Ridar Azzur

Taking a good look at the map I had purchased at a general store, I walked towards the direction where the forest is. It is embarrassing to say this, but I forgot to buy a map when I decided to go to a forest that had all the current herbs for my quests. I had to go back running while holding back curses when returning to the city. The guards who noticed that I just came back not soon after I left, gave me a questionable look at me, but allowed me to come back in. I went to the general store that wasn’t really quite far from the Adventurer's Guild. I bought the not so good looking map for 1 gold. If I wanted a better looking one, I have to purchase one for 5 gold. Sheesh, why are everything so expensive. A commoner would cry their life out their sockets if they had to pay so much for a mere map.

Getting back in track, I walked on a road that was between fields of grass. I see and passed by a couple of people while I was at it. Many came from villages and wanted to make, and create a new life. It could be said that they are making a new start in their lives. Some of them desired to become knights in training and some desired to create their own shop or business. Though there are some that just needed to buy things they required back in their homes. I don’t really get why they desired such dreams, but everyone is different in such regards.

I closed my nonexistent eyes which my fake face also corresponds in closing its eyes, and continued walking. The sounds of rolling carriages, the low voices of conversations of a parent and child, and some herbivores eating grass. It feels so peaceful here. Grinning from my good mood, I opened my eyes. What appeared in my sight was a group of people walking with each other. They consist of 5 late-teen boys and unfortunately no girls. What caught my attention was the rings on their fingers. They appear to look very similar to my adventure ring I am currently wearing.

I activated a spell of a divine ring on one of my hands, ‘Concealment’. My body slowly became transparent and soon disappeared completely. I couldn’t see myself, but know my body is still there. The ‘Concealment’ spell have the capabilities to hide your body and sound such as your footsteps and breathing. It also went as far as to hide the very presence of a person so if someone were to cast a spell to detect someone, it would have no effect at all. I have mostly used this spell to play pranks and jokes on other players on Elareven.

Well it wouldn’t really be as soft as a prank actually. In many occasions I used ‘Concealment’ and followed an expedition with a couple of parties who were going to battle a difficult level of the highest level, the Abyss. While they are battling it to the death, I would activate ‘Void Disguise’ so I will receive no punishments in Pking. I will explain the true abilities of my divine ring. It basically allows the user wearing the ring to activate ‘Concealment’. But that is not it, the ring adds additional effects when using it together with certain items. Let’s say when a Pker kills a player in Elareven. In the chatbox, the Pker’s name would appear in killed player’s chat it to mention who have slain them so they could avenge themselves.

The ring completely nullifies that mentioning in the chatbox. This is where it gets interesting in my story. While the expedition is battling to the death against the Boss, I would silently time I kills. Just before a player is about to die from the Boss, I would attack them at the correct timing. They would die while dropping an item and losing experience. I quickly took the gear they drop and when they get revived, they will be confused. Normally when a player dies from a monster, they are able to take back their items in a specific time period before a player could take them. Though getting killed by a player, it Pker are allowed to take the item immediately.

To make it worse and not having enough, I last hit the boss and gain the experience and take all of the items while I am at it. Since I wasn’t in their expedition, the experience didn’t spread to the others, in addition they aren’t able to pick up the items. All the expedition parties were able to do was watch as the items for some reason disappear to nowhere. I remember hearing their reports not soon after, and emailed them it was most likely a bug in the system. You could imagine their rage.

Let’s get back to my reality, I quickly went to the the group of 5 men and looked at their hands. It was in fact an adventurer’s ring. While I was at it, I listened to their conversation and discovered they were brand new adventurers just like me. It appears they are doing the same quests as me. Coincidentally, each one of them are working together to upgrade their ranks quicker. It seems that if you are in a party, you could complete a quest without doing it if one of the party members did it.

I continued stalking this group of people.

“Yo, did you see that chick at the bar.”--M#1

“Ya, she was seriously hot. I think I am in love with her.”--M#2

“Budddyyy~, you can’t do that because I am targeting her~.” --M#4

“You guys should just say the truth. You just want to put your toy inside her.”--M#5

“Guys, she is currently in a relationship with another guy. Give it up.”--M#3

They continued to talk about the bar girl and joked around and laughing. Listening to their conversation, I can’t help but remember my school buddies who hanged out with me. We would talk about the same subjects as them and played pranks with each other. I could say they and I are very similar in that regard. It was quite nostalgic.

Some time passed and now the party of 5 and I are in front of the forest. This forest was rumored to have a demonic nine-tailed fox capable of using 5th+ rank magic. It was also said to be more than 900+ old as a magic fox is only able to grow a new one every century. Growing more intelligent as time goes on. Many known adventures came to this forest, including Eric Salaam who is an S rank, to hunt it down for fame and possible treasures. Some even believed that if you were to kill the demon fox, you will be given access to high-rank magic. This forest is popular because of such rumors. Though I did took an interest to this fox when it was mentioned in the village I had saved just before. I wanted to meet this fox.

“Alright guys, let’s search separately and gather our herbs.” -Man#1

The group of five soon started separating. When they are almost out of sight, I deactivate ‘Concealment’ and took out my undead rabbits. ‘Follow them and tell me when one of them gathered 15 herbs.’ Soon after I gave them my orders, they hopped towards each of the 5 teenage boys. Taking out ‘Area Ruler’ which is a scroll. I activated it. Its effect is to show where the strongest monster or thing in an area its location. Mainly used for avoiding dangerous monsters or targeting dangerous monsters in the game.

Arrows started to appear on the ground which only I could see. I strolled into the forest while taking my time going to the strongest in this forest. Time passed by and instead of seeing trees, I see a small wooden cabin in front of me. The cabin is located in the center within a circle where there aren’t any trees in the circle area. Think of it like a forest, but with an circle area where trees don’t grow and appear and in the center of the circle, is a cabin.

Slowly taking a step to know what is inside the cabin, I felt some kind of barrier which is blocking me from entering it easily. I could have still passed through, but decided against it. Activating ‘Analyze’ which shows information of anything in front of you, a screen popped up and read,

Magical Area Concealment Barrier

Effect: Forces any organism to subconsciously avoid this area. In addition, sets up a barrier so nothing is able to get inside.

Source- Lilia, 9 tailed fox demon- deceased

‘........’

‘Ah shit.’ I only came here so that I could find and meet the 9 tailed fox. Man that just ruins my good mood. I might as well just investigate the cabin. There has to be a purpose for getting out of its way to put up a barrier like this here. I stepped into the barrier with some little difficulty and walked my way towards the wooden cabin with the arrows also leading to it.

I opened the door while it shrieked. Quite an annoying sound by the way so I break the door off. Looking inside, it was dark, but I had ‘Night Vision’ so I currently have no problems or issues seeing inside the cabin otherwise. Inside this cabin, there wasn’t really anything. Except a few old-looking books on a desk. Other than that, there are webs and dust everywhere. Going to the desk, I took a book to read what it contains.

‘.......’

My mistake, this isn’t exactly a book, but a journal and what it said was,

“I have finally found the forest which the legendary 9-tailed fox was said to lay its offspring. I didn’t want my superiors to know of this information so I hid it. I investigated this forest with a magic item which detects strong energy signatures, but I was only led to this cabin. I didn’t quite understand and searched for any possible hints; however, there wasn’t anything.”

Skipping a [few] pages because I have gotten bored reading this journal whom a guy wasted so much of his time [investigating] the cabin.

“........After a few years, I still had yet to find anything secret this cabin holds. I decided I will leave my journal here and hope for someone to discover the secrets of this cabin and find the legendary mythical creature.”

Finishing, I threw the journal into the air and cast ‘Nothingless,’ a black sphere appeared on my hand and I shot it at the journal, making it disappear forever. That was a waste of my couple seconds of living. I did obtain some more or less useful information. This area was where the deceased nine-tailed demon fox gave birth to its offspring. The journal man had written he used a magic item that reads strong energy signatures and it led him here. Even more with my used scroll ‘Area Ruler,’ there must be more to this then it meets the eye.

Looking at the ground, the arrows didn’t just stop at this area of the cabin. Currently it is staying on a certain spot on the floor in the cabin. Looking at the area which the arrow is pointing at, I activated ‘Analyze’

Trapdoor

Description: A simple trapdoor made by an expert builder. Also had illusion casted on it to hide whatever is below this door.

I tried to decide what I should do next. One, activate ‘Remove Magical Enchanted Object,’ or number two, smash it with a stomp of my leg. ‘...........................’

I stomped at the area of the Trapdoor and the area of the floor which [ I ] was standing on broke. Felling through the hole I screamed like a little kid,

“AHHHHHHHHHHH”

If I was calm about the situation, I would have activated ‘Flight’, but I panicked at the sudden fall. I fell while continued screaming, but not very soon after, I fell onto a floor. Receiving no damage, I calmed down. Observing for any possible enemies, I deemed it safe. Looking around the area I had fallen upon, it had the appearance of an underground tomb which kings were buried in. The arrows appeared on the floor and I of course followed it. Being cautious, I casted several defence spells on me and took at Aedriha out of my inventory. I soon see a yellow light in front of me. Light coming from a crystal in the sealing.

The arrows leading me there, I continued forward while increasing my guard. Soon the arrows lead to a fox lying in a bird-looking nest with a blanket on top of it. If I was capable of sweating right now, all of my clothes would have been wet from all the moisture. Slowly I let my hand forward to the small fox. My hand came to a stop soon after.

‘What is up with all these barriers,’

“Negate Barrier,” feeling my mana dropping by 5%, my barrier dispelled. Again letting my hand reach towards the fox, it quickly opened its eyes. It happened so fast I embarrassingly jumped. The fox looks towards me, got up, showing one tail, and stretched. It then said something completely unexpected to me,

“Papa!”.

‘.........’

‘The hell,’ I not knowing how to react I stayed still. The fox jumped towards me and the prepared defences were ineffective against the fox. It must be because the target isn’t hostile towards me. While thinking that, it snuggled to my face. Then it looked at me as if it was confused. Suspecting something, I deactivated my ‘Illusion Mimicry’. My whole appearance turned into a Grim Reaper looking guy. The one-tailed fox unexpectedly nodded as if it finally understands something. Oh ya, I should take this chance to change my face. Turning towards to the fox,

“This is my real face, I will frequently use magic so my appearance will change a lot. Remember it.”

I, expecting it to understand, gave me a pleasing answer, which was a nod. Before I begin changing my appearance, I was thinking of a good name to name it. I remembered that I don’t know the gender of this fox. I gently grabbed it into my hands and turned him over. Seeing there was something small popping out near his bottom, I determined it is a he.

“Your name shall be Nemaus.”

Nemaus barked happily and snuggled to me. I activated ‘Ilusion Mimicry,’ and changed my appearance to that of a 5 feet 8 inches mid-teenage boy with white hair, purple eyes, lean build, and the most important part, a pleasant to look at face. I then heard a message from my rabbits. It seems that 5 boys have finally finished collecting the herbs. I put Aedriha back into by inventory, holding Nemaus, I cast’ Nothingless’ and an sphere appeared in front of me. I put more mana into it and enlarge it enough to cover my body. Casting it forward towards to ceiling of this underground place, I also used ‘Flight’ and followed the sphere threw the ceiling. ‘Nothingless’ completely erases everything in its way and not soon after, I came out of the ground and stepped into the surface.

Finally back where the light blue sky exists, I had came over with a pet fox who thought I am his father. Leaving the cabin area, I came up with a theory that the nine-tailed fox bore its offspring; however, she was not in a good situation and had hidden her baby underground, and casted a barrier. I have no idea what circumstances which what lead the mother to do that, but it is something I am no longer interested in. I have no clue of why, so why waste time thinking.

My rabbits continued sending me messages of the 5 boys moving. Quickly flying through the forest while casting a barrier to block the air resistance for Nemaus, I soon found the 5 walking together on their way back to the city. Immediately i told the rabbits,

“Knock them out, but don’t harm or kill them in anyway.”

The my undead rabbits following the orders, quickly hopped to the 5. As if sensing danger, the 5 boys looked backed startled from the sudden appearance of rabbits hopping towards them quickly. They attempt to take out their weapons, but the rabbits increased their spread, got behind them, turned and hop towards each of the 5 neck’s, and karate chops it. 4 of them fell down unconscious. The last one was barely able to stand upright while in a daze, but I flew straight at him and delivered a punch to his face. Not so hard as to make permanent damage or scars though.

After the last guy goes down, I looted their bags smiling on my good looking face. Taking the 15 herbs respectively to from each of the 5. I gathered all the necessary herbs for my bags, and I also took some silver coins from them. Putting back my rabbits into my storage, and strolled back to the city.