP 30/1000 Level 99 Effects Poisoned, Infected, Feverish Gender Male Skills Thunderbolt, ??? Information Normally a passive animal that won’t attack humanoids. However, this legendary beast will attack if it feels threatened.

I quickly scanned over it and read the next one for any other important information.

Animal Profile

Species Pegasus Rarity Legendary HP 20/850 Level 90 Effects Poisoned, Infected, Feverish, Pregnant Gender Female Skills Light Beam, ??? Information Normally a passive animal that won’t attack humanoids. However, this legendary beast will attack if it feels threatened. Females will do anything to protect their children.

Pregnant? That explained little. Who had done this to these poor creatures? I needed to get more information, but more importantly, needed to see what it was being threatened by.

“Aligned Perception!” I whispered, activating the skill.

The world turned the familiar translucent grey and I watched as the white pegasus lit up in a blinding white aura and the black a throbbing black. However, their auras seemed to ebb away with each moment and had a green tinge to the ends of it.

I quickly walked around the clearing, hoping to get a view of the other mysterious character on the other side. I could see their light-blue aura through the trees. It seemed to be glowing only slightly brighter than mine, and manifested itself in a small shape.

As I got a line of sight to the assailant, I silently deactivated Aligned Perception and examined them.

It was a slim female elf with brown skin and dark purple hair running down her shoulders. She had red eyes and wore a tight-fitting shirt and pants. She held a long, thin sword and a terrified expression on her face. So far, she hadn’t noticed me yet so I risked a glance up at her profile.

Profile

Name Bea Level 6 Race Dark Elf Class Dragoon/Entertainer Status Disgraced Noble of Hell Family Name Haka Age 21 Strengths Problem Solving, Flexibility, Speed Weaknesses Diplomacy, Zoophobia Perks

Dissection, Purge

Dark Elf? I hadn’t seen one of those before. Why was she a disgraced noble? Calming myself in order to not let my curiosity take over, I ducked behind the cover of a nearby tree.

Once again, I relied on my intelligence to give me an answer. Should I approach her and ask for what to do? She did have good problem solving skills after all. What if she was evil?

My only other option would be to run away and leave her to deal with the enraged pegasus by herself. I peeked out from the cover of the tree again and, much to my surprise, she was now on the floor, crying. The pegasus hadn’t moved, but her sword was now lying on the floor beside her and her face full of tears.

Screw it, I thought. She’s practically just a girl. I ran over to her side and tapped her on the shoulder, alarming her. That was stupid, I thought to myself.

“Hey, Bea. You need to get up away from these Pegasus now.”

She whipped her head around and her hair flicked into my eyes, blinding me for a second. I regained my vision only to find her sword at my throat. Badass.

“Who are you and how do you know my name?”

All traces of the crying girl on the floor were gone now, other than traces of washed makeup. She pushed the sword closer to my throat and hissed.

“Answer me now, or die.”

I couldn’t move from shock and barely managed to mutter out an introduction

“My name is Ikite and I was just passing by. I know your name thanks to one of my perks.”

She still hadn’t moved her blade yet so I tried to convince her some more.

“I was gathering mushrooms here in the forest when I heard those pegasus’ making noise and your scream, so I rushed over here to see if someone needed assistance. If I had meant you harm, I could have killed you previously without you noticing.”

She seemed to think about this for a second, then must have come to the conclusion that I wasn’t there to harm her because she moved her sword away. Was this the power of diplomacy?

“So what's this fancy perk of yours that allows you to see my name?”

“It’s called Aligned Perception and allows me to see other's information.”

Bea raised an eyebrow and looked at me weirdly.

“Sure seems useless, unless you’re a brilliant strategist which, by the way you snuck up on me, I would assume you’re not.”

A little part of my heart died at the insult, but nevertheless, I was quick to reply.

“So I saw your profile and it said that you’re good with problem solving. Can you figure out how to help the Pegasus over there? They’re poisoned, infected and feverish, not to mention that the female one is pregnant. They’re all on really low HP so we can either kill them or help them.”

I glanced back at the clearing where the mythical beasts’ HP were nearing dangerously close to zero. She seemed to ponder about the topic for a few seconds before answering.

“Before we make the decision, I need to tell you two things, both of which you may already know from looking at my profile.”

She gave me an accusing look and I shrugged innocently.

“First off, I’m zoophobic, which means I’m scared of animals. This is no exception here. Second of all, I do have the perk Purge, which allows me to heal things and remove those negative effects. I realise those poor creatures are in need of help, but if I go near them, they start growling at me, just like they did before.”

That sounded like a fair argument to me. However, I needed more information about her skill before I could make a decision.

“Kimi, show me the skill information for Purge.”

A holographic screen appeared in front of me with two sections.

Perk Information - Bea Haka

Name Purge v.1 Rarity Rare Power Level 0 Activity Level Passive Cooldown None Status Available Mastery 0% Information

Prevents the user from taking interior poison damage and removes harmful substances consumed. Exterior poison damage is not removed from this ability. This ability also protects the user from invisible harmful effects such as bleed (does not prevent burn). As mastery increases the amount of substances it protects against increases and may provide additional buffs.

Name Purge v.2 Rarity Rare Power Level 0 Activity Level Active Cooldown 5 Minutes Status Available Mastery 0% Information

Allows the user to use ‘purge v.1’ on another being. Being an active skill, it is more powerful than the passive and has the power to remove diseases, parasites, etc. Also grants a medium amount of HP to the receiver. Must be touching the receiver to activate.

Wow, this seemed like a valuable perk to have. Unfortunately, it seemed as if Bea needed to actually touch the Pegasus for the skill to actually work on it. I bit my lip, thinking about the best way to solve this problem. I thought back to how I made important decisions before, then it struck me.

“Kimi, put three points into charisma for me please.”

The way I saw it was that if my charisma was high enough, the pegasus would let me approach them and I could cover Bea, allowing her to use her skill on them. I quickly explained to her my plan, and although reluctant, she agreed.

I cautiously walked into the clearing with my hands in front of me, not wanting to alarm the pegasus. However, a few paces in and they started neighing at me aggressively.

Damn it, I didn’t have enough points in charisma. I really didn’t want to spend all of my points into charisma at this moment. Frowning, I asked Kimi to put just two more points into charisma.

Luckily for me, that seemed to do the trick and their aggressive postures relaxed a little, telling me that I could approach them closer. I had Bea leave her sword at the edge of the clearing with my shortsword so they would see that we meant no harm. As I closed in on them, I held Bea’s hand behind my back, hoping that she would be accepted too.

When I got closer to them, I could see just how truly stunning the creatures were. Each of them had two, large feathered wings that, when unfurled, caught the moonlight brilliantly. Their skin was glossy and too reflected the light. I could see several deep gashes along their sides, legs and face. Whoever had done this to them was truly sadistic.

We reached the Pegasus’ without any further whines or noises. They seemed to have accepted our presence here and acknowledged that we weren’t there to harm them.

“Bea, give me your hand.” I whispered to her, ready to try and heal them.

She touched her sweaty palm against the forehead of the alpha. It tried to resist, but the action was futile as it’s HP was below five percent.

“Purge.”

Bea’s soft, toneless voice filled the air and within seconds, a sweet scent could be smelt from the horse. It’s body glowed slightly yellow and some of the cuts started to recede. Activating Aligned Perception, I could see that around ten percent of its HP had been restored and the feverish effect was gone.

However, a few seconds later, the sweet smell disappeared and the Pegasus’ coat returned back to the black it had been a few moments ago. Bea moved her hand away and the pegasus spoke.

“Thank you, kind strangers for healing me. I will forever be in your debt. However, I do not believe that I will last long, as this poison magic has entered my bloodstream and will quickly kill me.”

I gasped. Did it just speak?

“Kimi, how can it speak?” I muttered under my breath.

“Intelligent animals make up about 15% of the animal kingdom’s population. This does not include humanoids. All language is translated into ‘flat’ the language you’re speaking now, by the game system, so everyone can understand it.”

“Please, I beg of you kind strangers. Although my time is short, my mate needs your help. Our child has not been infected yet, and to continue the Pegasus bloodline, it must live past our deaths to have children of its own. Please help my mate deliver our child.”

A blue, translucent screen appeared before our eyes. It read:

Quest Notification

Information The Alpha Pegasus has asked for your help to deliver his child! Quest Difficulty Easy Quest Conditions Deliver the Pegasus baby without harming it. Quest Rewards 200XP, Pegasus' Blessing Failure to Complete Quest End of Pegasus Bloodline

Accept Quest?

Yes No

“Bea do you see that?” I pointed towards the screen. She shook her head and I frowned.

“It’s a quest asking us to deliver the Pegasus’ baby.”

She appeared as shocked as I was.

“Wait, don’t accept it. I doubt any of us had any experience with delivering children before.”

“Uh, too late. I just accepted it.”

A black and white barcode like tattoo appeared on my wrist and Kimi’s voice rang loud and clear through my ears.

“You have accepted the quest, good luck!”

It was a pity that at that moment, a voice came from the other side of the clearing.

“Well, well, Mr Pegasus. Time to finish off my job, don’t you think?”