Chapter 17: The "'God' of Toleration
The Diablo system didn't give Fei much time to regret his choice. Right after a second, everything in front of Fei had changed.
"Huuuu-"
Fei felt the zero gravity again from traveling through the 'time tunnel'. His vision blurred for a second. The next thing he knew, he had appeared in [Rogue Encampment] and was at the spot where new players would spawn.
The sky was still dark and the rain continued pouring down.
The[Rogue Encampment]was completely quiet.
Fei found out that when he changed his class to sorceress, everything went back to zero; it seemed as if he had restarted the game. He went to the high priestess Akara to receive the quest [Den of Evil], and the intelligent women treated Fei like a stranger while giving him the quest.
After he got the quest, he went back to the place where he spawned. He suddenly remembered something. He looked down his pants and hoped that he could touch something with his hand.
After a brief moment –
"Hew...ok…ok. So I didn't become a female. It would've been way too cruel."
Fei was very happy. Although the sorceress class was made to be a female in the Diablo world, his character appearance was based off Alexander in the real world. There were some minor changes, but he looked similar to the 'Barbarian Fei'.
He was wearing a coarse gray robe and holding a two yard (about 2 metres) long tree branch wand. These two items were given to Fei when he spawned; they were pretty cheap and powerless.
Quickly, the NPC Warriv had rushed over again and started talking, "Greetings, stranger. I'm not surprised to see…" With his previous experience, Fei ignored him and walked away.
At this point, Fei was certain that his hypothesis was correct.
He could choose all the classes in the Diablo world, but he would only know whether or not he could bring their abilities into the real world after he exited the game world.
...
After he proved his hypothesis, he decided to exit the sorceress character mode.
It wasn't that he didn't want be a mage, but rather it was better to concentrate all his resources into one class for now. Chambord was under a real threat. He decided to focus his time on leveling up the barbarian Fei so he could be more useful for the next battle.
As he was thinking about exiting the mode, he was automatically transferred to the 3D character selection screen without pressing any buttons.
"Damn! I can control everything now by just thinking about them?" He thought about choosing the level 5 barbarian character and his vision blurred again, along with the feeling of zero gravity. He had entered the Diablo world again as a level 5 barbarian.
"This is cool!" Fei thought. He could simply think about what he wanted to do and there wouldn't be any need for button pressing.
The place he appeared in was the [Den of Evil].
After he killed all the monsters in the den and completed the quest, he used a [Town Portal Scroll] before he was kicked out of the Diablo world. The bright blue oval was still buzzing in front of him when he re-entered this world.
There were still some items on the ground.
Fei checked his [Item Slot]. All the valuable items were picked up by him and the items on the ground were pretty much worthless. He stepped into the blue portal and appeared at [Rogue Encampment].
The dark and rainy weather had stopped, and sunlight shined onto [Rogue Encampment].
Although the sky was still a little dim and gloomy–like how the polluted skies on Earth made people feel depressed–the fresh, clean air lightened up Fei's mind.
Fei went directly to the priestess Akara. The same dialogue as the original game occurred and Fei was awarded one [New Skill Points]. Fei put this point into [Weapon Mastery] without thinking.
There wasn't enough time for Fei to distribute the points evenly among all the abilities. [Weapon Mastery] allowed him to defeat the star ranked warriors with godlike axe techniques, so leveling that ability up would significantly improve his combat effectiveness.
After he did that, he began bothering Akara.
"Honorable Priestess Akara, I have a few question..."
"I know what you want to ask, young traveller..." This spiritual leader of [Rogue Encampment] seemed like she had seen through Fei. She smiled, "I'm willing to answer your questions, but you have to know; at Rogue Encampment, everything has a price, so the key is ... do you have anything that interests me?"
"Damn, this woman is direct." Fei was surprised by the brutal honesty of Akara.
He thought that the high priestess wouldn't be moved by anything. Who knew that as a spiritual leader of [Rogue Encampment], she would directly ask for bribes? Fei felt that his respect for this woman had sunk.
"Eh…..ok, can gold coins be used as a price?" Fei asked.
"Yes." the smile on Akara's face brightened up even more: "Every answer will cost you two thousand gold coins. Of course, some answers will cost more based on the question. You might not be able to afford them at this point."
Fei was excited that Akara agreed to answer his question. However, when he checked his [Item Slot], he was really disappointed. He only had eleven hundred gold coins. He couldn't even afford one answer... He had to come up with something.
Fei felt like swearing, "Damn this Akara. Two thousand gold coins per answer? Why don't you go and rob a bank?!"
"Looks like I have to sell my items...Eh? Wait ...Items?"
Fei saw the two blue magic items. "If gold coins can be used to buy an answer, then items could probably be used too, right?"
Although he was complaining about the price of the answers, he didn't show any of that on his face. He turned to Akara and asked respectfully, "Honorable Priestess Akara, I don't have enough gold coins. Can these two items be used as a substitute?"
He brought out the [Grim Wand ]and the [Javelin]. Akara's eyes brightened up.
"Magic items?"
"Yeah, they can be used as substitutes. It has been a while since items of this quality have appeared in Rogue Encampment. Young traveller, this [Blazing Grim Wand ]and this [Athlete's Javelin] are worth eight thousand gold coins. I can answer four of your questions!"
Akara was a high priestess and had the ability to identify items without using [Identify scrolls], so she could call out the names of the items by scanning them with her bare eyes.
When she was identifying the items, she looked very serious and Fei felt a hint of sacredness in her. In addition to the purple nun robe she was wearing, she was totally different from the tricky merchant Fei had in mind.
"Only eight thousand gold coins? That's way too low!" Fei yelled in exaggeration.
He actually didn't know the right price for these two magic items. Because of Fei's bad impression of Akara, he felt the price that Akara spoke of was lower than the standard. "Honorable Priestess Akara, it's not right for a spiritual leader like you to speak of gold coins all the time. How about this, let's trade these two items for five answers. If I get more items like these in the future, I will take them to you as well."
Akara was defeated by the shamelessness of the traveler. He spoke of the gold coins as if they were filthy on one hand, yet increased the value of his items by two thousand on the other.
She thought about Fei's suggestion and accepted it.
Many years had passed and the man in front of her was the only traveler that could step into [Rogue Encampment], and he was the first to survive on [Blood Moor]. Although there were some skillful female rogues, they could barely protect the Encampment. There was no way that they could survive on [Blood Moor] and bring back all these valuable items.
Also, Akara felt that as time passed by, the power of Diablo was corroding the energy of this world faster and faster. She had many important plans that this young traveler needed to complete.
"Thanks for your generosity, Honorable Priestess Akara. My first question is, how did I come into this world?"
"Young Traveler..."
Akara stared at Fei strangely and spoke, "I don't know where you came from, but I could sense that you are not from this world. However, I'm sure that you arrival was all god's decree. This world needs you!"
"What? God's decree? This is your answer?" Fei didn't know how to respond.
"Yes, this is the answer." Akara nodded seriously.
Fei almost fainted. He was outraged. "God's decree? This bullshit is worse than not having an answer!" Fei was fascinated by science when he was on Earth and didn't believe in ghosts or gods. Akara's answer to him was completely BS.
However, Fei couldn't do anything about it. He was dealing with the leader of [Rogue Encampment].
He had to endure his rage. He quickly came up with the second question –
��So for the second question, if I'm killed by the monsters on the moor, will I be revived?"
This was the most important question to Fei. There were a list of quests in Diablo world. It would only get harder as he leveled up. He would have to face all the powerful demons from hell one day, and death would probably be unpreventable.
So, before his death actually happened, he had to make sure that it was the same as the original game where characters revived after their deaths.
Akara stared at Fei strangely again.
"Young man, I have to admit that you know way more about this world than I expected. It was true that long time ago, the travelers and warriors revived after their death by the redemption of the gods." Akara slowed down as she spoke, "But time had passed on for too long. Diablo's power is corrupting this world every second. It has been almost sixty years since a traveler has stepped foot into Rogue Encampment...So, the answer to this question is – I don't know!"
Fei was shocked, "You...you don't know? Does this count as an answer?"
"Yes, because I have told you all I know!"
There was fire burning in Fei's eyes, smoke coming out his mouth and steam coming out his nose. "WTF! This priestess isn't joking with me, is she?"
Fei was furious, but there was nothing he could do. He had to tolerate.