While in the void, Alex heard everything that transpired between the duke and royal mages. Their brief episode provided him with enough context to answer some of his questions. Such as 'who hired the mercenaries' and 'who wanted the staff.'
It also furthered complicated the quest: 'Save Lith's aunt's husband as a thank you to Lith and the aunt'.
If he wanted to complete the quest, he would have to kill the duke. From Alex's perspective, the duke would still go after Christopher even if he didn't have the staff anymore simply because the duke had a spiteful personality.
For Alex, it was also a foregone conclusion that if Christopher definitely had the staff, he wouldn't be able to hold on to it. Nor would he allow Chris to have it since it would put lith's aunt in endless danger. No doubt other people would employ the same tactic and go after the women, again and again, to use as hostages and bargaining chips to get the staff from Christopher.
From Alex's perspective, it would be better to trade the staff to the current king for benefits that would better lith's aunt's life. But all of this was an if. If Christopher didn't really have the staff, Alex would have to kill everyone involved, including the king, if he was unreasonable.
The duke left with his wife and the rest of his men. Leaving Morgan, laurel, and her remaining bodyguard.
On top of the mountain peak in the western district, the three headed to laurel's estate, as Alex leisurely followed them in the void.
Once Alex was sure that there was enough distance between the duke and his targets, it was time to strike. Instinctively he knew the priest had to die first. Alex re-coated his blades in the Raška venom; He wanted to one-shot kill/poison the priest since he could not see his stats.
Alex took a deep breath in as he lined up one of his blades at the back of the priest's neck, ready to pierce the void when he was interrupted by Vigerřamous.
"Alex, I can show you the priest stats for 100000 sin points, and a promise that you would never expose your skill rift walk," Vigerřamous offered so 'generously.'
"The promise is easy, I wouldn't expose such a card unless I am in danger but there is no way I could accept since i can't afford it! I already owe you, and I want to buy new equipment," Alex replied, shrugging off stars bargain. With blink, ghost fade, and blades covered in venom, Alex was more than willing to take the risk than owe Star 100000 sin points. Alex knew there were still things about this world and universe he didn't know. But 100000 was too much just for one person. Currently, he lacked a long-range offensive skill, and the chain sickle within the system store could fill that role. A new weapon for one hundred thousand sin points was more beneficial than information on a dead man.
"Well, technically, you can see them for free," Vigerřamous said, feeding into Alex's wary nature. "Don't you remember that the system will forgive your debt if you kill that girl?"
With a smile on his face, Alex agreed, "Show me the stats of the priest."
Vigerřamous was delighted!
By offering Alex, the information Vigerřamous hoped to accomplish two objectives; none, that would harm Alex. Alex was his son!
He wanted Alex to gain as much debt as possible since the system would pay it off once Alex killed the girl.
The dark system would offer Vigerřamous fiend stones, which he needed to free his corporal body.
Fiend stones were difficult to find and rare.
Vigerřamous's second objective was to let Alex know beforehand what element his opponent had since light was a natural enemy to those that had space and darkness attributes!
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Name: Morgan Reid
Level: 38 (30+8)
Race: Human
Class: condemned priest
Element Affinity: Light
Mana-core level:1
Type of light: light Blessing, holy execution, Illumination light, light shield
HP: 850
Mana: 420/420
STR: 320
Agility: 300
Intelligence: 500
Dexterity: 249
POTENTIAL: A threat to Alex
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Seeing the stats of the priest, Alex could only fro his brows.
"What are you afraid of?" Star laughed at Alex agonized facial expression.
Star's 'inspect' showed the priest's stats were triple if not quadruple his own.
The memory of being thrown around like a rag-doll resurfaced in his mind.
Re-evaluating the situation, Alex could only kill the four old men with Luke's help. Even then, it was a two-on-one battle where he had tons of advantages such as poison, shadows, and steady ambushes.
"Star, how much stronger is he than those four old men?"
"his stats are double theirs," Star replied.
One more thing that stood out to Alex was the priest's intelligent stats of 500. Which ensured that the priest would be able to react and resolve any problem swiftly. This also meant that Alex only had one shot to assassinate him, and there were no do-overs.
"Since he's a threat, it's best if he dies now!" Alex said ruthlessly.
He wasn't going to allow a threat to him to survive another day.
Star was raging with joy as he saw Alex steeled his nerves to face an opponent whose stats were triple his own.
'that's my boy!' Vigerřamous thought proudly.