Relictus walked for what seemed like ages. It didn’t tire him out, but he was still bored. He hadn’t had a single Monster encounter, despite not even being on the road. He was currently lying down in a clearing. It was a near perfect ring of bright green grass, kept in shadow by the tall trees, their leaves rustling in the wind. The blue sky was a clear one, the clear blue permeating the sky and falling down through the cracks between leaves in the light canopy above. Around him, the rustling sounds of animals could be heard, but they stopped instantly as Relictus started to get up.

He yawned as his eyes opened, and he dragged himself onto his feet, stretching his sore muscles. He checked his PK Mark. Just 24 hours were left on his penalties. He decided to continue at his own leisurely pace, so that he would get to use the compacted dirt road. That would increase his rate of travel, as he didn’t have to jump through or cut down branches in order to get through the labyrinth of spiky branches. Luckily, he had his armor, so it didn’t hurt, but it was still annoying and slowed him down considerably.

~–•–~

He watched as his time ticked down.

PKer PenaltiesIntimacy lowers by 2 stages with all neutral or worse NPCs.00:00:00:03

0:02

0:01

The following Debuffs have timed out:PKer Penalties

He sighed in relief. “Finally. It began to feel like that’d never run out. Never making that kind of a mistake again.”

He was surprised when he heard a response. It was a high voice, almost like a bell, but not the squeaky kind of high pitch that was much to his distaste. “Um… sir?”

Immediately, Relictus jumped in surprise, doing 2 rolls backward and climing all the way up a tree before calming down and seeing the innocent child in front of him, all in the span of a single second. His face immediately lost its apprehension as he looked at her. “Yes? What do you need?”

She was hardly 3 feet tall, her pupils dilated with curiosity. Her black hair was smooth and shiny, clearly that of a child – but quite dirty, clearly the work of a child. Her cheeks were naturally a small bit wide, and her nose was slightly high up on her face. She looked at Relictus with something between worry, curiosity, and fear. “See, there is this, uh, village. We need help. Will you help us?”

Quest:Mysterious StrangerPrerequisites: Meet a refuge of the village.Difficulty: CRewards: The village’s favor, unknownA village has sent a child to find help from outsiders. Follow her and see what they are in such dire need of help against.

He immediately started laughing. It was not out of spite, but just how frank the explanation was. Thinking there was nothing he was missing, he agreed, and followed her.

Just a few minutes into their journey to the village, Relictus caught a very faint rustling, and not long after it stopped, a gigantic quadruped, its fur black as night, pounced, Relictus barely had time to analyze it – insane, wide eyes colored bright red, multiple sets of feral teeth sharp and long enough to slash through skin with ease. Even at a glance, Relictus could tell this was a dangerous beast.

Feral DirewolfLevel: 211

Relictus didn’t have time to react to the status window as the wolf attacked, its jaw prepared to bite into his arm. He drew his sword, and activated Emperor of Fury, slashing his blade through the mouth and into the body of the Direwolf, but he immediately deactivated the ability as his sword reached the end of its body. His breathing was shallow, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. His idea of how to control Emperor of Fury worked, but it exhausted him.

You have leveled up!x10

He got ten levels just from one fight. He opened his Stat window, and allocated his 150 new points in DEF. It was severely lacking before, but now it had passed 200. He sighed, knowing this was definitely not enough to help that village if there were so many as dangerous as that which he had just witnessed.

After a remark from the little girl about how strong he was, he stood himself back up and they continued to walk. A couple of times, they ran into similarly strong monsters, all of whom varied in shape and size, but never ferocity, but otherwise, the trip was quick, and they arrived at the girl’s home in just over a few hours. It made Relictus wonder just how this child had made it away from the village without being killed by the beasts. However, he got himself 31 levels, so he didn’t mind the fighting. Multiple times, he nearly had his ass handed to him, but through clever use of his long range, he was able to destroy most of his foes without trouble.

Immediately as they got back, Relictus knew something was wrong. Nobody was out. No torches were lit, despite the sky beginning to turn dark. This deep in the forest, Relictus had no doubt that nobody had discovered the small settlement – there were miles of forest that was so deep in thick canopy that it was pitch-black at best. The sky’s orange streaks flowed freely, providing a deep contrast to the bright green, unkempt foliage. Buildings were crushed – wooden roofs collapsed in, warping the weakened wooden walls. The few were intact had no light within, but the child that he followed acted as if nothing was wrong, and ran towards a nondescript wooden house, only a single story, and just as dark as the others. As the golden and orange lights fell upon it, it seemed to glow, taking in the bright colors and adding them to its own hue.

“Mama!” The child shouted, running towards the door giddily. “I found a person!”

Immediately, torches across the village ignited. It gave off a great luminescence, and the scene was almost unbelievable, seeing the fires all sequentially light themselves. People stepped from their doors, including one woman, with jet-black hair matching the child’s, who was tackled by the child as she greeted her.

A man approached Relictus. He had a short stature, and his hair had completely lost its color, giving it more or less the same color as Relictus’s own pure white hair, if not a bit more worn. Wrinkles plagued the man’s face, his brow wrinkled after all of the stress he had endured. His eyes were partially closed, but behind the hazel of his eyes was not despair, but hope and concern. Relictus finally concluded that this man was an elder who cared about his village.

“Might you help us, traveller? We are in dire need of your assistance.”

He followed the man into a large building that seemed to be a town hall. It was far from luxurious, but it had high halls and was well lit. A man with decently defined musculature, and the most epic mustache Relictus had ever seen, came out of the back with two wooden mugs. The man began to explain.

“Our village was not always so run down. It was a bustling, self-sufficient town full of great, charitable people who helped one another whenever possible. Now, we have become divided, and can hardly leave our own houses. A terror has descended upon us, and every night is another raid. Beasts beyond our best men’s capabilities invade on us, raze another house, and take our people. Would you not stop them?”

Quest:Legion of DeathPrerequisites: Meet a refuge of the village.Difficulty: SRewards: The village’s favor, unknownA village is being terrorized by an army of monsters gathering in the northeast. Save the village from their plight, and stop the threat from spreading to the rest of the continent.

“If it means innocent blood will not be spilled, I will find the source of the army and stop them by force if I have to.”

You have accepted the quest!

Immediately, the man’s face softened in relief. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am the town’s elder and a former Royal Knight, Darius Finch.”

“And myself, Relictus,” Relictus responded. Sure enough, he checked Darius’s level, and found it to be 150, a high enough NPC level to merit being granted such an important position. In his old age, he likely was unable to fight as well as he used to, and on top of that, level 200 was on the lower side of things.

“Before we send you off in that gear of yours, allow me to give you something, on my personal behalf.” Darius offered this, but Relictus had his armor, and no inclination to accept.

“Hm? Oh, I don’t-“ As such, he attempted to decline.

“You underestimate them.” Darius’s voice darkened as he spoke. Perhaps he knew about Relictus’s armor? His level was, after all, 47 above Relictus. Even with the stat boosts, some things came only with experience.

He guided Relictus behind him to a room without windows, lit only by torches. In the back, there existed only one large chest. Darius walked out, leaving Relictus to his devices.

Within the chest, there were several articles. The first thing Relictus retrieved was a hood. It was a pure white, something that matched his hair quite well. He tried it on, and looking at his menu, it showed that his face was covered completely, but it was labeled as cosmetic.

[table]White Blood Hood of the DeathbringerLevel 520The ancient hood of a leader of the extinct order of the Deathbringers. It was used to hide one’s identity as they carried out executions, and increased their abilities greatly.Stats:+150 DEX+100 SPD+50 DEF+10% Temperature ResistanceUnlocks Stealth Stat when equipped.

That explained a lot. Relictus was far too low in level for the set. Beyond the hood, there were the White Blood Cloak of the Deathbringer, Snow Cape of the Deathbringer, Silver Trousers of the Deathbringer (lol), and White Blood Shoes of the Deathbringer. They all belonged to the White Deathbringer set, and all of them had minimum levels above 500. He donned all of the clothing as vanity – it would automatically move places after his level became high enough to wear it. On top of that, he didn’t want to disappoint Darius with his low level.

Belts and pockets were fastened and threaded into the entire inside of the cloak, with every single tool of assassination Relictus could think of. There was a forearm-mounted crossbow with 5 [Steel Bolts x10], lock picks, eight-point shurikens, throwing knives, kunai, several different types of daggers, vials of medicine and poison, sheaths and scabbards that could hold a total of 12 weapons ranging from his own sabre to battleaxes. There were pockets just to be used for storage, throwing needles, and more. However, all of them were 400 levels away from me being able to use them, thanks to being part of the White Deathbringer set.

I opened the door, and found Darius waiting on me. “You look absolutely smashing in that, young traveller.” Darius said. “That’s a family heirloom of mine, passed down for 700 years. You will better use it though, lad. Good luck.”

Before I could protest to him giving me something so valuable, he ushered me out of the back door. He definitely didn’t want anyone to know about this outfit. Thus, I left to exterminate the thousands of EXP- No. Monsters. The thousands of monsters.

Spoiler : HAHA! TRICKED YOU! I have a double release today! This doesn’t mean nothing tomorrow, but now Relictus is starting to look like an assassin. I wonder what he’ll do to defeat all of those juicy EXP containers. Nope, same mistake again. I mean monsters. Deadly monsters. Thanks so much for reading! As always, leave anything you want happening or any mistakes I made in the comments. Constructive criticism is always welcomed.