{A/N: Took a while to get this book back on track. I'll be uploading more consistently. Also, I changed Omar's quest details. See the Legendary Quest Chapter for the specifics.
Also, I'm going to rewrite Hiyori's quest. It'll be a waste of time to scan NPCs.
Instead, I'll have Connor tell her of the group behind the disappearances. He'll get a quest later on from her. The actual gameplay where Connor really begins to play the game will begin chap 17.
Lastly, thank u to Big_Nick for gifting the coins. You shall be in the story (:
Anyways, thanks for reading!!}
***
Staying in the Town Lord's mansion after finding out Player Killer Hiyori is the current Town Lord made Connor feel like he was walking out of a building with booby traps set everywhere in his path.
'If I'd been a normal player, I for sure would have died had she wanted to kill me.' Connor thinks with a certain appreciation to whoever or whatever brought him back.
Connor eventually made his way off the property and is now on the streets, walking.
Knowing that he has ample time, but still not wanting to waste it, Connor runs at top speed until he gets to the entrance where the guards stand at attention.
He only slowed down just to inform them of his quest. Connor also did not forget to check their info. None of it displayed whether they were possessed or not.
'I don't need to scan every NPC in the town. I already know the next thing to happen…'
The Fiend God Possession event was concerning the awakening of the first Evil God exactly three months from now.
The first incidents leading to his "awakening", which is just his release on the seal both gods placed to protect their souls, were because of the Chaos Embodiment Cult.
They believed that the sealed Evil God was the Chaos God and were then deceived to find the most suitable body for the first Evil God to possess.
This group of people worshipped the Chaos God and were quite the fanatics. Most of its members were mentally less acute and believed they were living for a higher calling.
In the future, one Player by the name of Indigo Sleep found out that the NPCs a part of the cult were being mind-controlled through a certain magic device and spell.
The cult members being controlled weren't necessarily bad, just misguided in their admiration of the Chaos God. No member was below Rank 3 and the leader himself was Rank 4.
This group was currently above Connor's league in terms of power. He would just have to get the empire involved. As such, locating "possessed" NPCs is a waste of his time.
The cult leader himself did not care about the Chaos God. He is a follower of the Evil faction. Unsealing the Evil Gods is his, and many other individuals', main goal.
To top it off, the Player who freed them got a big reward for releasing the members of their mental bonds.
That person never disclosed anything about the reward but they later became an influential figure on the main server.
Control-type spells are quite rare and hard to come by. Plus, the caster would need a considerable amount of knowledge in spirit arts as well as extensive knowledge in magic inscriptions to not only cast said spell, but also utilize the inscriptions.
Thinking further, Connor doesn't remember any details about anyone being possessed.
The local NPCs in town are being kidnapped to be tested for the Evil God's Body Assimilation ritual. The failures had their bodies disintegrated due to incompatibility.
'I'll deal with it in time,' Connor thinks as he makes his way to the Slum District.
As he passes along the road leading to the Slums, Connor sees many players talking with NPCs to try and garner any info about quests.
Try as they might, the NPCs won't be giving any out as they typically ignore those quest-thirsty players.
Most players who had triggered quests typically did so accidentally or they…
After thinking a while, Connor guesstimated that the many players who triggered quests had a Luck value more than the majority of the player base. What that exact value is… Connor doesn't know.
He had never been able to trigger any quests during his time in the future.
However, it isn't hard for him to hypothesize that the player's Luck value has to be at least 50% or 100% higher than all others for a quest to potentially be triggered or whatever might have you occur.
With himself, who's combined with his past self, Connor can for sure say that his luck value had doubled.
Is he the protagonist of this era?
Could he roam the skies unfettered and unfettered?
How else could you explain him meeting Omar in the first 15 minutes of the game? Or his finding of the Fallen Prince's skeletal remains?
That's the best he could come up with and Connor won't be complaining.
About 30 minutes later, Connor finally made it to the Slums.
In this game, the Slums are quite a dangerous area for any Player as criminals, the poor, the mentally ill, and sometimes Evil Faction NPCs lurk within these areas throughout various kingdoms and empires of the world.
In the later stage during the first release, players who are marked as criminals by the system will not be able to go into any city or town as NPCs would be alerted and their names would pulse red when Players encounter them.
That is the reason why they tend to drift toward the Slums in whatever ruling power has them.
It's a Gotham with no Batman!!
The NPCs usually leave Players alone, but Players won't hesitate to confront one another in that place if they think they can get away with it.
Not many kingdom officials would venture here without sufficient preparation and knowledge of who is within the Slums.
An Evil Rank 6 NPC could be hiding within that area using some advanced concealment method. No one would even know and fall to Soul Annihilation.
As such, the world's empires and kingdoms just leave the residents in those areas to their own devices.
Not one to waste time on unnecessary attention and engaging in "face-slapping" moments, Connor activates Luminous Night with the dark element on all of his equipment.
One of the items he'd acquired as a reward was a Unique helmet made for Berserkers.
[Equipment: Nimos's Helm
Grade: Unique
Restrictions: Berserk Class, STR 20.
Stats:
STR 40
AGL 10
Note: This equipment has a chance to drop upon the user's death. Cannot be forcefully taken.]
Even his sword and arm shield turned dark as night with wisps of black smoke wafting off every which way as he walked down the road leading to Omar's shop.
The NPCs, seeing this… Dark Knight, scattered like rats in a spotlight.
The pressure and mana emanating from Connor was a bit much as most of them are Failed Rankers who haven't reached Rank 1.
Nonetheless, the NPCs that stayed in front of Connor were akin to a moose calf standing in front of an adult grizzly bear, ready to be eaten.
Connor paid them no mind as he continued onward for 13 minutes until he stopped at a dilapidated building.
The reason Connor can make it here to Omar's shop is because a marker is placed directly on the building and his map.
Nothing about the building was different from the others surrounding it.
The paint was chipped while the wood making up the building was deteriorated in several places.
This place was very unwelcoming to those looking around. It was the typical rundown building one would see in poor living areas.
The only thing of decency would be the door which is made of Commerce Wood. It's a standard wood sold at almost every shop. However, even that too looked aged.
Before Connor could knock, the door opened by itself. The inside looks just as messed up as the outside.
Broken furniture strewn across the entrance, holes formed in the ceiling, chipped paint prevalent occasionally, and copious amounts of dust filled Connor's view.
Looking at this, Connor wasn't a bit displeased at all.
Oftentimes, cautious NPCs make the outer appearance of where they stay appear more worn down, yet the inside is the most fancy or high-end thing which shocked all players when they found that out.
Connor immediately steps inside the shop. A magic formation appears under his feet and glows, blinding him, his enhanced senses not overwhelmed in the least.
'A teleportation array,' Connor mentally remarks just before his vision is immediately blurred.
A quick second later, the world returns and Connor is met with Omar sitting at a stereotypical workstation that most Secondary Job Classes often work at.
The place he's standing in is a huge squared room of about 50ft on all sides.
Glass bottles and vials filled with alchemical liquids and powders lined a wall to Connor's right. There are also magical plants glowing inside glass bottles.
Dead creatures and monsters float in huge glass tubes filled with a bluish preservative liquid; some of the creatures have limbs or other parts missing.
In smaller glass casings, eyeballs, fingers, heads, and hands could be seen floating as well.
Directly in front of Connor is Omar.
Currently, he's sitting at a huge desk made of some dark metal material. He has his glasses on and can be seen using some sort of magnifying structure while measuring some powdery substance.
Due to Omar's injured state, his body has aged to what it currently is: 276 years old.
Despite being that age, he just appears as a 70-80-year-old man in age. His current strength of peak Rank 1 keeps him much more youthful in appearance than he should be.
Looking around, Connor finds a place right beside the area where Omar is currently working to sit the testes of Indus.
Connor didn't even say anything lest he break Omar's state of mind and incurs the wrath of this influential figure in this empire.
In his alternate future-past life, Connor made that mistake by causing a blacksmith to hammer down slightly more than he should have which resulted in a ruined project.
Connor, already being broker than he should have been, had to pay the blacksmith a hefty sum of money to reorder the materials used during crafting.
That blacksmith was making an Epic sword with the Frost element. The level of difficulty was quite high and his concentration level needed to be considerably strong to craft a blade of Epic proportions.
As so, Connor had learned from that mistake and let Omar finish what he was doing undisturbed.
Twenty minutes go by as Connor surreptitiously watches Omar expertly exercise various mixing of chemicals and ingredients.
The fluidity that Omar had was unparalleled. Even the one time he'd met with the genius Alchemist of the Lighthearted Guild couldn't compare to a now weakened Omar.
The fast pace at which he lit the fires, swirled the glass bottles, poured the powders, and even his timing when doing them gave Connor the impression that he was cooking instead of creating a magical healing potion.
All of this begged the question: why was Omar fighting in the first place back then? He's a Royal healer. They don't particularly fight.
Every Rank would require a person to clear their quest alone. This goes to say that Omar isn't necessarily a weak person.
Undoubtedly so with how finely he manipulated mana and magic formations. It still stands that combat isn't his main focus.
A person of his value should not be on the battlefield…
'Unless the Heavens Fall Kingdom's aim was for something, or rather, someone else left alone inside the castle. The princess!!! She's the only person of value that they could get to in the entire castle. The treasury was undoubtedly impossible for them to get unless they killed the emperor. Why go after her?
The previous Player had finished the quest and that's it. I've never heard of anything about the princess after that,' Connor thinks as he's once again piecing together things he'd never known in the future.
'Wait a minute, so the princess will inevitably die?!? That's why there was another war between Bankai and Heavens Fall. Fuck!'
And here Connor thought he would be able to possibly mosey his way into getting additional quests even after completing his current quest.
Even if it's by the princess, a quest is a quest. She might even want him to go on a crusade with her to take revenge after she recovers and grows stronger.
Call it what you want, in this life, Connor will be a greedy man concerned for only himself and his family.
He'll take all of what he can while stomping those who oppose his journey to the top underneath…
His shiny ass boots.