Lyndis looked up at the Purple Rabbit and it looked down at her at the same time. But the first thing that came up in Lyndis mind was-

“FOOD!!!”

Hunger can really get to people and Lyndis was no exception. She was almost literally starving right now and needed to eat. Her health was only at 20% and her mana levels even lower not to mention her stamina that was near rock bottom.

As such she drew her sword immediately to slay this creature and cut up to cook! She had all the necessary tools to do this already. All that she needed to do was to kill this creature and eat it!

“Come! Fight me and give me your meat!” she shouted like a crazed man who was completely obsessed with food.

However this purple rabbit sensed the killing intent of Lyndis and furthermore the desperation she had right now. Combined with the fact that it was weaker than the one Sain had to face during the Boss Battle struggle from long ago, it chose to flee.

“What?!” Lyndis was surprise that it would run away and immediately went to chase after it.

“Wait up! I just want to eat you!”

However before even 10 minutes of chasing it, her stamina went down to an extremely low value and this message appeared in front of her.

You are Exhausted

Strength left you because you haven’t rested for a long time. Your Stamina, Strength and Agility attributes are reduced. You are suggested to rest. If you don’t do it, you may lose consciousness because of exhaustion.

“....”

She blankly stared at this message and felt that her body was extremely heavy and did not want to move. The purple rabbit disappeared from sight as well as her food source.

“Damn!” She had just lost a good source of food here and was going to eventually starve. However she had a piece of Rye Bread still in her inventory and took it out and munched on it. Her hunger bar increased a bit and her stamina was recovering better than before.

But still, there was this horrible grumbling feeling in her stomach demanding food.

But right now...Lyndis did not want to move, it was going dark and she did not have enough energy to move let along do anything. Thus she lied on the side of a tree and fell asleep...

xXx

“Night's about to happen...” said Sain looking at the setting sun, “Better clear this last batch of enemies up then.”

Sain looked at the last sanctum of those who opposed this city now. It was just a small floor in a certain building that housed some people in it. It was up high above the ground and was isolated in that there were men surrounding the area just in case.

Frankly, even if they had a way out, there was no escape from him.

“Ready?” asked Miriel by his side. There were several other people behind him but he and Miriel under his plan would rush in first.

Sain nodded and then signal everyone behind them to prepare. With them were 5 armed NPCs with swords that weren't that weak.

3...2....1....

KICK!

Sain kicked down the door and looked around quickly and identified enemies.

“Mana Bolts!” he chanted causing chaos among the enemy ranks. Miriel did the same and the NPCs that were with them charged and attacked the enemy. In a matter of seconds, the place was taken over by them.

There weren't that many enemies that could fight back and all the others surrendered to them quite quickly.

Tying the last person up, a message that he had been waiting for appeared.

You have completed the Guild Quest: Cleanse Shia City of the evil within!

- You have levelled up x8

- You have gained 800 Fame

- You have gained 1500 contributions to the Kingdom

- You have gained 1200 contributions to the Guild

Collect reward from Hale

Sain was quite surprised since he suddenly gained 8 levels at once. As expected from a C rank Guild Quest, it was equal to a B rank quest on difficulties plus this quest took them....him a slow few months to complete as well.

Plus Sain felt that this was also due to him being in the early level 200s as well which gave him a large boost in levels gained this time round.

With the ranks determining the difficulties of quests, they also give a general range of what level you need to be to complete them. A B rank quest which this quest was equal to in difficulties was something a level 300-400 would do.

There level difference gave made it so the experience he gained from completing them quest to seem higher with more level ups. At this point he was at level 223 now and expected everyone else involved in the quest to get that amount of experience as well...even the ones who left.

“Eight level ups at once...these past months haven't been a waste after all” said Miriel next to him.

Sain nodded and said, “Yeah though right now I'm more interested in the reward Hale will give us for this.”

“It better be good since...” Miriel looked darkly at the city. Due to being here and the events that occurred, the group they were in were split up.

“Don't worry about it. Lyndis just needs time to cool down” said Sain patting her shoulder and shaking his head on the anger she felt.

“But she still...telling me to not do anything to that Lyndis after she hurt you and just left like that. What on earth was she thinking of?” she asked to no one in particular.

“Something along the lines of 'I can't trust anyone and I want to leave' I guess” sighed Sain, the biggest problem he had to think about was on how to get Lyndis back to fight with them when the time comes.

Out of everything, trust was the most important thing a group could have and that was fractured right now.

“Well time is the best solution for these kinds of things” said Sain before saying, “Better go back before Hale decides to sleep.”

As such, the two figures left the buildings and went towards where Hale was.

There, they were greeted with cheers from several groups of people, but Sain ignored that and went straight for Hale. Hale, who looked old seemed to have aged younger a few years all of a sudden, it seemed that the relief of stress caused his body condition to get better.

“Oh Sain! Miriel! Welcome, welcome. Thank you for all your efforts!” Hale let out a cheerful laugh and said, “We can finally start finishing constructing this city at last! Thank to your group!”

“....”

Sain only gave back a wry smile to Hale. He would like to get the reward now since there are others things he wanted to do than be in this city for any longer.

“Right right, the reward. I know this isn't much but it is the best we can at least do since you and your comrades spent a long time helping us retake this city” said Hale holding out a ring. Sain smiled and took the ring and identified it.

Ring of Blind Righteousness

A ring that can only be worn by one that had committed oneself to benefit of others. While wearing this ring, any criminal act will produce half the infamy and over time, every hour 10 infamy will automatically be reduced. But do know that this ring will be destroyed if the wearer commits an unforgivable crime.

Restrictions: Level 240

Options:

- Halve the gain of infamy

- Reduces the wearer's infamy by 10 once every hour

Jackpot! This was literally the best reward he would get right now. For him who had been doing certain acts without anyone knowing, gaining Infamy was one of the things that he feared the most.

But now, he didn't need to fear it as much thankfully enough. The only thing was that he needed to be level 240 to equip and was only level 223.

“As for Miriel here...this necklace was found in the ruins of the Tower and I believe it would suit you quite a lot” added Hale handing her a necklace that had a ruby at the centre of it. Miriel identified it and allowed Sain to see it's stats.

Necklace of Blessed True Aim

A necklace with a gem at the centre of it that had been blessed at an unknown time to allow the wearer to more accurately hit where they intend. It is said that this had been in the procession of many skilled bowmen in the past.

Restrictions: Level 230

Options:

- Increase Aim by 30%

- Minor Resistance to Blindness and Darkness

Likewise, Sain thought that this item was really good even compared to his own ring. Not only did it make aiming easier, it also gave some minor resistance to two annoying status effects. More than that, it's level requirement was only level 230.

Though these really did not compare to the unique class items they got from the boss monsters from before, they were still powerful rare items that many would want.

Sain nodded to Hale and thanked him for these rewards.

“Don't worry about it. I would have more rewards but those comrades of yours left you two to finish off the quest. I can't say if they abandoned it or not!” Hale snuff the air thinking of those who leave quests on their own.

Sain shook his head again hearing this and said, “They just need some time off.” Plus and he was thankful that this was a Guild Quest which meant they were rewarded for their efforts being in the same Guild whether they were here or not.

Soon enough they said their goodbyes to the city and were at the gate where a large number of people passed by. There, Sain and Miriel met with Nue and Eart who had helped them for a while on this Guild Quest.

Sain bowed slightly to them as to respect and said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

Nue nodded but said, “No need to thank us. We were on orders and Eart was mostly useless.”

Eart made a distressed look and said, “Hey I did my best to protect them over and over again” to Nue protesting on his treatment even now. For starters he was forgotten until now by Sain and the rest of the group.

“That is why I said mostly useless” said Nue, “I didn't see you when we left that day.”

“I was buried under so much rubble from that Tower falling on me!” retorted Eart. It had been a few days since that day but still he managed to survive that hit which was a big surprise to Sain at least.

A higher level might make you seem superhuman but not invincible. Falling from a great height or something heavy landing on you would usually kill you.

“Anyway we...I will be going back to the Cursed Forest then” said Nue nodding to both Sain and Miriel and leaving.

Eart also said, “I will also be going wi-fast! Where the hell did she go?! I wanted to spend some time travelling with a cute girl!”

In an instant, Nue disappeared and Eart sped off at an alarmingly fast rate to catch up to her. Sain and Miriel both felt that that won't be the case. With this, one part of their task had been finished and because of that, Miriel asked, “Well...what do we do now?”

“Train, find information on [Little Droplet] and meet up with our masters on what to do?” wondered Sain, “We have another year to finish several things so I guess we can train while travelling back to Witchelm City then.”

Miriel nodded and grabbed onto Sain's arm, she would be using this time greatly to further her relationship with him.

“....”

Sain could only sigh at the more open affection Miriel was showing him.

xXx

Hours later...no, was it minutes instead? Lyndis was not sure at all but she knew one thing. Her arm was in pain.

“Ouch!”

Lyndis' eyes sprang open and saw that a purple rabbit was...chewing onto her arm. Several emotions came up in her. Surprise, Disgust and most of all, Fear.

“GET OFF OF ME!!!!”

Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double

Effects of the 'Mark of the Lion' is now active. 'Genesis Flame' is now active.

Without even intending for it to activate, Lyndis used 'Boost' and covered her body in flames, especially around that right arm that was being chewed on.

BOOM!!!

A burst of flame exploded outwards with her at the centre and blasted that purple rabbit away. Looking around, Lyndis had noticed several things.

The first it was raining.

The second it was still night.

And the third was that she was surrounded.

She moved her right hand to try to draw her sword but she felt numbness and pain from it. Looking at it, her right arm, her dominant arm had been bitten through quite badly to the point she couldn't even control it anymore.

“Tch.”

With some difficulties, she drew her Katana with her left arm instead and held it like that wobbling a bit since using one arm for a two handed sword was unbalanced. Lyndis also checked her status, her health was a bit higher at 30% but that attack definitely lowered it before she knew. Her mana was sitting at 50% thankfully and her stamina increased to the same level as her health.

“Good, I can fight using my fire still...” she muttered looking at the injured purple rabbit she just attacked, if not for the dimming fire that was being put out by the rain, she would not be able to see it at all.

“No choice, Pocket Fireball” she chanted creating a ball of fire that was three times the size of it's usual size without 'Boost' and made it hover near her.

This would be her light source for now.

Using her flames with 'Boost' without skills consumed an equal amount of mana and stamina at the same time. But if she used her fire skills with 'Boost' then it would only consume stamina, the same amount as the mana cost.

Frankly using fire skills with her 'Boost' ability was far more efficient mana and stamina wise but was a hassle compared to just blasting fire everywhere. But right now she had a more concerning thing she needed to deal with.

“How many enemies are around me?” she wondered guarding in all directions. Her blast of fire from earlier destroyed the tree next to her which was a bad thing since her back was unguarded. But Lyndis did not pay attention to that and payed for it.

MUNCH!

“Ahhh!” she screamed as there was a sharp pain in her left shoulder. She sent out another wave of fire using 'Genesis Flame' and consumed quite a bit mana and stamina. Already her mana levels dropped to 30% and stamina at 25% from before.

Swinging her Katana to the enemy behind her in a blind panic, she missed and hit the remains of the tree instead.

“Grrrr....what the hell is happening?!” she shouted seeing many eyes pop up all around her.

“Flame Strike!” she shouted creating large spear of fire and firing it. Due to the rain, it's power decreased by half before it even hit.

But the most damning thing was that her attack was dodged and she wasted 1% of her total mana like that. In a battle that may take a long time, saving every scarp you can could make or break you in the end.

'Flame Strike' cost 20 mana and was a relatively low cost skill but was at best a medium strength fire skill at best leaning towards a low rank. Even with 'Boost' and 'Genesis Flame' active as well as her 'Fire Circulation' skill increasing it's power, it was only a medium strength fire skill that got degraded back down to a low strength fire skill with the rain.

But naturally only Sain would have thoughts like this, Lyndis didn't pay attention tot his fact and rapidly shot out a 'Flame Strike' to keep whatever enemies that was attacking her away every 5 seconds which was the current cool down of the skill in the Intermediate Level.

Every time a skill advanced a stage, the cool down will decreased by half!

A skill that had a cool down of 10 seconds would go down to 5 seconds in the Intermediate Level and then to 2-3 seconds in the Advance stage. To be able to fire 2-3 more attacks than another person with the same skill could make the skills extremely powerful.

Soon enough, the enemy which Lyndis concluded to be a pack of 5 purple rabbits got the timing down to avoid her 'Flame Strike' attacks.

There were gaps in her defence and they rapidly attacked her due to that.

“Wa-Power Strike!” Combined with 'Precision Stance' since she couldn't aim well with her left hand, Lyndis struck down on the purple rabbit and heavily damaged it.

Even though she was extremely weakened with a lowered condition than normal, unable to use her right arm and was outnumbered amongst many things. There was still a good 50 or so level difference between her and the purple rabbit!

The purple rabbit retreated so it's comrades could attack her instead.

“Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike!”

She was rapidly attacking in all directions pushing those purple rabbits that were a big taller than her in size with her sword alone.

However fate was really not kind to Lyndis.

Durability of Sharp Katana of Flame is at 10%, using it any more may break it

“....!”

Even though her Katana was extremely powerful, dealing more than twice the damage of her old on minimum, it's maximum durability was still at 60 compared to the Iron Sword's 80. Plus she had been fighting with it for a while including against the troll that her strikes did little to no damage to it, it was no wonder that her Katana was reaching its limits.

Lyndis knew that Katanas were one of the stronger sword types weapons but had a pretty bad durability due to it. In her mind, she compared dying to these rabbits or losing the Katana.

“Need to save the Katana!” she decided with a shout. She did a leap kick to the purple rabbit's face that was nearby and stored her Kanata in her inventory in the next moment.

Now without a weapon, her offence decreased quite a bit.

However her strength and agility stats were quite high, equal to a player that had only invested in strength and agility of the same level. This was mainly due to two of five stats per level up being placed in Intelligence that increased her fire skill power and mana and vitality that increased her health.

But at the same time she also trained in hand to hand combat with Alexandra's combat training classes with the others. Thus there wasn't that much of a drop of ability in losing to use her Katana.

BANG!

Lyndis' left fist shot out and hit the nearest purple rabbit square on and seemed to have stunned it. The remaining four purple rabbits each let out a scream and charged at her.

With only three limbs usable even if she wanted to or was capable of attacking in all four directions at once, she was unable to.

“Thus charge head on at a single point!”

Deciding that was the best way to do things, she sprinted and kneed one of the four purple rabbits charging at her and with flames covering her body shouted, “Burning Touch!”

Like the rest of the older skills she got, it was in the Intermediate Level and thus transformed a bit. It was no longer a simple technique to light things on fire but something that burnt others with a single touch.

And with her current skills active, this effect was even larger and more prominent than before.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrnnnnn!!!

The purple rabbit she just attacked let out a scream before backing off.

“Flame Strike!”

She took this chance and fired that attack at the same purple rabbit making it even more wounded and was about to use another skill to finish off but the other rabbits, including the one she attacked first came down on her.

Punch! Punch! Punch! Punch!

A series of punches came through from the non-burning purple rabbits. Her health rapidly decreased to 20% due to this before she managed to escape. Cursing she was considering to run away but then saw how they were all together.

“I feel sorry for my meat supply but...Fire Bomb!”

A small red ball of fire appeared and ticked down as she threw it and it softly landed in front of the purple rabbits...

BANG!

The explosion instantly killed the nearest two purple rabbits and injured the other two. The last which was still burning was killed when Lyndis shot another 'Flame Strike' at it. It was too bad she just lost two purple giant rabbits worth of food and another one is getting burnt.

Lyndis quickly stumped the last two purple rabbits to death and took out a butcher knife to cut out the meat. If its tools in cooking, she was already prepared in it. It took her no more than 5 minutes to harvest the meat of three of the edible purple rabbit.

Feeling happy, she let out a hum, “Good, I can live off this for a week at least~”

But then, at that moment, she felt that there were more presences around her...and more purple rabbits came out to see her in between the corpses of their breathen...

“Hey...wait....SHIT!”

Thus Lyndis was forced into another battle.

xXx

“Yeah...she's still fighting here...no she doesn't seem to be dying.”

“....”

“What can I say? She actually not bad in hand to hand combat...though the enemy are giant rabbits of the purple kind.”

“....”

“Yes I did say purple rabbits and also giant in there and no I am not lying to you. It's good that you trust me to that extent.”

“....”

“Yeah yeah, I know. Don't interfere even if she dies. I doubt she's going to class with us anymore since she missed a couple of them already. I bet Eden and the other two have been wondering what the hell is happening.”

“....”

“Got it, one of us will keep tabs on her at all time, the other two will search for information on [Little Droplet].”

With that, Shadow looked at Serena who had a complicated expression on and Raven who seemed perfectly fine to the point one could think he was hollow inside, completely emotionless on the face but not in actions.

“Well then, who wants to see Lyndis struggle and in pain?” he asked the two with a smile. Serena could not help but to think that smile was creepy as hell.

“....”

Shadow tilted his head strangely and asked, “What's wrong?” which caused Serena to frown again. Thus she had to asked in a condensing tone, “Who were you talking to?”

“You know who. I did tell you that I was here on orders.”

“Sounded like you had quite...an engaging conversation with him.”

“Trust me when I said I made more of an effort to make it sound like that. Miriel seemed to be sticking next to him closely again so I wanted to tease her a bit though that depends on Sain's reaction to my words” Shadow said with a grin.

Serena shook her head saying, “Why does it seem you are acting?”

“Is it too obvious? Well there's a need for a cheerful one now that Lyndis ended up like that” he explained, “Though I'm not the only one doing this. Sain is really good at acting you know, well to the point you wouldn't think he was acting.”

“....I still don't like your tone.”

“Well you can't do-ah, Lyndis started to bite now” Shadow moved his head to look at Lyndis. Serena and Raven were not able to see perfectly in the dark but Shadow was able to. With Serena's 'Blessing of Invisible Torments' buff, all three of them had stealth on though Shadow already had the skill to the advance level.

This was to make sure that they, three in total would not be attacked by any enemies that would spot them normally while they were spying on Lyndis. They continued to watch as she struggled alone.

xXx

“This....was....way to much!” Lyndis huffed out a puff of air as she fell onto the ground now out of breath again.

In her left hand was her old iron sword that she barely managed to get out of her inventory. During the taking of the iron sword out of her inventory, it was knocked off by an attack by the purple rabbits.

After that, she had to resort to biting in order to cause some damage and such to get to that iron sword. Now that she thought about it, she was really lucky to get out of this alive. Her health was really really low right now.

She hurriedly took out some rolls of bandages to restore her health.

Bandaging used, bleeding will stop, health increased to 7%

Bandaging used, some injuries will be mended after some time, health increased to 15%

Bandaging used, some injuries will be mended after some time, health increased to 23%

Bandaging used, some injuries will be mended after some time, health increased to 30%

With her health to a level where she would probably not die in one hit from a random attack, she checked the state of her weapon that she was currently using.

Long Iron Sword Durability: 70/80 Damage: 32-38

An iron sword that is longer than normal. As such, the damage it produces is higher than normal but at the same time the durability increased due to the good tempering of the blacksmith. It's long blade surprisingly does not make it heavier than other swords.

Restrictions: Level 140

Options:

- Damage on living creature increases by 10%

- Light weight and balanced at the same time despite it's true weight

- Sword skills are executed twice as fast

When she pulled it out, it was at full durability and now it decreased by only a little bit but at the same time she by estimate had another seven battles with his sword until it breaks since she doesn't have the repair skill which is something Raven learnt.

“....”

There were some thoughts on how useful he would be right now but she put it behind her. Many players, groups and even guilds didn't have a person who had the repair skill. They just went to a blacksmith to get things repaired and payed a cost instead.

Another thing was that she looked through her armour. It was in a rough shape but was not as bad as her weapons in losing durability. She knew for a fact that she attacked more than she was hit and thus the durability lost on her armour wasn't that bad.

However she would definitely need to visit a blacksmith else downgrade to her older gear.

“Speaking of older gear...how much do I have of that stuff?” she wondered.

Other than the current Iron Sword, she still had the one that Ron gave her as well as an old leather armour set...and that was it. Both were on an even lower level than her current sword that would be considered low levelled to her right now.

“That reminds me...I wonder if I levelled up during that battle...I didn't pay-huh? Why is my level 223 instead of 215?”

Surprised, Lyndis scrolled through recent messages and found that the Guild Quest concerning Shia City was finished.

“....”

Lyndis had a complicated feeling about it. One, she was happy of the experience gain and the level ups but on the other hand it was Sain who completed the quest...without her.

“Wonder how Miriel was...considering that those three left with me, she would have had quite some time with Sain alone...” A smirk gradually came on Lyndis' face but she then remembered that she was hungry and needed to eat.

“Right...might extract the meat from those rabbits later and cooks some now” she muttered to herself taking out some dry sticks and stones to make a small campfire and lit it up with her 'Pocket Fireball' skill.

Next she took a lump of rabbit meat and stuck it on a stick.

“Might taste bad, might be chewy but I need that hunger to be gone.”

She did this to another two lumps of meat and waited for it to be cooked. Eventually, when she felt like it was done, she took it and took a bite out of it.

You have tasted a Well Cooked Disgusting Purple Giant Rabbit Meat!

- Due to bad taste, will cause some minor negative status effects on movement

“Pah!” Lyndis immediately spat the meat out of her mouth and tried to wipe her mouth clean of it.

She stared at the lump of meat on the ground silently and looked at the other pieces of meat...and finally checked her hunger metre. She would need to eat a total of six sticks of this meat to get to full.

“I don't need to completely fill it up...I can half fill it to survive for later...” she reassured herself before taking another bite into the meat that made her want to vomit.

The same message appeared and she ignored it, continuing to eat all three sticks of meat to make her half full...though she wanted to vomit everything else to be done with it even if she starved to death.

“Now to collect the res-you got to be fucking kidding me” she cursed seeing more enemies around her again. Another batch of Purple Giant Rabbits to fight...sigh.

xXx

Another day passed and she eventually found a large village which was surprisingly close by which caused her to internally curse again.

“Hmm...this seems like a nice place” she muttered looking around. She could tell that this place was half way to being a small town in fact. Walking around, she moved to where the smoke was and found...

“A restaurant?”

There was a large sign that said the name of this place was called 'Lonely Den' which made her smile a bit. However looking through her inventory, she only had a few silver coins and had to save that to repairing her gear.

“Damn should have taken some gold when I left...” She was never trusted with money after that incident where she spent several gold on some food and now she was paying the price.

Moving along, she after some hours of searching and asking around finally got to a blacksmith. She cursed on the fact that why this place only had one blacksmith and it was hard to find.

Walking in she saw that there was no one inside.

“....?”

Looking around, this place seemed to have been used by a person recently. She could even see that the furnace thing that blacksmiths used was still hot and burning.

“Hello Lyndis.”

“Eck!” She immediately drew her sword and attacked.

BANG!

She hit something solid and then looked to see who she actually attacked. She looked in horror to that person even though he seemed to be extremely relaxed and carefree as he caught the blade with his bare hand.

“You are slipping you know. I don't remember you attacking anyone that called you and your swings to be this...dull.”

“Eden” she called that person's name and he walked out.

Dressed in gear that seemed good for travel but still could not hide the unparalleled beauty he had..as a woman that is even with his hood up. She felt something heavy on her heart thinking she had lost to him already in some area as a woman.

“Hey, why the hell are you pouting like Alexandra when looking at me?” asked Eden.

“....”

For some reason Lyndis thought that Alexandra felt the same way as her sometimes...

Before long she asked, “Why are you here?” to which Eden finally smiled and said, “You are finally asking me something important.”

Taking off his hood, he let loose his long and shiny silk like black hair. Lyndis could only ask automatically without thinking, “How do you take care of your hair so well?”

Letting out a small chuckle, Eden moved the conversation by asking, “So why exactly were you angry with Sain?”

“....”

“And are you angry with me?”

“...I don't think so? How were you involved with the case with Aria?” asked Lyndis with a pondering face.

“I believed I told Sain of what I found when looking into Aria for him when he asked and immediately after he killed her” he answered with a frank tone.

“And...?”

However Eden smiled and shook his finger and said, “You need to and my question first.”

“Oh I simply admiring your looks before I remembered you were a guy and got a bit depressed as a woman” Lyndis answered however looked away when Eden started to stare at her.

“You're still a brat to me and answer the other question” said Eden in a sudden change in tone. The air around them went cold and Lyndis' instincts that were particularly more active than before recently told her to run away.

“....”

“....”

The two looked each other silently. It is to note that Eden had gained a lot of patient over the years though Lyndis did not know that anyone that did not answer him immediately in the past were tortured slightly the longer they took with his magic.

“You won't get any service with the blacksmith to repair your gear unless you answer you know” said Eden in a slightly kind and yet slightly threatening tone.

In her mind, Lyndis weighed a lot of things and decided to say, “I don't want to say.”

Eden let out a sigh and said, “Well you won't get any repair service from him then. Not going to stop you from buying anything though. Now to deal with an old enemy that's in the area...”

With that, Eden nodded to the back of this dusty old blacksmith store and left which left Lyndis to look and stare at him wondering what the hell was that since he didn't do anything to her at all. The Eden she knew wouldn't dare let anyone off.

Else..she didn't know him that well to begin with. She only thought of someone who led the guild she was in to begin with.

“Young lady, if you are not here to buy anything, I suggest you leave else you'll waste time” said an old man that appeared all of a sudden. If not for the fact that this old man was probably the blacksmith, she would have drawn and attacked him as well.

However even knowing that, Lyndis was still clearly startled not taking well to surprises.

“Yes! I mean...uh...repairs?” she finally asked in the end.

The blacksmith shook his head saying, “That one told me not to to you no matter what and payed a good price for it. I can live through the winter fine with this extra money I got now” with a bitter smile to Lyndis.

“Ha...” Lyndis let out a sigh and then asked, “How much does some of the cheaper swords you have cost?”

“Level 10 cost a silver, level 30 cost 3 silvers, level 50 cost 10 silver and level 100 cost 50 silver. Those four are the cheapest.”

Lyndis checked to see that she had 38 silver on her right now. She could not even afford weapon that was half her level?

“Not enough money...” she muttered.

Seeming concern for her, the blacksmith said, “If you're low on money, there is that nearby dungeon or you could take on a quest from the village leader to do something about those purple giant rabbits.”

With another sigh and not listening to the blacksmith, she left the blacksmith store and went back to that restaurant that she passed by before.

At least she could get something good at eat since she didn't feel like cooking anymore.

“....Closed.”

However when she reached there, the place was closed down for the day. Looking around, it was already night now.

“Need to get to an inn...” She looked around but had no idea where one was. Theoretically an inn would usually be near the entrance of the place in order to let people enter and leave the place quickly.

Thus Lyndis went to the entrance of the village and looked around for an inn and found...nothing. She wondered where she would sleep for the night since she didn't want to log off, however she rather not sleep in the cold.

“....”

Dashing over around the corner of a certain house nearby, she quickly scanned the area...and found nothing again.

“Hmm....”

She could have sworn that someone was spying on her. Her instincts to detect these kinds of things were getting quite good now.

Therefore, she took the mind to think and decided to log off. She rather not have someone do something unspeakable to her while she slept after all.

xXx

“Damn that woman is super dangerous” Shadow muttered a curse wishing she would be more human in her detecting abilities. If not for the fact that he was still in stealth and that he quickly hid in the shadows and a distance away from her at that moment she ran over, he would have been found out.

“My my a woman's instinct is quite frightening you know.”

“Yeah I know, my stealth skill is on the advance level and she still fo-huh, why the hell did you appear Eden?” asked Shadow to the being that seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

“Not exactly the tone I would want you to use with me but I don't mind. More to the point, Lyndis is really on the edge here but at the same time it caused her to be even more cautious than before like a wounded beast being more sensitive to dangers” said Eden look at the spot that Lyndis logged off at.

“....”

Shadow silently listened to what Eden had to say. Why wouldn't he, Eden was the guildmaster...or one of them and Shadow was a lowly member.

“Anyway, how long do you think she will mop around with? Spilled milk is nothing to be mopy about though in this case it's more like spilled blood” said Eden with a humoured tone like he was enjoying this.

“How would I know? I don't even know her enough to even answer that” said Shadow in a ride tone in return.

He really needed to be cautious around Eden. It's like a rabbit suddenly wandering into a wolf's den and the wolf was looking at the rabbit with amusement and not just killing and eating it immediately.

“I'm asking you since it seems you know her more than the others do. Well you also know more about Sain than the others do at the same time” said Eden taking out a small knife that was covered heavily in blood.

“...I don't know what you are talking about” replied Shadow staring at that blood covered knife. What on earth did he cut up for it to be drenched that much in blood?

“I suppose you don't want to talk about Lyndis but are more comfortable with Sain since he's a bit more similar to you than Lyndis is. Considering that Lyndis is the complete opposite of you” a frank smile came up on Eden's face which caused him to want to run away right now.

He was trapped in a wolf's-no tiger's-no dragon's den and had no way to escape now.

“What is there to not like about Lyndis at first glance. Bright, cheerful and a hard worker that gives results. A bit dull on the decision making side but is emotionally invested into what she wants to do.”

“....”

“On the other hand you are dark, creepy in mood and someone's whose hard work can only give results in ways that others cannot see. Even in appearance, people would immediately go to Lyndis first compared to you who most of time doesn't seem to exist.”

“....”

Shadow glared at Eden who pricked at the wrong places at the wrong time. He was enjoying seeing Lyndis in that state.

“Well there's nothing wrong with that since you envy her.”

“What?!” Shadow also shouted that if not for the fact that he was used to hushing his tone and words down, “What the hell are you talking about?!”

“On a scale Lyndis is on the end extreme end of flashiness in your group while you are on the polar opposite with your stealth based attacks that leave little to be seen at first. Frankly you have been developing in a strange way of trying to be flashy and yet still use your stealth skills at the same time.”

“Where the hell are you getting this from?” asked Shadow who had no idea what he was talking about.

“From Sain of course. You know he reports in to me once in a while of what happened and everyone's development and even how you look at Lyndis with some envy” said Eden as a matter of fact.

“That bastard...” Shadow cursed him in his heart at once.

“No matter what, I think feeling envy to another is perfectly normally you know. I mean I envy Alexandra's ability to heal others which I cannot process and the fact that she can be healed by others as well” said Eden looking down on his arm and cut it with the blood drench knife.

His wounds quickly healed as the blade left his flesh.

“I only process one healing ability and it is the most powerful kind that makes me near immortal else for some concerns. I do not need people to heal me, to help me for a very long time.”

Eden looked sadly up at the starry night and continued to say, “And I also envy Alexandra's ability to get along with people easily. It gets quite lonely when there are only so many people that are willing to talk to you as equals and not feeling inferior or wanting to run away from me.”

There was a hint of sadness and even more so of a hint of insanity in his tone as he said that. But for some reason Shadow understood that. To be alone in a world filled with people who can talk and laugh at each other was painful. For an existence that was not noticed, and an existence that was avoided, to be lonely was normal.

“By the way” said Shadow asking a question, “Why are you really here and what's with that blood drenched knife.”

“I'm bored and preparations are half done so I wanted to take a break and see what was happening with that group of your splitting up” he explained in a bored manner.

“And the knife?”

“This thing?” Eden immediately gripped it 'slightly' harder and it broke to pieces, “Just used it to get rid of some pests that had annoyed me from the very beginning and I can't seem to completely get rid of them no matter what I do.”

Eden moved from the wall where Shadow was and went under the moonlight and turned to him.

“Might as well return before Alexandra notices that I'm stirring up trouble again. Oh and some advice from an old man like me.”

Shadow really wanted to retort on that last word.

“Right now you are the only one capable of standing next to Lyndis” he said which made Shadow fill complicated, “And the only reason why is that your existence is one that she doesn't notice unless you provoke her intentionally to like before.”

“I know.”

“Also your acting is really good you know. You look like as if you actually care about her” Eden hummed those words out and took a step before Shadow could say anything back.

With that, Eden disappeared from sight like he wasn't even here to begin with.

“....”

Taking a moment, Shadow hit the wall with his fist.

“I know already...that's why you assigned me to help Sain and now to Lyndis.”

Gritting his teeth, Shadow could only think of that he needed to kill his presence in order to stay by her side, to protect her in the end.

“Will I only remind a shadow in the end....?”

Muttering that, he decided to vent on some monsters since he couldn't find anything else he could vent on. Serena and Raven went to train by themselves while they waited but Shadow now had no intentions of giving the role of looking over to Lyndis now.

He also cursed Eden for stirring up emotions that he thought he had buried already long ago.

“This is not an act...this is the real me...this is not an act....things won't turn out like that time...” he continued to mutter to him, reassuring himself as he left the village. 'That' won't happen again, not this time.

xXx

In a manner that showed him to be sneaking, Eden walked back in the hideout which was prepared for the preparations of the attack on the Warrior King. However just as he opened the door, on the other side was a blonde woman he knew as his wife.

“Where were you?” she asked but did not let him answer and continued to say, “You know that you have to be here to supervise the creation of the mass teleportation device.”

Eden needed to prepare to teleport five thousand players of all kinds to the place where the Warrior King was to attack him. However there were three things that needed to be done.

The first was to find the location of the place which was done. The second was to go to that place and secure a place to teleport people over. The third and last thing was to make a magic circle or series of them to teleport five thousand people over there at once or bits at a time.

Eden had already sent a number of people over to help with the second and it was almost done. Now all they had to do was wait on Viv to construct a powerful enough magic circle with Eden to teleport those people and power it.

All of this would be finished in another half a year or so and the attack would happen then.

However for the construction of the magic circle, both Eden and Viv need to understand every part of it thus it was inexcusable for him to sudden leave without warning. Right now they were literally on a floating island hiding out beneath the Warrior King with a few key others.

“Is Eden back?” asked another woman coming out, Eden said politely, “Oh Seoyoon, I'm back” to her to which Alexandra slapped his face in anger.

“So where were you and why did you leave?” asked Alexandra again with a glare telling him to answer it.

“Oh those kids have broken up due to a fight and I was seeing on what to do to fix it. That and I went to exterminate some old enemies” he replied.

Alexandra frowned and then said, “What the hell happened? This wasn't due to you...I hope.”

Even though she said that in a worried tone, her fist was not worried at all and was prepared to attack Eden at any moment with the wrong answer.

“Nah it's more like Lyndis was overreacting to something Sain did and so lots of things happened, three people started to stalk her...you know the usual for kids to do at that time of their life. I actually payed all of them a visit each wanting to know what's on their mind and gave them some advise.”

“....”

Alexandra was really tempted to hit Eden right now but then Seoyoon asked, “Will they make up?”

“Eventually though I don't intent for them to for at least a while” said Eden.

Alexandra nodded her head understanding what Eden was doing and said, “Keeping them away from each other to make them grow individually then.”

“Yep” Eden smiled seeing his wife was so understanding that her fists weren't beating him to death right now.

“However” said Alexandra suddenly with the two looking at her, “If any of them are traumatised due to what you said to them...”

Eden smiled wryly at her. He couldn't say that he thought it already did to some of them or at least made it easier for that to happen.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 8300~

- Second chapter finally out...and barely on time on my due...

- To be honest, I had a bad time trying to think of ways to make things difficult for Lyndis but I just decided to make it so...spoilers. In other things to talk about, Purple Giant Rabbits, even after a century they still live on...Eden was never able to get rid of them. More of them next chapter I think.