Chapter 4: Unexpected Help
Alaric was surrounded. What he saw was a plethora of beasts and monsters of all kinds, who acted like an intelligent beings, setting up an ambush for him. He can no longer run away as more and more enemies came.
But what he saw next was even more surprising as….
Red, glowing symbols appeared high in the air forming a red circle shape. He recognized what it was instantly.
It was a magic circle! Someone is casting a spell, but where and who?
"Oh sh*t!" Alaric was within the range of the spell. He wanted to run but he cannot. He was surrounded by enemies who wanted to pounce on him and had nowhere to run.
Just when everything seemes to be the end, a strong gush of blew Alaric away, saving him from the spell. He was brought atop of a tall tree, where, another human covered in red cloak with golden embroidery stood, looking down towards the incinerated area.
"@#&%#". The figure muttered incomprehensible words, its voice emotionless and low.
" Umm…excuse me? " As Alaric tried to get its attention, the unknown figure turned its head towards, muttering something using its incomprehensible language.
"Yes?" Alaric was now confused. Who was this figure and what language was it using? Then, everything in his sight blurred till all he can see was darkness.
— An hour later —
"Huh? When did I fall asleep?" Alaric muttered in dazed. The last thing he remembered was casting his sacrifice skill. Unbeknownst to him, he had forgotten something important.
Still confused, Alaric shrugged if off and walked away, on his way to kill some more beasts. Then, a system notification stopped him in his tracks.
[Congratulations Player-Alaric for becoming one of the chosen.]
"Chosen? Huh?" Before he could say something, the system interface in fron of him expanded.
[There are currently a 100 million otherworlders coming from 10 different worlds. 10 random players from each world will be chosen. The chosen ones must team up with the other chosen from the same world to kill the chosen ones of other worlds.]
Alaric sucked in cold air after reading the first paragraph. 'Isn't this basically telling us to kill each other!?'. He thought. 'How cruel.'
[The winner of this event will have their world upgraded, allowing all of its residents to become players as well. Meanwhile, the worlds who lost will have to wait for another event.]
His eyes lit up the first sentence. That reward alone was enough to entice him. He steeled his resolve, kill. He was by no means a saint, he knew for himself that he had no morals. Growing up in the slums, he had long witnessed and experienced the dark and cruel side of Humanity.
[Goodluck on your journey Plager-Alaric!!!]
Alaric mused at the last message from the system, his lips shifting to a cold smile. Originally, he thought it was going to be a boring continuous cycle of exploring and leveling up, but now,
"Heh, this will be fun." A cold glint flash through his eyes, that 20 years of living in the slum had made him numb to such thoughts.
"Hm? I'm level 12 already? Oi, what? " Checking his status screen, he noticed that he had leveled up and his AP at zero. He was so sure he was only level 11 before sacrificing that wolf. His Agility and Endurance stats also has a word "Maxed" next to them. Another thing was, he was so close to reaching level 13 too.
"While I don't understand what the heck is happening right now, I'll let it slide for now. " With getting stronger fast as his mindset, he decided to think about trivial matters later.
— 5 Hours Later —
With the sun about to set down, the blue sky was now in orangs hue, indicating that the night is coming. Alaric was near the river bed, washing away the blood coating his body. He had reached the level limit, level 30 and had achieved maxed stats in all of his stats.
His Iron Sword and Leather Armor looked worn out from too much use. During the last 5 hours, he had almost lose his life a few times. He now had over 55 different corpse in his Inventory and planned to use them to gain passive skills that will greatly help him during his fights.
Now, he had one last question. And that is...
"Where's the way out of this forest?". Yes, Alaric got lost. Too focused on accumulating kills, he didn't bother checking his surroundings.
"!!!"
Suddenly, a cold, sharp blade was pressed to his neck, his whole body was immobilized by magic.
"You are?" A deep voice asked from behind him. While he couldn't fanthom how someone was easily able to get behind him, the blade got even more closer to his neck.
"Speak. I might let you live, thief." The deep voice said again, having a misconception that Alaric was a thief.
"What? N-no. I'm not a thief. I just registered as a newly adventurer!" Alaric said, quickly trying to clear the misunderstanding.
"Oh? Well, sorry about that. My apologies. " Only when the sword was removed did Alaric managed to breath agai.
"I'm Kai, a member of a B-Rank Adventurer Team." The man, introducing himself as Kai, patted Alaric at his back. "What are you doing here deep in the forest? "
"Sir Kai, can you help me get back? I'm kinda lost right now." Alaric dodged the question and asked for help instead.
"You got lost? Hahaha!". Kai laughed out loud after hearing Alaric. "Follow me, I'll show you the way out."