"What did he say?" thinks 01 as the body slowly becomes invisible in the dark depth of the water.
As he thinks that 3 panles come up in front of him.
[Take vengeance. (2/4)]
[Challenge completed]
[The language that merman uses is different then what we use. To understand their language you will need to learn it yourself or get a skill that allows you to understand or talk their language.]
"Then what about you? Can't you translate it and tell me what it is?"
[That would be considered outside help and fail the scenario instantly. I only explain things that are already in your possession or explain the details more clearly.]
01 understood that the system is more like an assistant then anything else. It can't do more then what he himself can do. Then he started to go back to his [Attachment]..... accept he was lost.
He started looking around him to see where he is at. He tunnel visioned so hard on the merman that he completely lost where his [Attachment] is.
"System? Can you he-"
[No]
"But I didn't even ask ye-"
["Can you help me find my way back?" is what you were about to say.]
"Yes.."
[Figure it out yourself. I'll give you a hint. Try an ability.]
01 looked at the last message for a while thinking that the system was supposed to help him but instead it's acting as if it was his mom.
"You know what... It is right. I am becoming too dependent on it. I should figure out for myself." He said to himself and wanted to started finding out which ability would help him. That's when he remembered,
"Oh that's right, what happened to my reward?"
[You will be rewarded after the scenario ends.]
"What do you mean I will be rewarded AFTER THE SCENARIO ENDS. THAT WAS NOT PART OF THE DEAL." angrily thought.
[It has always been like that. Unless any form of special circumstance occurs, this rule will not change.]
Fine I guess I'll start from checking my abilities..... Wait a second, How can I check my abilities if you don't help me.
[....]
The ability panels opens up in front of him and he starts to read them.
{Meanwhile. In another place.}
"So we received a crystal? From one of the patrol team?" Said the merman who was taller and more bulkier then most. He had detailed red outlines on his bone armours. The armour that was on the shoulders (ahem) pauldrons, were grey with red AND gold details that looked like a merman throwing a trident.
He had the same pale skin as others. Viscount Torja the Terror was known to the water world know as an warmonger. he always trained his army personally and can tell who is who from there back. He was given the role of marquees not only because of his ferocious fighting capabilities, but also because of his strategic mind and ability to think and work calmly. He won many wars and won many last stand duels.
Now you may be thinking. Why the hell is this guy not a king? Or even emperor? Cause of age. He was now and old merman. A healthy merman lives for 150 years on average and this man is now 124 and still is feared by all.
The soldier replied to the question,
"Yes Viscount Torja, it's exactly like that. The crystal was from the member of our elite patrol team Artro. Unlike our practice of using our weapon and throwing it in the case of dire emergencies, the crystal was this time sent with a severed arm."
The soldier and the viscount was in the castle grounds where the viscount was practicing his trident skills. The trident was a training trident made out of seashells shells. He floated and cut through the water with precision, beauty, and deadlines. He listened to the man and pierced the ground with the trident with a lazy motion and looked at the soldier who was kneeling down behind him.
Torja, now got serious. All of his patrol groups are the most talented and trained soldiers and elites alone can take on an army of 30. But Arto is a special group. The three seniors was trained to be monsters of another grade and one newbie was added who was a new recruit to be trained. One of them was caught by a surprise and was murdered by a depth reaper a few months ago and the newest fourth was a bit of a coward who handled a blade well without pressure. The third died could've been believable but all of them? That is something he couldn't believe.
"Give the crystal to me." Torja said.
The soldier presented the crystal to Torja and told the soldier to standby and walked to the holo-chrystal that showed the map. He zoomed in on the Arto patrol route which looked like the '5' side of the dice. It had 5 sectors. 1 started from the top left dot and went clockwise to 4 the center was 5. All sectors were interconnected. He stood in front of the map and started to listen to the crystal.
"This message was recorded by Von the 2nd member of the patrol group Arto. We were patrolling the South-West part in sector 4 of our patrol route when we heard a scream. The scream came from the direction of sector 2. It was extremely loud so I judged it to be from there. So we three regrouped at sector 5 and scouted sector 2 from a distance. There was nothing but the newbie was able to spot the wraith with his gift that was being left by the target. A wraith. The newbie Fod was able to tell us that it was the same kind of wraith from the looks. So we decided to ambush it and free it from its curse. We let the newbie bait it with the harpoon while me and Roal ambushed it from the sides with our blessed tridents. It went according to plan. It was stabbed by our trident and we thought it was over but we were wrong. The wraith didn't die. It tore through the bones of Roal, splitting him into two and slashed through my entire hand. Etraw knows what happened to Fod. I woke up down in the bottom of the sea and found out that the wraiths nails corrode our bone armour. I broke mine off with a rock. The bones turned into nothing. If you are listening to this that would mean that I am dead. Please tell our viscount that the wraith was extremely stronger then expected. If the crystal is in the hands of our leader, I apologise for my failure in duty, the death of my comrades and any inconvenience that this would bring. End of the recording."
Torja listened to the entire message without any expression in his face. It was devoid of any and all feelings. After processing all the information he understood one thing.
"How unlike of him. My training specified them to immediately notify the barracks of any abnormalities. Yet....he decided to not notify it to the barracks and deal with it immediately."
This didn't stand straight to Torja. Von was someone who followed the training word for word and letter by letter. So all of a sudden he breaks this and dies.
"Something is happening that is deeper then what is seen." he beckons the soldier to come near him. The soldier floated to him without getting his eyes up from the ground.
"Order the barracks, to prepare the top 30 Combat masters and 6 of our barrier masters. I'll be there in a short while."
"Yes sir." and the soldier starts to leave. When he gets called by the viscount.
"And Hoyt."
Hoyt turns around and kneels again,
"Order the head taker to be prepared for a long night."
Hoyt immediately understood that something is going to happen tonight and no one's gonna like it.
Hoyt leaves silently and prepares himself mentally for the night.
{Back to 01, after 2 hours.}
"Finally, it took me me three hours to find this damn thing." Said 01 in satisfaction.
He looked at his abilities for more then 20 minutes and couldn't figure out anything. So he decided to walk straight in a random direction u till he hit what felt like a wall. It was the limit of how far he could go. He followed the wall and realised that it was a circle. So he walked towards the opposite of the wall and he finally made it to the attachment.
[All you had to do was focus with your Mana Eyes and you would see where your attachment was. But i suppose you deserve this.]
A gold window comes up to the left of 01 and he reads it.
[ Soul title earned - *Reveal back at the White
World*]
Feeling cheated out he complains about it,
"I EARNED the title you cheap bastards at least give the things I earn to me."
Unfortunately, this peacetime didn't last long as 01 saw the area around him turn into a barrier and trap him in a large circle. It followed the same circle as his own attachment range and unlucky for him, it was becoming smaller gradually.
"System what is happening?"
'Ding'
[ Challenge #2- Fish escapes the net.]
-Escape from the barrier the mermen put up to catch you.
-Difficulty - S
-The leader of the mermen has found out about the killings that you did. He is personally coming to investigate and take you down. Survive and escape this.
-Rewards
1.Epic or Higher skill.
2.Answer to all of your questions.
3.One skill of your choice.
4. End of this Novel. {( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)}
-Failure
1.Death
2.System will speed the world up and see if your vengeance was completed for your sake.]
But 01, who only read the first part of this sub quest all he read was 'Escape the barrier' and 'Difficulty-S' and he started to swim as fast as he could and reached the barrier. He then clawed it and even Blink pass it, nothing worked. The barrier got shorter and shorter and now, his attachment was just outside the barrier when he was inside it. Stuck like a fish in a barrel.
After a while, 30 mermen surrounded him right outside the barrier. They all held tridents that shined a soft blue. And from one side 2 bigger then the usual size mermen walked in from the gap the army made. One had some detailed design on its bones and the other was a little more bigger then the first one but this one had a big black axe in its hand and a mean looking scar on his pale face that was glowing red. The first one raised its hand and all the soldiers went from a ready stance to a more relaxed stance. 01 realised that the first one with more details on its armour was an important dude.
The leader walked right through the barrier and the guy with the axe just cut through with no effort. 01 used this opportunity and blinked in attempt to go through the torn gap just to be almost cut by the big guy with the axe. The axe man had a wide smile on his face. 01 realised that it was a plan to get him so he immediately blinked back to where he was. With this the barrier closed and now all three of them were in the barrier with no gaps.
"System you have any plans or hints?"
[Focus the man with the merman emblem.]
01 immediately retorted to that,
"How could this old looking guy be more dangerous then THE GUY WITH AN AXE?"
[You asked for a hints and I gave you one. Now do whatever you want.]
***
"This is a clever one I tell ya." Said the headtaker while pulling his axe out of the ground.
"I tell ya, just kill this one and then we check his face."
Torja with the same lifeless face replied coldly,
"You shouldn't trespass waters which isn't yours."
Headtaker looked at him sideways with a confused look on his face.
"You aren't good at thinking with your brain so you should just listen to those who have it. We kill it through a respected execution."
The headtaker spat and replied,
"What respectful execution you be talkin about?this thing killed 3 of your man. And if it was a respectful execution I would have brou-
The wraith attacks the viscount with its nails which the viscount doesn't even look at and still grabs the wraith by the hands.
"ght my sword. And why we respecting this undead anyway?"
While he was saying this the wraith was already binded by magic. Its hands were tied and the viscount pinned it down by sitting on its back. He tore the rag that it was wearing showing 6 holes aligned.
"Ah, is he one of your men? Looks like tridents pierced this man on the back. Must've been a friend I tell ya." Said the head taker.
The wraith screamed which the head taker flinched to but the viscount calmly poked the throat of the wraith making it stop screaming.
"Remember that I told you, to not ask questions or give unnecessary advice or I'll give you another scar down the other angle of your face?"
The head taker remained silent and looked down at the wraith. Seeing its almost rotten face and from the looks of it there was a bag on its head.
"Must've been tortured" he thought. The viscount holds the wraith and bounds it to float straight on the water so it's head will be facing upwards.
"I've learned enough from this. Take its head and then the attachment of this wraith right over there. Bring the head to the martyr sector of the graves."
Headtakers eyes became bigger.
"The martyrs sector? An undead? Are you becoming more senile as the ti-"
He couldn't finish the sentence because he felt a stinging pain from his face. He screamed as blood fell from his face now making a cross on it.
The viscount just looked at him with no emotions on his face.
"Take it's head already. You will need to do more of this tonight."
The pain immediately disappeared and he looked at the viscount,
"Really now? More you say? What are we waiting for?"
He says as he does one clean swing from right to left the head floats where it was chopped from but the body slowly started floating down. Torja cases the head in a transparent magic and signals the soldiers to drop the barrier while Headtaker takes the attachment and carries it. It was a small crystal. A record crystal.
This caused Torja to laugh which caused fear to strike in everyone's heart. The water around him pushed the Headtaker back. When he stopped laughing the water calmed down and now there was a smile in Torjas' face.
"So EVEM IN DEATH you finished the job Kibro. You will not be missed cause you will be remembered by all."
{Back in the White World}
After going through that heart racing time where 01felt like absolute garbage. Now hewas looking at a panel that was hovering in front of him.
[Scenario Complete.]
[Ending Discovered : Success in Failure]
"HOW THE FU-"