[Good morning sleepyhead!]
'Morning D'
Lee yawned and stretched his limbs and body as he sat up on the ground. His eyes were filled with the desire to sleep, but he knew that he'd slept enough. Looking around, he saw that no one had woken up. Everyone slept with a faint smile on their face. Some good dreams, Lee guessed.
'Time?'
[6.35 A.M.]
'Essence?'
[19281.]
'If I remember correctly, the Dark element beast pearl costs 1330 Essence, right?!'
[Yes.]
'Buy it.'
[Brought it.]
===
'Dark Element Beast Pearl' detected. Absorb?
===
'Yes.'
The beast pearl looked like an opaque spherical ball which is visibly larger than beast cores. It disappeared from the Inventory in an instant.
'How does this affinity work?!'
[Like the name says, darkness. This affinity is able to envelope the opponent in darkness and all senses will be lost. At lesser grade proficiency, you can produce a blinding effect to the opponent each time you cross swords. Dark and Sound affinities work well with each other to confuse and deal maximum damage at least expected moment. They can throw the opponent into despair, but must have a very high level before attaining such a feat!
A speciality of Dark element is, upon sufficient number of hits, the darkness will cover the opponent's senses very frequently. The sensory reception will break continuously and the person will be stunned. This is a major advantage in longer and deadly battles.]
Lee glanced once more at those sleeping, and silently slipped outside. About 15 to 22 carnivorous animals were eating the remains of bandits. The 'roasted' bandit pile was completely gone, and the beasts were licking and eating the splattered bandits. Lee stood at the cave entrance and saw this. He smirked on the fact that these scums were barely worthy of being these creatures' food.
=====
7 A.M.
1067 Essence harvested.
=====
Around 20 minutes past 7, Lee can hear some noises from the inside. It meant that the women and men were waking up. The beasts saw the darkness lifting and they ran away with what they could drag away. Lee walked inside and saw the two men checking the conditions of the women. Upon noticing Lee approaching, they greeted him as the womenfolk were awakened. Lee greeted back. Lee heard a few hungry stomachs growling.
Lee understood the situation and brought 32 loaves of bread and 16 bottles of milk. The folks were wonderstruck as they saw him bringing out more bread and milk from his Spatial ring. They didn't probe about the limit of supplies in his ring as his act of saving them single-handedly was enough flabbergasting.
During breakfast, Lee came to know that these men and women were the residents of the city of Festa. They were traveling to the city of Crogh when these bandits caught them. Lee gave them instructions that they should not let out the information regarding meeting him as this was a classified mission. They felt the seriousness of Lee's voice and nodded in agreement. After eating, they left the camp of bandits. Lee guided them till they could see the gates of Festa. The folks were tearing up with gratitude. Lee bid them farewell and watched from a distance as they walked towards the city and entered inside safely.
-----------------------------
It took Lee 75 minutes to reach the western gate of the city of Lorin at his full speed. A normal carriage would have taken half a day for this journey!
Lee slowed down from a distance and walked through the gate and headed towards the Adventurer's Guild.
The familiar figure of An and Freya greeted him as he headed towards the Guild building. An came running and hugged him tightly. He can tell how worried she was from her actions. Freya chuckled at this and the trio walked as Lee narrated the main highlights of his journey.
Changchang was delighted to see Lee in one piece. Lee came to the desk and reported that the western side was cleared. As Changchang, An and Freya were standing stunned, Lee asked for any recent requests coming in at the time he was gone. Changchang shook her head. Lee turned to An and said not to get hurt while he was away. Freya saw his concern and assured him of her safety. An was very angry as they treated her like a toddler!
Lee departed through the northern gate. The guards were familiar with his face and opened the gate immediately. Lee nodded with a smile as he walked through. After a safe distance, Lee sprinted forward with all his might. His aim was the 5 bandit groups reported on this road that led to the city of Culett. The road diverges into two and one goes to the city of Culett while the other goes to the capital city of the kingdom Venus, Yeuvis.
--------------------------------
Any beasts within 50 meters from the road were captured by Lee. As he did so, Lee was constantly searching for any red dots appearing in the Map. He began to feel disappointed as no red dots appeared.
=====
10 A.M.
1620 Essence harvested.
=====
--------------------------------
A gradual deceleration can be noticed as he lamented inside. Almost an hour passed and Lee was feeling disheartened. Suddenly, a red dot flashed in his mind. Lee froze for a second and checked the Map again, but that dot had already disappeared. Lee tried to remember where that dot appeared.
[It appeared exactly at the right most border of the Map for a second and disappeared. Assuming from its appearance, it is a bandit and one that was roaming through the forest.]
Lee immediately took a sharp 90 degree turn to the right and his figure dashed forward. Just after covering a 100 meters, 2 red dots appeared in the distance. Lee silently approached the bandits as they were talking to each other in an audible voice.
"Is it necessary to merge with those bandits?! I mean, we are all bandits." (Bandit 1)
"From what I've heard, this is only a temporary alliance. The Royal Annual Convoy will pass through the road in 3 days. Our spies confirmed it." (Bandit 2)
"For true?! Then this makes total sense. Us alone are no match for the royal guards, but around 200 bandits can easily capture the convoy. And the forest is our turf!" (Bandit 1)
"That's why we are put on guard here. The absence of bandits in the road will surely give them hope of safety." (Bandit 2)
"But will the other groups agree?! We may all be bandits, but friction always occurs between groups." (Bandit 1)
"They will have to agree. This is a once-in-a-year opportunity. Even the carriage that holds the gold is decorated with precious gems! We don't have to plunder for almost a year if we pulled this off!" (Bandit 2)
The exciting voices of bandits made Lee clear of the situation. The bandits didn't withdraw, but they were secretly gathering together to take down a royal convoy coming from the capital city. From what he heard, Great King Aizil provides wealth to the cities under him annually, and these carriages will be accompanied by the Royal Guards. This behaviour was fitting for a benevolent and kind ruler adored by his subjects. No wonder there are no discriminations, D commented.
Lee took a glance at the Map and saw red dots scattered in pairs throughout the forest. About 26 such pairs stood in a circle covering a vast area. At the center of the formation was a bunch of red dots clustered together. Lee can tell that the leaders are in serious discussion.
D reminded him that the time is of essence. Lee took out his bow and shot two arrows within the span of one second. The Poison, Rock, Metal, Nature and Dark affinities were activated prior to firing the homing arrows. The progress went up by one as they fell on the ground. The light thud was inaudible to other pairs.
A question arose in Lee's mind.
'Can I kill someone from a distance by locking on them through the Map, without direct visual?!'
[Try it out. You'll never know unless you try.]
Lee climbed the nearest tree to get a good clear sight of the sky. He locked his focus on the nearest pair of red dots and fired two arrows one after the other, in an angle. Lee saw the arrows homing in on them and in a second, the red dots turned grey.
Lee was delighted to know that the focus lock can be done through the Map. He fired 44 arrows one after the other, as he shifted the focus from one to the next after each shot.
Like a chain reaction, the red dots turned grey from one end to the other. Within a minute, Lee took down 52 bandits. From what he heard, the number of bandits were close to 200, so he was expecting more than 120 bandits and 5 bandit-leaders. Lee thought of killing them in a volley of arrows, but he thought of acquiring some information from them, with or without consent.
Lee moved closer and loud conversations and arguments can be heard. He hid behind a bush and watched them. 5 leaders were sitting around a table and each leader had 4 subordinates near them. Surprisingly, he saw rogue cultivators among the crowd. There were two that looked like a wizard, as they had a staff in their hand. Except the leaders and their subordinates, 119 bandits were constantly on guard against any attacks. Lee fell into a situation as he saw 52 among these walking towards the 26 guarding spots for shift change.
Lee immediately withdrew and killed the 52 men before they reached the site. Hopefully they were far enough from the ones at the center. Even if they heard them, the bustling of leaves and random noises kept them distracted from focusing on one particular noise.
=====
11 A.M.
1620 Essence harvested.
=====
10 minutes passed.
While the leaders and their subordinates were in a heated discussion, others recognised something was amiss. They quickly alerted the whole group and the vigilance rose to the sky. Lee watched them moving out in a very cautious manner. Even the leaders and their subordinates were actively heading out. Some of them were ready to escape the moment they smelled danger!
Lee slowly walked forward and his lower torso was visible from the shadow. His masked face wasn't clearly visible from 200 meters away. The bandits who saw him alerted the community and they moved towards Lee.
Lee walked out of the shadow as he fired 6 arrows with patience. Those six hit the mark and this maddened the bandits. They guessed that this archer had killed their fellow bandits. The leaders roared to kill this fellow. Their subordinates and fellow bandits charged at Lee with burning eyes. The leaders stood at the back in case of any change in tides. Lee smirked inside the mask as a barrage of arrows showered upon them.
*pak pak pak pak...…*
It took Lee 60 seconds to eliminate 81 bandits. In the beginning, they charged fiercely. When they realised that this archer was a monster, only the leaders remained. Even if they were titled leaders their cowardice was greater than his underlings.
Leaders turned around and tried to run, but an arrow pierced each of their right legs. They screamed in pain and attempted to crawl away. But Lee's nunchuck hit them unconscious.
----------------------------------------
=====
12 Mid-day
1620 Essence harvested.
=====
Lee was in an internal conversation with D when the notification came up. He stood up from his chair and walked towards where the bandit-leaders were tied up. He can see a blue coloration where the arrows pierced them, which indicated poisoning.
"Hey, wake up bastard!"
Lee slapped one of the leaders as he shouted. The five were feeling a mixed sensation of numbness and agony through them.
"Why the Royal Annual Convoy?!"
This question stunned the leaders. They trembled as their grandiose plan was exposed and spoiled by someone looking very strange. The mask enveloped them in an ominous aura.
"Illians….Illians gave us...money...to...to attack and plunder the royal…..carriage."
The term 'Illians' were unknown to them. As per the situation, they seemed hostile with the kingdom of Venus.
"How did they contact you?! How many were there?!"
Lee acted as if he's well known with the Illians. His acting bore fruit.
"They came...by night. 4 of them. One….is an official….They will….contact us….after two...days."
The poison's pain and numbness was taking effect. The leaders felt their throats becoming dry. They saw each other's legs and confirmed that they were poisoned.
"Where will they meet you??"
The leaders hesitated to answer this one. They began to think of a way to trick him. Lee noticed their faces and said-
"You don't need to tell. We have methods to extract information at the capital city of Venus."
This sent a shiver down their spine. They immediately spoke-
"At the Black Desert Plains!"
As soon as they finished, a black blade flashed through their necks and their heads fell down and rolled. Lee did not feel any remorse in doing so, because they deserved more than this simple punishment. And Lee was in a hurry to convey this information to Shi Sera and Ian!
................
==========
Name: Lee
Age: 20
Title: Grim-reaper, Soul Liberator
Fame: 1810
Essence: 21316 (12 Mid-day)
Money: 989 Gold, 0 Silver, 31 Copper
----------
Partner: An
----------
Health: 320
Strength: 320
Vitality: 320
Agility: 320
Defense: 320
Endurance: 320
Sense: 320
Intelligence: 320
Resolve: 320
----------
Immunity:-
• Greater Poison Immunity (191/1000000)
• Medium Lightning Immunity (3217/10000)
Affinity:-
• Medium Poison Affinity (149/10000)
• Medium Lightning Affinity (781/10000)
• Lesser Fire Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Water Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Ice Affinity (0/100)
• Medium Rock Affinity (259/10000)
• Medium Metal Affinity (259/10000)
• Lesser Sand Affinity (0/100)
• Medium Nature Affinity (259/10000)
• Lesser Air Affinity (0/100)
• Medium Sound Affinity (259/10000)
• Medium Dark Affinity (96/10000)
----------
Mastery:-
• Absolute Blade Mastery
• Absolute Nunchuck Mastery
• Medium Bow Mastery (669/10000)
----------
Cultivation: Peak stage Core Formation realm
Qi: 0/1100
Mana: 0
----------
Innate Skills:-
• View
• Foresight
• EsGen
• EsConv
• Curse Remover
----------
INVENTORY:-
QUESTS:-
MAP:-
SHOP:-
RE-MODEL:-
==========
(A.N. The immunity cannot be obtained by its respective affinity, but can be progressed using them.)