A laugh was supposed to convey happiness, not a manic reaction out of humorless circumstances. At least, that was what was on normal people's minds.
Present in such a situation, Liel couldn't fault Melva for laughing in the face of death. After all, he had done so before.
"Lift my curse from your village?" Melva repeated with such exaggeration, prompting Naomi to bristle even more. "I'd rather die if Uravis and all of his men can still suffer!"
"But you can–"
"Forgive?" Melva smirked darkly, eyes widened, and she reminded Liel of the Chucky doll. "Uravis can grovel under my feet, and I won't even entertain the idea of lifting my curse. I will never!"
"You're truly despicable."
"I'm not the one starting this, honey. It's called justice."
"No, it's revenge."
"Whatever your naïvete call it, I won't change my mind."
"I don't know anything about the curse, but can I drop her now? It's almost on my skill limit," Reinard interjected, waiting for Naomi's cue.
"You're truly fargone, aren't you?" Naomi whispered in defeat.
"Not me, honey… but they are. Uravis and his father, and the men of his village. I'm serving justice for what they did to me. Never forget that they dig their own graves."
"Then, we're done here." Naomi made up her mind. "I will look for a way to lift the curse you made."
"Good luck on that. Removing a dead mage's curse is nigh impossible."
Reinard waved his hand down, and the yellow lines seemingly prevented the dark mage from touching the bubbling hot magma finally disappeared. Melva fell to her death with a booming laugh.
[Congratulations!]
[You win your first ever PvP]
[You receive 1 power-up item – Faithkeeper Staff.]
[You receive 7 special items – 1 Weightless Bag, 1 Soulmate's Tears, 2 Honest to God Candles, 1 Dominant's Rope, 1 Immovable Rod, and 1 Lifeless Nail]
[You receive 10% of Melva Saunders' default stats.]
[Status Update]
[HP: 2689 (2421 + 2680)
HP Regen: 7.54 (6.8 + 0.74)
Physical Attack: 143 (130 + 13)
Attack Speed: 1.09 (0.99 + 0.1)
Physical Defense: 17 (15 + 2)
Mana: 740 (515 + 75 + 150)
Mana Regen: 4.02 (3.6 + 0.4)
Magic Power: 70 (+ 70)
Magic Defense: 17 (15 + 2)
Movement Speed: 274 (250 + 24)
Magical Lifesteal – Error]
[Converse Magical Lifesteal from Faithkeeper Staff to Magic Power instead?]
'No need.' Liel remembered his deal. 'Give the staff to Reinard.'
[Transferring Faithkeeper Staff to Reinard Blackridge.]
The wooden staff with a red orb on a top shot from the opened ground – a portal, indeed – of the bubbling hot magma. It was unscratched, perfect in its state.
"Glad doing business with you," Reinard told him when the wooden staff hovered within his reach.
[Transfer success.]
[Status Update]
[Mana: 590 (515 + 75)
Magic Power: 0]
'Damn, I could use some magic power,' Liel thought to himself.
[Congratulations!]
Liel perked up, expecting additional rewards or a special bonus because it was his first-ever PvP. And he won it, despite someone's help.
[You are a certified idiot.]
That was a downer. He grumbled softly at the false cheer. Knowing his disappointing System, Liel shouldn't hold his breath. What did he expect?
[This is your own fault for breaking the System.]
[Accept the consequences.]
'At least tell me about the other item's functions.'
[Special Item – Weightless Bag: Store up to eight non-magical things.]
[Special Item – Soulmate's Tears: Give an ability for two users to sense the pair's negative emotions. Lasted until one spills the blood of the other.]
[Special Item – Honest to God Candle: It is self-explanatory unless you admit how stupid you are.]
'Fuck you.'
[Special Item – Dominant's Rope: Just as the name suggested.]
'Right,' Liel sarcastically commented.
[It is an unbreakable rope that listens to what the user ordered. Active for 1 hour.]
[Hopefully.]
'The heck is that?' Liel scoffed at no one.
[Special Item – Immovable Rod: If the user twists the handle, it will freeze in place. Another twist on the hold will make it unfreeze.]
'If I hold it mid-air and twist the handle, it'll freeze in the air?'
[Obviously, dummy.]
'And if I shove it up your ass and twist the handle, will you freeze with the rod?'
[…]
[The System decided to ignore that.]
Liel's lips pulled up at the corner, amused by his own thoughts. If only the System had a physical manifestation, he'd like to do that just to vent once in a while.
[You will not dare.]
'Oh?' Liel narrowed his eyes, 'So you have a physical body, then?'
[The System decided to ignore that.]
After getting his revenge, Liel would look into this matter and see how the System worked. This entire thing was ridiculous.
If the System had a physical body, it would clear its throat. As it was, a ding was heard, and the floating purple screen came up with a question.
[Do you want to know about Lifeless Nail or not?]
'Speak.'
[Special Item – Lifeless Nail: If hammered into a corpse, it disappears and ensures that the corpse will never rise again.]
Liel didn't expect that. 'You mean to say that a corpse can rise again here?'
[…]
'I expect an answer, damn it.'
[Yes, dumbass.]
"Hey, Liel," the tall and long-haired man called, "You might want to get to your girlfriend there." Reinard nodded his butt chin to the person crouching a little far away from him.
He was so immersed in the status update from the System that his mind strayed away from the most important person in his entire life. Even if they were wholly different and weren't the same person, they weren't the same soul – no matter how much he hopped otherwise.
"I'll leave her to you." Reinard said before he disappeared with his teleportation magic.
Turning his attention to the red-haired girl on the ground, clutching at her chest, blue eyes teared up.
It was a sigh he didn't want to see – other than her dying. Naomi was crying once again. Liel bit his bottom lip, only taking one second to decide that he needed to calm her. Cheer her up. Do something.
Sitting down on the ground beside Naomi, he laid a hand on her shoulder. A habit he acquired since they became close. "How can I help you?"
Because it was useless to ask her, what's wrong, what happened, or even are you okay?
He knew damn well what was wrong. Everything was wrong.
He already knew what the hell had happened. Her father died. Something he could not relate to, but he didn't need to. Not when he understood how much Naomi loved her father – unlike him.
And only a bat shit crazy man who didn't know she wasn't okay. She wasn't.
Peering at him through her tears, Naomi sobbed, "But you can't."
"I'll help anyway I can."
"You can't, Liel. He's dead. My father's dead and I wasn't even on his side when he drew his last breath."
Liel fell silent.
'Hey System.'
[What can I do for you?]
Liel ignored the sudden hospitality. 'How to resurrect a dead man?'