Dark elves had always been seen as a bad omen, so it’s no surprise to Sevina when she’s rejected from entering any settlements. Even the natives drove her away, leaving her nowhere else to go.
Completely exhausted, Sevina could only hope that the next settlement she visits would allow her to rest. After a few more minutes of walking through the forest, Sevina found a settlement, but what she saw shocked her.
The place was completely destroyed with corpses scattered everywhere. Sevina nearly puked when she accidentally stepped on a severed arm. Among the destruction, he saw something even more disturbing that made her froze in place.
Near the center of the settlement, a wyvern was laying on the ground as two people were standing on the rubble of one of the structures. One of them was a large person wearing leather armor that covered their whole body, while the other was a man wearing native clothes.
Sevina barely witnessed hundreds of materials glitched out from existence. The man glanced towards her, causing her to flinch. “Can I help you?” his eyes glowed, signaling the use of a skill.
Sevina raised her hands in surrender. Whoever these people were, they were strong enough to wipe out a settlement of dimensional travelers. The last thing she wanted was to fight them.
“I was just looking for a place to rest,” Sevina spoke. “I have nothing valuable on me.”
------
Syrus examined the person in front of him. In terms of appearance, she was clearly an elven race. What kind was still a mystery to him.
Sevina Calder – level 26 – Drow hunter – Survivor
The fact that she had a trait meant she was favored by the system. She also looked quite young and very frail. She was filthy and seemed completely exhausted.
“Are you from a clan?”
She shook her head. “I’m just a refugee. I came through a second integration rift.”
Syrus raised an eyebrow. “There’s a rift nearby?”
“Not nearby. I walked quite the distance,” Sevina replied.
“Direction?”
“Northwest.”
Syrus sent a raven in that direction. “Are you alone?” she nodded. “Why?”
“A clan attacked my village. I managed to escape, but...”
“Come with me,” Syrus said, then he turned to his wyvern. “Go hunt. I still need some levels.”
As Syrus began heading out of the settlement he just destroyed, he turned back to the dark-skinned elf who was still frozen in place.
“Come on.”
“Y-yes!” she bowed and followed.
Syrus wasn’t exactly the type to feel pity for others. His actions weren’t done out of kindness, but as an investment.
The elf had a convenient tragic backstory. Any act of goodwill he shows would be seen as helping her when she has nothing, while in truth, Syrus plans on helping her grow. Making her see him as her benefactor that took care of her when she was struggling.
Of course, Syrus still needed to be cautious. That’s why they were walking back to the goblin settlement instead of riding on his wyvern. It would be hard to avoid her if she decided to attack him on his wyvern, even if Gluttony was with him, it was far too risky.
“Excuse me?” Sevina spoke.
Syrus glanced behind him. “Yes?”
“Uhm... did you kill everyone in that settlement?” she asked.
“Everyone? No,” Syrus replied. “Most of the residents ran away.”
That was actually the truth. After his assault with the exploding rodents, most of the OD players evacuated from the settlement. Only a few stayed behind to face Gluttony, and they all perished, resulting in Syrus getting two levels from them.
Additionally, thanks to them abandoning their base, Syrus obtained a lot of materials from their storage houses. There was also the added bonus of an achievement and a challenge.
You are the first native player to make invaders flee
You gained 5 points in all stats
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You have completed the challenge: One sided assault
You acquired 50 system credits, 1 nexus core
“Besides, they attacked my people first,” Syrus stated. “They brought it upon themselves.”
Sevina nervously gulped as they continued on their way to their own settlement.
Along the way, Syrus tried to fish out more information about Sevina. So far, it was the classic tragic backstory of a protagonist. Additionally, she wasn’t aware how talented she was. Managing to survive on her own was impressive enough, but Sevina explained how she hunted monsters for food and barely having any rest the whole time.
She had a lot of combat potential, and Syrus plans making use of that for the future.
After several hours of walking while Gluttony cleared a path, they arrived at the settlement. The first one to notice their arrival was Tia. “Where’d you go?”
“I went out to test the rats,” Syrus replied.
Tia noticed Sevina following Syrus. “Who’s that?”
“She’s Sevina. Picked her up along the way,” Syrus answered. “She has potential.”
“H-Hello,” Sevina nervously bowed.
“If you say so,” Tia said. She called over one of the other goblins. “Take her to a vacant hut.”
The goblin nodded and turned to Sevina. “Go with them,” Syrus spoke.
“Ah!” Sevina bowed at Syrus, then to Tia before following after the goblin.
“What kind of elf is she?” Syrus asked once Sevina was gone.
“From her dark skin and white hair, she’s a dark elf,” Tia answered. “She probably had it rough since dark elves are seen as bad luck.”
“Are they?”
Tia shook her head. “Forest elves just say that to feel superior.”
Syrus nodded in understanding and a bit of kinship since he experienced quite a bit of discrimination with his Asian appearance. “By the way, what’s a nexus core?”
Tia showed a bit of shock. “It’s an item used to hold the power of a nexus if a person didn’t want to take it for themselves.”
Syrus rubbed his chin. “How can I find a nexus? Is there a specific name for each of them? I can’t search for them using my skill.”
“Tracking skills don’t work for them since they’re not a physical place in this world until you step into their area.”
Syrus raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t make sense.”
Tia shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”
-------
Several days have passed since Syrus attacked the human settlement with his summoned creatures and it seemed they made the bold choice of returning to their settlement.
It didn’t matter to Syrus since he only saw them as a potential source of materials. Ever since that day, Syrus has increased the number of his Outrider ravens to fifty and the number of Dynamite rats to thirty.
It costed a lot of materials and he felt drained every time he made them, but it was worth it. He now had constant vision of the surrounding area while being able to scout distant locations at the same time.
Thanks to that, Syrus found several rifts in the area. However, he had yet to find the rift the Sevina supposedly came through.
“Syrus?” He heard the voice of his mother as she entered his workshop. “I brought you some food.”
Ever since she arrived at the settlement, his mother had taken cared off cooking for the entire settlement. Thanks to her chef class, making food for the whole settlement wasn’t a challenging job. It also helped her gain the respect of Tia’s clan.
“You’ve been locking yourself in here a lot lately,” Aurora said in concern. “You need to take some rest.”
“It’s fine. I don’t move around in here anyways,” Syrus replied. “Besides, I can rest once everything is settled.”
Aurora didn’t sound convinced, but out of everyone, she knew her son the most. Syrus wouldn’t put himself in danger for no reason. “Alright. Just take care of yourself,” Aurora said as she left the food.
Syrus smiled as his mother left the workshop. In truth, he had great news for her, but held off on telling her.
Using his tracking skill and the Outrider ravens, he had found his second sister, Synthia. The only problem was the distance, unlike Sylvia who had coincidentally visited his mother during the second integration, putting them in the same city as Syrus, Synthia had taken a vacation. In terms of distance it took a raven seven days to find by following the flow of mana from Villain’s pursuit.
As Syrus was wondering what to do, Tia entered his workshop. “We found a nexus nearby.”
Syrus looked up with a raised eyebrow. “It just popped up?”
“I’m not sure when it appeared, but we found it in one of the danger zones we hunt in for food.”
Syrus nodded, knowing she was referring to the danger zone filled with boars. “Do any of you want it?” Syrus asked.
Tia just shook her head at Syrus like he was crazy. “Getting a nexus skill this early is practically suicide. Nobody around our level would be able to handle the drawback.”
Syrus stood up. “You never know. Anyways, I’m going to go get it,” Syrus summoned the empty nexus core from his inventory. “If it’s not useful, we can just hold on to it.”
“Very well,” Tia replied. “I’ll lead the way.”
------
Synthia leaned down on her sword as she panted. “Are you okay?” Heather asked as she approached her and the sound of the rattling chains on her getting louder.
“I’m fine,” Synthia replied.
“Still worried about your family?”
Synthia sighed and nodded. “I’m sure they’re okay though. I have a little brother that’s very possessive.”
“Don’t you mean protective?” Heather asked.
Synthia just scoffed. “I mean what I said.”
Heather just crossed her arms and shrugged, then she glanced at a tree where a Raven was perched on its branches. Heather could feel a faint trace of mana on it, which wasn’t odd since every animal was mutated with mana after the second integration. But what was odd was the fact that the mana on the raven was suppressed.
The chains around her rattled, then shot towards the raven. It exploded in a puff of black feathers upon being struck, but then Heather spotted three more ravens perched on top of buildings.
“We’re being watched,” Heather stated.
“Huh?” the first one to react was Synthia. “Is it because we’re heading towards a nexus?”
Heather gritted her teeth, not being able to deny the possibility. The nexus they were heading to was a vital power that she needed in order to secure their future. If she failed to obtain this nexus skill, she would have a hard time facing the powerful monsters in the future.
“We need to hurry,” Heather stated.
“Aye aye, captain,” Synthia grumbled as she grabbed her sword.