I used the only thing that could give me a chance at survival, the thing is a unique system and I named it "barter system", it allows me to exchange things for other things i.e barter, it is a shop system so it could also allow me to sell things directly and buy from it, the only catch is that it has a grading system that would make me lose money if I buy and sell

the grading is numeral, with grade 1 being the lowest and it goes up from there, grade 1 things -keep in mind it could be anything even living creatures- range from 1 to 1000 points, and if I sell a fruit worth 10 points I get 10 points but if I want to buy that same fruit I need to pay 1000 point, making a loss, but if I barter that fruit worth 10 points for another item of the same grade, I only need to give enough of the item to satisfy the system, like 5 fruits worth 10 points for a fruit worth 50 points or I can negotiate the price and argue with the system, it only interact with me when I am negotiating otherwise it is silent no prompts or other functions, secretly I call it the bullshit system

I discovered the system when I was two years old and since then I have been selling whatever I could get my hands on without Tiara finding out, 3 years later and I had 42'564 points accumulated, a fortune it would seem to you, but wait until you see the higher grade items in the store

G1: 1-1'000

G2: 1'001-3'000

G3: 3'001-10'000

G4: 10'000-40'000

G5: 40'001-70'000

the prices jump with every grade with no pattern involved and if I want to buy an item I have to pay the highest value or barter it with something of equivalent value

anyway, I wanted to escape for years now, but never got the courage to go on with it, if not for this crisis I don't know if I ever would have tried to escape, but in this life and death situation I didn't have a choice so I went on with the plan I was thinking of for years now

in the store, there is this cloak that when worn blends in with the surroundings, it is not a magical item as you would expect, but a technological one, a G3 item worth 7'350 points but I have to pay 10'000 to get it, it also comes in my size

ITEM : camouflage cloak PRICE : 7'350 points Description : a cloak made from XX chameleon species of XX planet, if the wearer stands still for 3s, the user will become invisible, walking slowly will keep invisibility state active otherwise the state deactivates

with that, I was down 10'000 points, but in the hindsight, I could escape, so I donned the cloak and made my way to the door, what would take 3 seconds to reach normally took me 10s so I can keep my invisibility, I didn't forget to sell anything of value to the system but I kept a dagger worth 720 points for protection

dagger: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3d/09/f5/3d09f597a01a82b44bca64f92322021e.jpg

as I got out of the house all I could hear and see was chaos, the Arachne outnumbered us 3:1 and they were more powerful, we didn't stand a chance, I could see battle everywhere, carnage and death at every corner, the main battle was outside the village, but a few breached the defense line and were fighting some female elves while some others were breaking into homes killing helpless males and children

I could only watch the carnage as I trod carefully trying not to gather any attention, I was trembling the whole way, watching kin slaughtered while trembling with fear, fearing not for them but for me in the off chance I would be in their place if I didn't have the system, my years in this coven stripped me of any compassion or goodwill towards my coven, any good feeling was beaten and sometimes even carved out of me, I have scars all over my body as a witness.

I walked slowly giving a large berth to any obstacle in my way, and after 20 minutes I was out of the village away from the battlefield, the battle was still going on and I just turned my back on them still trembling like a leaf in the wind, I know I am weak, but this just proved to me how worthless my life is, my whole life was under someone else's control, and I didn't like that so I decided to control my own fate, I have a fuking cheat system for god sake, and I was losing time cowering in the coven over my uncertain fate if I left it earlier, laughable

I got out of the cavern into the unknown dangerous underworld with a new resolve, I will get stronger and then no one can threaten my life anymore