Chapter 02: Saintess Escape
Volume 01: Another Life
Tens of thousands of lights fell from the sky appearing in the town square. All the new players looked around the square seeing a young man charging through the crowd out into what seemed to be the run-down portion of town.
'Where are they? They should be around here somewhere in one of these alleyways. Ah, there it is the person who completed this dungeon for the first time got a lot of good items and got really far ahead at the beginning of the game.'
Arriving before a metal doorway with a sign above it that states leading to the underground sewage system. Ryan pulls at the metal door releasing a creaking sound that echoed into what seems to be a never-ending staircase that descends into darkness.
[Hidden Zone Discovered | Klawrence Underground Sewage | Level 10-25 Zone]
[Due to first-player zone discovery loot drops will increase by 55% for the next 2 hours.]
A series of notifications appeared in front of Isaias as he began to descend the staircase into the darkness.
*Cough*
*Cough*
"Whose there?" Isaias called out before he could reach the bottom of the staircase an ascending light came closer to his position on the staircase. As the light approached closer Isaias could make out that the light source was that of a light orb. Which could only be cast by mage or priest classes.
"What are you doing down here?" A clear tender voice came out from behind the floating light orb as it orbited a lady in her late twenties.
She had fiery red hair which was complemented by her white robes as she wore a golden necklace adhering to an angel on the front. Under closer examination, her robes seemed to be tattered and torn revealing milky white skin underneath and her face was covered by a veil seemingly burned on its bottom edges revealing her rosy lips.
[Legendary Quest]
[Time Sensitive Quest Found]
[Sewer Escape | Time Sensitive | Legendary Quest]
[Help the woman escape with her life. If you do not escape the sewer within 30 minutes the woman will be infected by a deadly virus.]
[Reward: Unknown]
[Failure: Death of the woman]
'A lady? Why is this high-level NPC doing down here this is a starter's town? Wait a second is that the crest of the Holy Order on her chest? Does this have something to do with the activation of the timed quest? It must be.'
"My lady I have ventured down here to slay the plague Rat King that poisons the water supply of the town may I ask why you are here," Isaias stated after falling to one knee.
"I wish it was such a simple case, but we have no time we need to keep moving or we will both die here, boy."
'Boy? She can't be that much older than I am? If this was my last life, we would be about the same age, so this is kind of annoying. Whatever she seems to be a high-ranking priestess in the Holy Order maybe I will get some reputation with the Order if I save her.'
"My lady if I can be of any assistance, you can tell me. It would be my honor to help you." Isaias stated aloud as he was inwardly cringing at himself for trying so hard to suck up to this NPC. Even in his last life NPCs would line up outside the guild to have him handle their problems personally or even see them.
"No young man you are still too young and weak to help me. The best you can do is not hinder me even me stopping for this small conversation is worse than what I wanted." The Saintess rolled her eyes at the beginner adventurer before her who was trying to take on more than what he could handle as he seemed to have only very basic armor and no weapon to use.
*RAWRRRR*
The stone walls of the underground staircase began to echo with the loud roar of what sounded like a large monster.
*thUMP*
*THUMP*
A loud sound seemed to be coming from the darkness of the staircase below. The sound slowly grew louder as heard from their position on the staircase.
"We need to get further up how far are we from getting back to the surface?" The Saintess said after looking over her shoulder seemingly terrified after hearing the sounds getting closer to their position.
"We are probably 5 minutes from the surface."
*THUMP**THUMP*
*THUMP**THUMP*
"Move boy it is getting closer, and I will not be dying here with you."
As Isaias looked further down the staircase a silhouette was seen coming out of the darkness approaching quickly on all four of its scaley legs.
Analyzing the creature coming in his direction.
[Crocosaur Level 50 | Emperor tier | Plagued]
'Holy shit. An Emperor class monster. What are they doing down here in a level 25 dungeon is this what the system considers special? I would call this suicidal.'
'This lady is a princess of the Holy Order. What kind of quest is this? No wonder she said I could not help her. Also, why would a Saintess be traveling by herself down here? Something is not right here even if that emperor creature is level 50, she cannot be far off in levels if she was able to escape it the first time.'
"Young man stop kneeling there in a daze and start running, or I will leave you behind." Casting a haste spell on the pair. Then turned to continue running upwards without another look back to see if the young man was following.
Isaias felt his body begin to heat up as his veins began to fill up with power as if he could burst up the stairs.
'Ah. I have not had this feeling since I was last in the game being buffed by mages and priests.'
Standing up Isaias's body surged with power as he began to start running. Quickly catching up to the Saintess and then slowly passing her. Even though the Saintess seemed to be at a much higher level and with a haste spell she still seemed to be significantly slower than Isaias at his low level who was wearing light armor and not carrying a weapon, unlike the Saintess. As many priests did not have fast movement speed and mainly structured themselves as support healers or buffers.
Isaias's body began to run hotter than before, and he could feel his body accepting the heat inwards almost seeping into his bones ever so slightly. It was the same feeling he felt before after drinking the wine and collapsing to the floor but on a much smaller scale.
As if a gate was opened somewhere in his body a notification popped up in front of him.
[Hidden Skill Awoken]
[Skill Unlocked: Drunken Escape | Level 1]
[Escape is only second nature of those that follow the arts of the drunken brawler. The user's movement speed increases by 100%.]
Skill Cost: 5 aura to activate (While this ability is active drunken aura shall leak into the user's body and surroundings impairing the user and others.)]
'What does the system mean by impaired? Who cares at least it does not have a cost to maintain the ability or time limit for it to run out. This is my chance to escape.'
"Hey boy where are you going? Help me!" The Saintess called out seeing as the weak boy from before seemed to excel in speed and seemed to be leaving her behind with that monster.
'I almost forgot about this stupid quest. I can get myself to safety but saving the Saintess as well I am not as confident at doing so. If I die now, it will log me out for the next 2 hours which will lose me 8 hours in Forgotten and give me a 20% experience penalty when I relog.' Staring back over his shoulder at the Saintess, he could see the despair on her face as a large figure could be seen gaining on the two coming up the stairs its large body getting larger and larger the closer it gets.
'Fuck it the release of the game is very important to get ahead but a legendary quest is no easy feat to find especially at the beginning of the game. We have to at least try and if we die then screw it the beginning of the game is the easiest portion of the game to gain experience anyways.' A smile began to creep onto Isaias's face as she pondered the pros and cons of his decisions.
The Saintess still moving closer to Isaias felt a rather uneasy feeling appear deep in her heart as she could see a creepy smile start to cover showing the appearance of a person who did not care any longer.
She watched as the boy stopped on the staircase ahead of her as if he was waiting for something to happen.
As the Saintess was about to overtake Isaias a pair of hands suddenly appeared in front of her swinging her small frame closer into his embrace and carrying her over his left shoulder.
"Hold on tight and try firing some spells back at that thing to try and slow it down." Isaias now carrying the Saintess over his shoulder quickly gave her some orders and quickly returned to sprinting up the staircase.
As Isaias was running up the staircase, he could not help but grow red in the face as he felt the slight slapping of two soft mounds against his back. Isaias's mind began to become ever so slightly foggy as he felt himself getting hotter.
The Saintess felt rather shocked being swept up and carried away by this young man now staring intently at the face of the boy who was carrying her. She could make out every sharp feature on his face as she stared intently, she could see the gaze of intensity lying within his eyes. Feeling the warm aura around the young man's body enclosed around her the Saintess' face seemed to start becoming rosy for a reason she could not quite understand.
"Are you going to keep staring at me or are you going to help us escape by shooting whatever offensive spells you have?" Isaias laughed out loud as he kept running up the staircase gripping the woman on his shoulder.
"Ah, yes well. I do not quite have the mana reserves to be casting any spells anymore as the haste spell was my last means of escape." The Saintess cleared her throat quickly moving her eyes away from Isaias's face. As soon as she looked back ahead a large figure came into view as it appeared to only be 50 steps away from catching the duo.
"Faster...Faster run faster! It is catching up to us."
"I know. I am trying here. Is there a chance you have a spell to make yourself lighter then we could probably go faster?" Isaias replied rather angrily as the Saintess had yet to do anything to help the pair escape besides casting a haste spell that was inferior to his own ability.
"How dare you!" The Saintess yelled out right next to Isaias's ear and then began to mumble some words that he could not quite make out.
The Saintess' body began to glow as the necklace around her neck slowly changed shape molding itself into a bow made of gold etched with different runes. The main body of the bow seemed to look like angel wings connected together with a golden piece of thread to make the bowstring.
After fixing herself more comfortably on his shoulder she began to pull back on the bowstring until her forearm and wrist were placed against his head supporting her. A silver arrow of light appeared in the bow as if ready to be shot.
*Tah*
*RAWR*
The Crocosaur seemed to slow down a bit after being slightly stunned by an overwhelming attack that seemingly came out of nowhere.
"Oh! I actually hit it that was my first time using that blessing." The Saintess exclaimed as she saw the large creature stutter after being struck by her arrow.
"What happened Saintess?" Isaias replied unaware of the situation happening behind him and still madly dashing upwards.
"Oh yeah, we are all fine. How much further would you say we have to go?" The Saintess switched her weapon out opting to not attack the creature any longer and just pull out the light ball she had summoned before.
"We should be coming up to the exit in about 20 seconds. Just hold the creature off for a little while longerrrrrrrrrrr." Isaias's cheeks began to turn rosy, and movements started to become looser.
'What is happening to me?' Isaias checked his player status page and right under his player's name it stated.
[Player status: Tipsy (Slightly Impaired)]
"What's wrong?" The Saintess now turned her head back from over his shoulder back to stare at his face.
"How could anything be wrong with such a beautiful woman in my arms?" With a bright charming smile on his face, Isaias stared right into the Saintess' eyes.
'What the hell did I just say to the Saintess? What is making me act so stupid is that I cannot control what I say any longer. Hopefully, she does not take any offense.'
The Saintess' cheeks were also beginning to grow increasingly hot as she quickly turned her head back away to focus on the monster giving chase to the pair. Sunlight coming into view Isaias felt inwardly pleased as his embarrassment will be over shortly.
The creature seeing that his prey will get away before catching up released a green liquid ball from its mouth at the pair.
*Shhpt*
The Saintess watched the green ball quickly approaching and grabbed onto her bow one last time mumbling again casting a barrier of light and stopping the ball from advancing any further the princess could feel the last bit of mana leave her body to cast the light barrier. Her body slumped onto Isaias's shoulder as her breathing became increasingly feeble.
Stepping out into the sunlight the creature stopped its pursuit seeing that it could no longer safely keep chasing its prey without there being a large chance of it dying so it roared one last time before retreating into the darkness below.
Now outside of the underground dungeon turning back to see the emperor creature turn back and head back down into the darkness. Isaias could let out a large breath of relief placing the Saintess lying against a wall opposite the dungeon. Turning his head Isaias could now get a clearer view of the Saintess' face as a little more than half her veil was now gone.
'I have to admit she is rather beautiful. Too bad she is an NPC and seems to be a little too condescending for my liking. Although she was rather cute when I was teasing her earlier.' A warm smile appeared on his face then immediately disappeared as two notifications popped up.
[Legendary Quest Complete]
[Reward being generated]