The female knight in front of me was talking completely normally to me until I stepped into the light of the torches. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sudden change in demeanor.
Why was she afraid of me all of a sudden?
Could it be the fact that I was covered in blood? No, that couldn't be it. We're on the battlefield one couldn't and shouldn't be sensitive to the sight of blood and guts… or maybe she was?
This made my brain hurt thinking that it had to be with the blood that I was covered in. Maybe, she was just tired and that had caused this sudden lapse in demeanor?
"Please spare me," she whispers ever so softly as she bows her head further.
Spare her? Just what did she think I was planning to do with her? Before I could respond to her words, a mass of boxes appears in front of me.
[Task: Save the Merchants Completed!]
[Completion Score: S]
[Completion Reward: The Hermit]
[Completion Reward: Caravan Trust 30+]
[New Task: Win Over the Female Knight]
Well, that was good that I'd completed the task that had been given out to me. I'd even gotten an S ranking that was probably a good start to everything. If I kept up the pace I should be able to get a good ranking in general.
Looking towards the Goblin Meter I see that it's gone up. I'd slain about fifty goblins give or take and it raised the meter up to [84/10,000]. That was still a long way to go in terms of killing ten thousand of those damned monsters.
Right below where the Goblin Meter was a new bar had appeared it read [Caravan 30/100]. This was starting to look more and more like a questline from a videogame and the graphic interface of a game in general.
Seems that there was more than just slaying goblin that had to be done. Look like I'd have a separate questline outside of the number I needed to kill.
It mentions something about a reward called [The Hermit], but I'd have to worry about that later. First, I needed to sort this problem with the Female Knight. It seems that I'd somehow managed to scare her. Looking down at her I felt a bubble of annoyance, I couldn't see her face underneath her helmet.
Which put me at a disadvantage because I couldn't see her expression, and thus make judgments and assumptions about that!
"I don't really understand what you mean. Could you possibly explain what you meant by what you just said? I'm just a traveling adventurer," I tell her trying to speak as softly as possible. The last thing I wanted to do was spook her more.
But it appears that I did just that, her body begins to shake even more. It appears that might not have been the right this to say to her. Looks like it didn't quell her doubt and worry at all.
"Y-you're a Vampire don't y-you drink human blood?" She asks me in a half-whisper.
Ah, that's why she's afraid of me. Rubbing the back of my head, I realize that this place might not have all the races that I was normally accustomed to! Plus, she was a human, and the only humans that I had met were Cecily and Ekon.
I at this point couldn't make any assumptions with the limited information that I had about this place.
"I don't drink human blood. Others might, but I don't and wouldn't drink human blood. I've never had it and I don't plan to start now," I tell her with a small smile. Squatting down, I bring myself eye level to her.
"That doesn't mean that you wouldn't start. Your kind servers the Black God. While humans and elves are the servants of the White Goddess," she spoke up just a bit.
It appears that this place wasn't the same as the world that I had come from. It seems that there are some fundamentally different aspects, the main one being that there are only two personifications of deities.
A Black God, that no doubt was the representation of evil and death. Then a White Goddess, who seems to probably represent good and life. What a conundrum I found myself in.
Looks like Vampires are feared and probably hated in this world. No doubt that those goblins from earlier are also servants of the Black God.
"I don't work for the Black God. If I did work for him… wouldn't I have allowed the goblins to slaughter you and your companions?" I ask her with a small smile.
I was feeling a little annoyed at the situation that I found myself within.
She doesn't speak for a second, it seems that she might be mulling over that small fact that I had pointed out to her.
"Maybe," she admits honestly. Although, the slight note of hesitation doesn't escape my ears.
"Plus, Vampires are stronger than goblins, if I was a part of the Black God's faction then wouldn't I be above the goblins? Yet, they still attacked me and even tried to kill me, and then I slaughtered them like animals," I say.
She shifts slightly on the ground. It seems that she was still hesitant to believe me. It wasn't a surprise with the lack of information about this world, I'd only managed to build a small and flimsy alibi.
However, I didn't plan to fail in winning her over!
Her head was still level with mine, and although I couldn't see into her helmet to get a look at her face. I could sense that she was having an internal debate with herself.
Could I be trusted, or could I not be trusted?
"If you're not a servant of the Black God's faction then you wouldn't have his mark on your chest. Servant of the Black God has his mark on their chest," she tells me with a soft bob of her head.
That should be easy enough to prove, I don't have any mark on my chest.
"Okay then," I tell her swiftly I stood up and began to undo my armor.
The chest plate I remove with ease and place it on the ground. Then I unbutton the shirt that I'm wearing underneath. I felt a little hesitant, I should be cautious they could fire an arrow at my chest.
Not that it would kill me, but it would hurt, nonetheless. Yet, this was something that had to be done! I couldn't back out of it now, or I'd never been able to progress this part of the quest.
Let hope those thirty points of trust would come in handy here and prevent me from having to take an arrow to the chest.
Slowly my white skin began to appear in the dim light of the torches. I pull the shirt apart once I've unbuttoned it. I hadn't developed a chest, so I didn't even hesitate to show my childish chest to others.
Maybe, I'll put up more of a fuss later on if someone wants to see my chest.
"Oh, by the Goddess herself," the woman in front of me utters.
It should just be a bare chest; I don't know why she'd go as far as to say that… unless!
Turning my head downwards, I look at my chest. There was a black mark over where my heart was! You've got to be kidding me?!
It was the black face of a man on my chest, however, through the mark, an 'X' had been etched into the skin. My white skin was a light pinkish scar, the mark had been done quite viciously.
Well, that was unexpected this was proving to be a bit of a task, indeed.
"You're an ex-member of the Black God! Does that mean you've canceled your contract with him? Does he no longer hold dominion over your soul?" She asks me.
Instead of remaining on the ground, she stands up as she pulls the gloves off of her hands. Tossing them to the side she places her hands over the mark on my chest.
'Oh, Goddess of the White, hear your servants pray and turn your eyes to her. Please wash this one in front of you with your holy light!'
With that chant, a blinding light erupts from the two hands that she has over my chest. I felt my eyes water as I hastily close them as the light burns brighter. There was a burning sensation that began at her hands and traveled over my body, but I didn't move it was a bearable pain.
Soon the blinding light vanishes, and I peel my eyes open to see two wings of light starting to vanish from the back of the woman. She still has her hands on my chest, but they're not shinning like lights.
[-100HP]
Looks like I'd taken some damage for that!
"I told you that I didn't serve him," I say smiling.
Even though, I kind of wanted to punch her. How dare she inflict damage on me when I'd saved her!
"You'd have been eviscerated by the Goddess [Holy Light] if you had," she tells me.
Well, it seems that the arrow should have been the least of my concerns. She'd planned to fry me with the power of her Goddess. That was a bit unsettling, but I'll choose to overlook it for the time being.
At least the trial hadn't been completely rigged from the start. If it had been then I would have had to probably kill them, before they killed me. Which would have been an easy feat to do since they're all worn out from the waves of goblins!
But that might have lowered my completion rate for these new tasks.
"Well if I haven't been eviscerated then doesn't that mean that I don't serve the Black God? Thus, in that same respective I don't plan to harm you. I simply came to help. I help those in need and nothing more," I say as I push her hand off my chest.
I start to button up my shirt.
There was a pause of silence, and I felt some butterflies in my stomach. I didn't know if I was playing this right, but I hope that I had won her over.
A soft murmur goes through the rest of the caravan.
I didn't make any moves, I just waited for the verdict from the female knight in front of me. She was obviously the most important person in this caravan of people, or else I wouldn't be issuing a task pertaining to her.
She was the only person that I was concerned about at the moment.
All of a sudden she starts to move. Raising a hand up, she reaches forward and pulls her helmet off of her head. Long brown wavy hair flows out of the helmet, and a rugged-looking woman looks back at me.
Reaching from, the base of her ear down through her lip is a healed scar. Blood and filth were smeared lightly over her warm brown face, and underneath all the filth is a beautiful looking woman.
Her eyes are a vibrant violet and are looking directly at me.
"Your name?" She asks me lightly, those violet eyes boring into mine.
"Hollis," I state simply.
"I'm sorry to have doubted you, Hollis. Now I've seen through the Holy Light of the Goddess that you are what you say you are. I'm Theodora Umber, daughter of the Governor of the City Nerinphe," she says giving me a small bow.
[Task Completed: Trust of the Female Knight Gained]
[ Caravan Trust +45]
[Caravan 75/100]
That was lucky, I'd raised it quite a bit. But it seems even with her trust gained there were still some that doubted me. It looks like I'd not escaped the fire just yet. Looks like I had more thorns to pluck.