"Matthew, I need to give you an important mission." Crid spoke in a grave tone.
"Yes, boss. Whatever you need." Matthew, Crid's loyal subordinate and right-hand man responded right away.
"You are to leave our group for a while. You know our destination well enough so you'll be able to catch up once you're done. Watch that weakling for the next hour or two, and if the opportunity presents itself, end him."
"But boss, didn't you just say that we shouldn't worry about the weakling and to focus on the Hunt?" Matthew questioned Crid due to his contradictory words.
"Yes, but I'm sure you're skilled enough to take on both problems at time." Crid assured Matthew.
In actual fact, Crid understood Matthew well and knew of his incompetence. He was merely a pawn in Crid's plan, and very much easily disposable. Of course, it would be difficult to replace such a loyal follower if Matthew died, but what could Roman be capable of?
Crid wouldn't believe that Roman had the ability to outsmart or defeat Matthew even if you held him at knife point.
Roman used to take beatings from Crid and his crew without retaliating. The most Roman would do would be to quibble back and forth with the group, but it always resulted in the gang beating Roman up.
In addition to these assumptions, Roman was in very poor condition after his fight with the Red Ash Fox. Crid believed he had double the assurance to take on the weakling.
"Roger, boss!"
Glad that his boss showered him with praise, Matthew puffed up his flabby chest and agreed to stake out his prey.
---
"So much for being an all-powerful system!" Roman called out in his mind.
No response.
"You're supposed to be helpful! I just started out! What happened to the immortal weapon or ridiculously powerful skill that I'm supposed to get with the system, like all the other novels?" Roman tried to communicate with the system again.
[Host is mistaken. There is no immortal weapon and no ridiculously powerful skill. I think the term you folks on Earth used in the past was, "there is no free lunch."]
The system finally responded.
The system reminded Roman once again of its role. He was finally feeling the pressure of the challenges of the system missions.
Just a simple Egg Hunt resulted in such a grievous injury, how was he to complete any missions in the future?
"Even so, aren't you supposed at least give me a bit more of an unfair advantage? Look at what just happened." Roman was a tad disgruntled.
"I don't even have a weapon, no opportunity to cultivate and raise my stats because I took your advice to farm within the time I should have used to cultivate, now I have wounds that I can't even tend to before the Egg Hunt ends. I might not even last that long!"
Roman realized that even though the system prepared him in the long run, the short term gains were absolutely minimal.
[Fine. Just this once!]
*Ding!*
[New Sub-mission Added. Please check the missions tab.]
The system was going to help out. Roman couldn't do much without the system after all.
"Missions!"
---
Main Mission:
Mission 1: Title
The road to supremacy starts with prestige, prestige must be gained through deeds and a title. The Host is required to fulfill this quest through attaining any nobility rank and recruiting at least one vassal.
Objective(s): Attain Nobility Rank and Recruit One Vassal.
Deadline: 15th Birthday.
Reward: Unknown
Failure: Host will lose the system and memories will be wiped about anything pertaining to the system. Additionally, the host will lose the ability to recall memories from host's previous life on Earth.
Warning: Do. Not. Fail.
---
Sub-Mission(s):
Sub-Mission 1:
The life of a Tamer is rigorous. Taming is merely the first road one embarks upon before exploring the horizons of the universe. The host must begin his taming journey somehow. This sub-mission is to facilitate the genesis of a tamer.
Objective(s): Attain an Egg.
Deadline: The End of the Egg Hunt.
Reward: Basic Beast Evolution Token
Failure: Host will lose the system and memories will be wiped about anything pertaining to the system. Additionally, the host will lose the ability to recall memories from host's previous life on Earth.
Note from System: If you fail here, don't even bother contacting me ever again.
Sub-Mission 2:
Survival is imperative to all who desire more than their station in Aeon. Only a survivalist is able to succeed in this life and make their lofty dreams come true. You must embody this.
Objective(s): Survive the trip to the foot of the mountains.
Deadline: Noon.
Reward: Basic Health Potion and Rusty Dagger.
Failure: Host randomly loses one learned skill.
Note from System: Pity Sub-mission from the system.
---
"This'll be simple enough,' Roman was finally placated by the system. After resting for a bit and bandaging his wounds with cloth that he ripped from the bottom of his shirt, Roman set off towards the mountains.
However, little did he know, Matthew from Crid's gang was heading his way.
---
"He's not going to know what hit him," Matthew slying smiled to himself as he navigated the forest backtracking towards where the crew had last left Roman.
Matthew was confident in taking Roman out simply because Crid was confident.
After a good twenty minutes of walking, Matthew finally arrived at the entrance of the forest where they had last seen Roman.
He noticed the dead Grass Rabbit still at the same spot, but Roman was nowhere in sight.
He began to look towards the ground in search of track marks as to the direction that Roman had took off towards.
After a bit of looking around with his untrained eye, Matthew made out what looked like a set of footprints headings along the outer rim of the forest.
Matthew laughed internally.
He thought that Roman was too cowardly to enter the forest and was hoping for a lucky encounter at the edge of the forest where most copper ranked forest beasts lurked, along with the occasional bronze ranked beast.
Matthew approached the footprints to double check the position that Roman left towards. He couldn't make a mistake here or he wouldn't be able to take care of the task that Crid had assigned to him.
Just as Matthew stooped down, however, Matthew felt a sharp cut in his back and fell forwards.
Enraged at getting sneak attacked, Matthew attempted to struggle to his feet and turned around.
However, just as he his eyes took in the surroundings, Matthew found himself face to face with the same Red Ash Fox that had taken Roman down not too long ago.
The Red Ash Fox was one persistent bugger.
It had initially returned to see if Roman was still around and considered the possibility of tracking Roman himself to finish him off when it got the chance.
To its surprise, the Red Ash Fox found Matthew instead.
In truth, Matthew's stats were way lower than Roman's. Roman had quite a good amount of defense because of all the training he had attained from getting beat up by Crid's crew, with Matthew as a primary contributor.
Matthew, on the other hand, didn't experience pain very often. Yet, Matthew held in his shock from the pain after realizing he was faced with a predatory beast.
This time, the Red Ash Fox wasn't going to take chances. Instead of going straight for the kill like the last time, which gave Roman the opportunity to learn from the attack patterns of the Red Ash Fox, the Red Ash Fox aimed to first maim the target until it couldn't fight back.
Matthew's fears began to overwhelm him, and he didn't have a system to refresh his mental state like Roman did.
Soon, the middle section of Matthew's grey shorts grew damp, his legs begun to wobble, as if a tiny gust of wind would blow him over. His face drained of color and his breathing deepened.
Naturally, Matthew was scared to the bone and couldn't move a muscle.
The Red Ash Fox could sense this and once again charged forward to slash at Matthew.
Soon, Matthew's arms were incapacitated and Matthew was on the ground attempting to squirm away.
The Red Ash Fox would not let this chance go, and lept up from its position towards Matthew's throat.
Before long, blood stained the Red Ash Fox's muzzle a deeper shade of red. Matthew had finally drew his last breath.
Before he died, Matthew hadn't expected to lose his life in such a way. He could only curse the heavens for his misfortune as he looked towards the direction that Roman had left in thinking that he missed the perfect chance.
But alas, karma's a bitch.