“It is not the responsibility of the accused to prove their innocence,” Damien said. His relaxed smile disappeared the moment Bruce questioned him.

“Is that all you have to say?” Bruce asked.

“I shouldn’t have to say anything else. Are you going to punish me because I said what everyone else was thinking? I refuse to take the blame for everyone’s actions.”

“You were the one that shouted for everyone to attack,” Brad eagerly accused Damien.

“And if I shout for everyone to get naked are all of you going to take of your clothes? I won’t deny that my words influenced the crowd, but anyone had the ability to influence the crowd like I did. Don’t make me out to be some evil mastermind manipulating people’s thoughts from behind the scenes.”

“You may not have manipulated people’s thoughts, but you did manipulate people’s emotions. Through words and magic items, you manipulated everyone into fighting. You were probably behind the people that attacked right as you finished your speech.”

“More accusations without evidence. Did you see me command those people to attack?”

Zane was watching the entire encounter as if it were an entertaining play. It wasn’t as entertaining as a battle between experts, but the verbal battle was capable of holding his attention. He agreed with what Bruce said and also thought Damien’s actions were very suspicious. However, he also thought that Damien was right. The accusations against him had no substance and it would be wrong to punish him without proper evidence.

“Enough,” Jade said. “I have a skill that lets me know if someone is lying. I will use it on you, and we will be able to obtain the truth.”

“I already said I don’t like it when people force me to do things.”

“You’re not being forced to do anything.,” Jade replied with a stern expression. “You’re being given the opportunity to prove your innocence.”

“Innocent! Until! Proven! Guilty!” Damien shouted with a voice filled with rage. “I will not let you all force me to participate in some lie detector test when none of you have provided any evidence that ties me to the crime you say I committed.”

“Calm down,” Bruce said. “We’re only trying to get to the truth.”

“Hehe, you want me to calm down,” Damien let out a cold chuckle. “I won’t bother to bring up the fact that you should understand the logic of guilty until proven innocent since were from the same world. I won’t talk about how she can ask multiple tricky questions to make it seem like I’m guilty or how she can lie about the results she gets from my answers. What I will talk about is the fact that I’m an evil human. And I became an evil human because I knew it would give me the ability to do whatever. The fuck! I! Want! Now, if you think I’m going to quietly get down on all fours, then I have two words for you assholes. Fuck off!”

Damien summoned a golden spear and swept it in front of him before pointing it at Bruce. Simultaneously, he unleashed a powerful wave of evil energy. The energy radiated a feeling of freedom and disdain for the world. Although Zane was still suspicious of Damien, he felt some admiration for him due to his strong convictions.

“Damien don’t do anything stupid,” Adam said. “Everyone let’s stop things here. Since we don’t have any evidence, we should resolve this peacefully and leave Damien alone.”

“No,” Bruce said. “I know about your relationship with Damien, but we can pretend like nothing happened. All the clues point toward him. Hundreds of people died, and they deserve to see their killer brought to justice. It’s the least we all could do for them since we decided to protect what their killer was trying to create.”

“Do you have clues or suspicions?” A young man with pale skin, dark hair, and dark eyes questioned Bruce. He wore a grey cloak and walked forward to stand by Damien. “I think we can all agree that there is no real evidence proving Damien’s connection to the tragedy that recently occurred. I know you’re thinking about the people that died, but as the commander you have to think about the people that are still alive as well. Many of us are similar to Damien and don’t want to be bossed around by others without a good reason. If you continue forcing the issue many of us may not participate in the next attack. For the sake of everyone, please let this go.”

Zane didn’t know who the young man was, but he could see his word had an effect on Bruce. Many people in the crowd were mumbling a few words of agreement, but nobody took the initiative to stand next to Damien and the young man. After some time passed, Bruce took a deep breath and let it out before speaking.

“Okay,” he said. “There’s been enough fighting and enough deaths for today, so I will let this go, for now. But mark my words I will do my best to make sure the person responsible for all the people that die today is punished.” Bruce glared at the entire crowd and his gaze lingered on Damien before he began speaking again.

“As for the next attack there won’t be one.” Bruce raised his hand to stop people from asking questions. “I know you all want to ask question, but I will ask that you hold them until I finished speaking. As of now, there are nine hundred and thirty-three people still alive.”

Silence. Zane didn’t even know how to respond to that number. He didn’t know if he should feel annoyed, sad, or angry about the loss of life. They had lost more lives fighting with each other than they did fighting with the mana creatures. It all felt so stupid.

“That’s right we have less than a thousand people left. If we try to face the eighth attack, many of us will die. Therefore, I suggest we find a place to hide from the mana creatures and wait for the Upheaval to end.”

“So, we give up? Just like that?” Someone from the crowd shouted.

“If you wish to die, then you can leave and have a discussion with the other people who wish to do so. The rest of us will stay here and plan our survival.” There was some mumbling from the crowd, but nobody left the area.

“Now, does anyone have any ideas about how we should hide ourselves.”

“No need.”

Everyone heard a female voice and immediately directed their attention to the source. Standing next to Bruce, was the pink haired Messenger that Zane met on the first day. She wore her familiar white robes and playful smile.

“As long as the majority of you are in agreement, I can end the Upheaval right now. I suggest you all think carefully. I’m only offering this opportunity once and if you agree to end the Upheaval it will be considered a failure of the Upheaval Defense quest.”

Zane saw a window appear asking him if he wanted to end the Upheaval. He selected yes without hesitation and began looking at the rest of the crowd. He could see some people immediately made their decision like him while others looked like they were still thinking things over. Eventually, everyone made their decision.

You have failed the Upheaval Defense quest.

“Fantastic. I was worried your group would make the same foolish decision a few other groups made Of course, all of you shouldn’t feel bad about failing the quest. In fact, it was expected that most villages would fail to complete the quest.”

“So, you gave us an impossible quest?” Someone questioned the Messenger in a surprised tone.

“It wasn’t impossible. However, it was determined that if a group failed to establish proper teamwork, didn’t focus on developing their paths, fought amongst each other, or made several other bad mistakes they would likely fail the quest. It was determined that most if not all starting villages would have trouble with teamwork and infighting. These two mistakes would decrease the chance of a successful completion by fifty percent. I’m sure I don’t need to mention all of the mistakes that were made.”

“If the elves hadn’t been so stuck up, we would have passed the quest.” A human said.

“We failed because you humans were too greedy and too selfish.”

“When it comes to working as a team, everyone shares a part of the blame,” The Messenger said. “The elven failure was their inability to trust humans and protect their inns.”

“No humans came to protect us,” Daughter said. “I stand by the decision I made.”

“Really? Even though you know it led you hear. You have less than three hundred elven remaining. If you had properly defended your inn a hundred elven might have died, but you would have been able to demand compensation toward your goal. By abandoning your inn, you increased the tension between the elven and humans. Also, you made it harder to get the resources that you and your entire race came here for.

As the Messenger spoke, Zane could see Daughter’s face becoming paler and paler. He didn’t know if she was upset about the death of her people or the resources that the Messenger mentioned. When the Messenger stopped speaking, he saw Daughter ball her hands into a fist and ask the Messenger a question.

“Can we still obtain it?”

The Messenger smiled at her before turning her attention to someone else. Zane saw Bruce frown when the Messenger focused on him. He straightened his body and met the Messenger’s gaze.

“As the commander you failed to properly command everyone. You focused too much on the humans and too little on the elven. Also, it was suggested that you establish a mental resting area using some of the items in the market. Unfortunately, you chose to let people pay for their own mana juice and rely on themselves. If a mental resting was established, it’s likely that the bloody battle between the elven and humans could have been avoided. Their blood is on your hands.”

The first thing the Messenger said made Bruce’s frown deepen, but he was able to nod his head in acceptance. When the Messenger mentioned that his lack of actions led to the bloody battle between the elven and humans, he wasn’t able to calmly accept it. Zane saw his body shudder and blood drip from his clenched fist.

Truthfully, Zane saw the magical item the Messenger mentioned as well. However, he didn’t even bother to mention it to anyone. Looking around he could see that a few people began to realize the same thing he did.

All of them could have done more to make sure they passed the quest. It didn’t fail because of one or two individuals. It failed because of the inactions or actions of all of them. The Messenger was about to continue speaking, but Zane raised his hand to interrupt her. He wasn’t interested in listening to the many things they could have done better. They failed the quest, and he accepted his part in that. Now, it was time to move on.

“So, what happens next?” Zane asked. “The quest said we would lose our points and get sent back to where we came from when we failed.”

“Ah, yes. The quest did say that didn’t it. Well, there are actually two options. Option one is to return to where you came from and option two is to answer the call.”

“What call?”

CALL OF ADVENTURE

Chosen adventurer you have been called on to explore a new world. This world is outside of the control of the system. This new world is filled with unique experiences that you would be unable to find in your world of origin. Experience that may end up becoming key parts of your path.

Will you answer the Call of Adventure? Yes or No

WARNING: Refusing a Call of Adventure can lead to losing the Chosen Adventure title.