A few moments passed in silence. But the expected damage never came.
Slowly, Aria opened her eyes, confused by what had just happened
But what met her eyes were the surroundings of a small village.
"What? I don't understand.." Aria muttered
"We have done it. We escaped." Liam replied, slightly moving away from Aria
Aria, noticing that she was close to Liam, immediately stepped back in a hurry . "Th-thank you," she managed, her face slightly red. "If not for you, I'd be…" She shook her head, still trembling.
Liam let out a shaky laugh, wiping sweat from his brow. "Let's just say I had my own reasons for wanting out of there."
He then handed her back the dagger carefully. "This dagger was pretty good. It saved us. Good thing you had it."
She took it gingerly, sliding it into the remnants of a hidden sheath and getting a bit nostalgic. "This was from my mother. I guess she is still protecting me, even though she left this world long ago..."
"Those cultists… they won't give up easily. They'll come for you again." Liam warned
"I don't understand how they were able to find me. I thought I had duped them and escaped, but they caught me again." Aria replied, her gaze frustrated
Liam nodded. "Let me check if I can see anything.", as he tried to look at her from the game's interface
Aria
Level 1 (Stats Sealed) (Poisoned)
Marked by an unknown curse
"It seems like the temple of Black Ember has marked you with a curse, which allows them to constantly find you. Unfortunatley, I can't seem to find anymore details," Liam said
"I see..."
A short silence passed between them.
However, Aria's expression hardened
"Then I guess I should get going. You might get implicated again if they have the ability to track me."
"Don't worry about it, it is fine," Liam said
He knew that beginner villages were absolute safehouses...
No power would ever be able to destroy a beginner's village, as that was the village where all new players were sent. Even major towns and kingdoms could perish, but a beginner's village would never be destroyed
Even Liam did not know why that was the case
But he did not mention any of this to Aria.
"Anyway, let's go to an inn and rest. We can discuss the Temple of Black Ember later," Liam suggested.
-------------------------------------------
Liam led Aria past rows of wooden houses and straight toward a modest inn at the edge of town.
"2 rooms, please."
"Sure sir. That would be 100 silver coins."
"Here you go. And we would also like to have a nice warm meal first."
They settled at the inn's dining hall first. Plates of warm stew and a loaf of fresh bread arrived quickly.
Aria ate with clear gusto, completely forgetting her ladylike manners. Clearly, she had not eaten such a meal in a long time.
Seeing Aria eat with such enthusiasm, Liam chuckled, even passing more onto her plate/
Finally, Aria, who had seemingly eaten more than 5 people's portions, could barely keep her eyes open. "I'll... get some rest," she murmured, he face slightly glowing red for the second time as she recalled her earlier actions.
Liam nodded, watching as she trudged upstairs. Only when she'd gone did he allow himself a quiet sigh.
-------------------------------------------
Finally, when Liam got back to his room in the inn, he opened up the system iinterface
Ding!
[Emergency Quest: Dark Ties Beneath the Earth]
Quest complete!
Rewards: Ring of Protection [Epic]
Protects user from 1 lethal attack from any source, as long as user is aware of the incoming attack. It will not activate on sneak attacks or attacks that the user cannot detect
+1000 Gold
+500 Eldoria Reputation
Exp 10000
Veteran's Knowhow triggered 3x
Ding!
Level Up!
System, equip the ring, allocate all unused points to luck, and show me my current stats.
Current Status:
[Player: Liam Carter]
Level: 21 (Soldier)
HP: 11050 (70 HP regen/s)
MP: 1120 (6 MP regen/s)
Armor - 160+ 30
Weapon: Defective Stormcaller: Physical Attack - 100 Durability - 80/100
Lightning Damage - 20
Passively procs 3000 lightning damage every 20 s
Defective, can be repaired
Armor: Iron Vanguard: Set Bonuses +200 Armor , 3% additional physical resistance
Total Armor = 150+200
Total Physical Resistance = 3.75% ( 3% set bonuses + 0.75% from armor)
Rings - Ring of Protection [Epic]
Skills
Waveforce - Slams the weapon heavily, creating a wave of destruction - 30x total weapon attack
Cooldown - 10s ; Mana Cost 125 MP per cast
Overhead Strike - Strike a weak point of an enemy, dealing massive single target damage - 40x weapon damage. Also applies a 0.1 s mini stun
Cooldown - 20s ; Mana Cost 100 MP per cast
Shield Block - Passively blocks 800 physical damage every 10 s from any sources
Perk: Veteran's Knowhow [Epic]
Attributes
Physique - 100
Dexterity - 15
Willpower - 21
Endurance - 15
Charm - 6
Luck - 50
Reputation:
Eldoria - +565 (Honored)
"A Pity that the Veteran's Knowhow multiplier was only 3x. If it had been 10x or more, I would have reached
But just as Liam was about to close the system interface,
Ding!
A sudden system prompt blazed across his vision, nearly making him jump out of the chair.
[System Warning!] You have altered the fate of a Minor Boss (Aria), preventing her dark destiny to become the "Fallen Princess Boss" under the cult's influence.
Your intervention has changed events drastically.
Penalty Triggered
The system understands that you were forced by a quest to save the girl. However, you must ensure Aria transforms into a boss monster by any means within 7 days, or you will lose up to 5 levels permanently.
Days Remaining - 7/7
"What The Fuck..."
"The XP requirements won't change, but all my stats will go down? That is fucking bullshit!"
Liam finally recalled the drawback of his epic perk and immediately took a second look at it.
Veteran's knowhow [Epic] [Soulbound, cannot be disabled]
Perk benefits: All experience gained is boosted by a multiplier of 1.2x (Minimum) – 100x (0.001% chance)
Penalties: If the player "Liam" tries to forcefully change the natural course of events not related to the player drastically, lose 2 levels. If a major event is overturned, lose up to 10 levels. In case of level reversal, the experience needed to climb to the next level remains the same as if it was from the higher level
If he leveled down right away, the amount of experience needed would still be the same as it was to reach level 22 from level 21, but instead, he would be reaching level 17 from level 16, and all his stats and attributes would be taken away.
And this was a permanent decrease! That meant that reaching level 100 from 99 would take the same amount of experience as if he were reaching level 105 from 104.
This was fuckin absurd!!
Slowly, his mind turned back to Aria. Turning the girl who he had just rescued back into the vessel for the lord of black ember?
That would save him 5 levels, and Liam would not have to take a permanent hit to his levels.
It was easy to do, he could take her out, saying that he had a way to fix her curse, and leave her near the temple. After all, there was no doubt that at this point, Aria would trust Liam.
Or maybe he could disguise himself and get in touch with the black ember cultists....
"Shut up, you stupid author... who is asking you to cook up so many scenarios? Tell me, I will fight him to death."
Suddenly, Liam jolted up, seemingly done thinking about this penalty and mumbling in a firm voice....
No one can influence me- not Elena, not this system, and definitely not a guy sitting in a room and typing random plot on a computer.
This time, I will live and play the game on my own terms.
Nothing else matters