Welcome to this therapy session my beloved patients. How were you while I was working my ass of from dawn to dusk? Good? Good. To calm your anger issues (and mine) I prescribe you this long chapter (1.8k words) This chapter was rewritten 7 times from scratch.
I try to put a reason of existence, a personality, a driving force and a momentum behind every character. Even if they are just small gestures, they all have characteristics. Putting story, character and world building in every small chapter is hard, even more so since I prefer a subtle way expressing things. They all contain many emotions and mess with your brain. Crazy things, cute things, fun things, they are all there and I try to maintain the balance while, guiding you and your deep mind. It’s very hard for an amature like me. I’m a jack of all trades, terrible at everything, but a little good at everything. Please try to understand I have a limit that is easy hit.
Did I mention how much time I usually spend on reading? It is very unhealthy.
I learned when I hold a chapter back too much, I'll never have time to post it. I'll try to hurry a little more.
Thank you for reading me, have a good time.
(updates still random, but when one comes usually more follows)
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Quest 2, Part 9: [Captured.]
In the corner of my eyes I see guards and men with calm air around them lining up. They are the ones who started all this, but I don’t see anyone who resembles a tester with science interests. The look in their eyes is enough for me to tell they are of high blood. I’m certain they are not nobles, since they never existed in my territory, but wealthy always find a way to rise above people.
I want to kill them so much, but I can’t do it yet. I can’t just seal this place to suffocate them like the other underground bases. I can break these runes off me, but this place is much bigger than the ones before. There are at least a few hundred presences in the vicinity, maybe even more a little bit further away. Just how many of them are there? This seems even bigger than I initially thought. It’s not like it matters. Just because I’m not capable of killing all of them, it doesn’t mean others can’t either.
“Seeing her in front of me is much different from what they say. No matter how much they say your age is a lie, I always believed it. Do you know why?”
Her tone is calm as water, but I can feel the hidden malice from her aura. No, she hates me from the very roots of her existence. I don’t know who she is, but I can guess now. Although my [Analyze] ability works based on aura and it still uses some magic power in the process, but I don’t hesitate to use it. A few minutes less in the countdown won’t change anything.
[NPC]
Name: Emerald Saltroot
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Level: 47
Age: 34
HP: ~2350
ST: ~2620
MP: ~5400
Religion: Temple of Achlys
State: Hate
AI-ID: 95541423 (type - 81I)
ID: entity: 23789121
I’m not even surprised. I know, I know… I’m not the one to say all this, again, but how twisted the players are? Manipulating an event and destroying what the the others fought for. I’m not here to be captured. I was taken here to show pity for the losing side, to possibly spare the ones who are not part of the “evil” or learn the truth for their sake in cost of their lives. Without a single conversation I’m impressed in this woman. Did she think a single mindplay will affect me?
I remember, faintly. Not her at least, but her name. About three months ago in another event I killed a whole family of merchants who did a big part of the commerce around this region. It was a simple quest in a simple game, who knew someone survived. They probably survived and made their familiy agenda to come back and avenge what I did. I consider this very funny, she is more human than me. Driven by the ugly hatred, sacrificing one’s own life for the sake of revenge. But if that’s what a human is, do I mind not being one?
“So the little Saltroot came back. Emerald, is it? I guess I’m not here for a tea party?” Asking this simple question I move my hands to ease the slight pain in them.
First the right hand to the left wrist, tearing the chain apart from it. The sound of the cold steel hitting the floor rings my ears, annoying me a little. Doing the same with the other makes the second ring, much more softly as I slow down it’s descent. I lightly massage the shallow marks on my wrists, no matter how high my stat is, it still hurts. My statement is right, I’m less human here than anyone else. The connection between my ethereal and physical bodies is strong, but maybe I can learn to control it in the far future. Too much to do…
The audience that stares agape at me is slightly annoying. Scream, shout, run or something, I hate when their empty gazes just lay on me as if the fear and awe paralyzed them.
“I’m sorry to say, I’m unable to play with you little Emerald. I won’t ask you to understand, not that it matters. In respect of my mistakes you shall be among the few who lives for another day. Live and come back again, do not let anyone destroy your plans again. Come back and kill me, if you can.”
As a finishing touch I put my hands on the collar on me and send large amounts of raw mana into them. Blocking the pathway? I’ll force through the amateur obstacle.
A small crack at first, then a ring much louder than the two before destroys the peace where not even a breath or cough can be heard.
“What are you waiting for? Kill everyone else. Now.”
As the death sentence comes, a shadow emerges from behind me. During the day it’s hard to travel for a being like her, but underground is their territory without question. The woman shaped reaper is quicker that one would think, in a blink of an eye the number of living is reduced to two in the room. She already left to reap all other pitiful life here. As the very same blink ends, still without a single sound heads fall to the ground one by one, the knocks are only so little far apart the one can barely count how many of them are. If they have inhuman senses, of course.
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I watch her face interested in the change, but it never happens. Her skin is too hard for that, she already knew this will happen.
“Does thee have anything to add?” I smile gently.
“Yes. “she is leaving a leaving a little pause” Why? Did you regret? Are you already tired of living?” I laugh cheerfully at her questions.
“No, I’ve never done anything in my life I regretted, no matter how big I failed. Maybe I’ll regret this later. I know, this is a great mistake that might cost my life. But. If I can’t survive the enemy I know, what will I do to the one I don’t? I know that I’m doing horrible things, I just have too many other ones to do to care. I’m not a person that will burn with useless feelings when killed, if I lose that only means that I was too weak.” The charming laugh of mine slowly turns into a mad one. “ If I’m weak I can’t protect my home anyways... “ Using my left hand I swipe away my tears and turn to leave the room, but stop in the door.
“Tell me.” I pause a little. “Tell me, how painful it was to hate me this much? That even your descendants are only alive for the reason the destroy me. What kind of thoughts were in their heads? What emotions did they have? Did they regret their own decisions? I can only see how they caused their own pain themselves, even if I was unable to change anything.”
The reason I killed those merchants in the past because they tried to take over one of my smaller factory forcefully. Their mistake was that they didn’t know it was mine. Was it a wood workshop? I don’t remember, I just followed the law and executed them. It wasn’t right, but wasn’t wrong either.
I’m making a mistake right now. A huge mistake. But what can I do when I see myself in her? That is exactly what I’d do in her place. If she is the one who kills me, I can accept that, but only if she can. Am I tired of living? Not at all. I still have to defend my home to the bitter end. When everyone comes back, so that they can continue their happy lives with or without me.
Come back to me little Emerald when you are stronger, killing you will be much more satisfying. I don’t want to taste the sour blood you currently possess. This is the only way to prove that I’m in the right. If I lose, I’m the evil, if I win I’m the hero. That is all. Come all of them who dares to stop me.
Leaving such words, I depart from the dim, red room. As I walk, the dark corridors of the shelter reflects many red puddles among the trash of poor living conditions. I know. These people wanted to kill me. They wanted to destroy me because I oppressed them, I destroyed them. They were the collection of the shame I had to remove from the surface in the past to keep everything going forward.
One person’s hatred. The others anger. They grouped up against me but got taken advantage of by us, players. Even if they could hurt me, they will be backstabbed the same, maybe worse than what I did to to them. Was it worth it for them? No, they caused many harm to the innocent and their own. They caused many grief, anger, enough for centuries. But someone left alive will come back. Currently I only have to kill the testers and the useless NPCs. With their knowledge if not under watch, they are all threat.
I enter the only room that interests me in this filth of a place, the laboratory. I need no time to learn that I’m at a great disadvantage. The tools on the benches, the different machines, they are all complex real world designs. They have at least one person who is an engineer in real life. There is nothing that was impossible for me to do, but they are still ahead than me. Arriving in front of the weapon that shot me, I watch as the strange design uses many different techniques. The wooden orb balls are one interesting feature, since I have yet to understand what they are actually for.
Without my restraints I’m able to use magic freely. Using a simple windblade I cut the sphere in two, causing some kind of liquid to splash around. The smell is so strong and terrible, I can feel it even on my tongue. It’s some kind of acid, but what are they doing with it?
No, I’m the idiot not realising before. They have no way of storing magic, like my magic crystals. In that case what do they do? Always generate and store electricity. These bastards created a battery from fantasy materials. There seems to be acids from the woodland itself and… some kind of monster. A relatively normal player like me can’t do such a thing, even worse, my enemies maybe have an electrotechnician. I’m glad they cannot replicate modern technology, but what if they find alternatives like this thing?
As I look around the room, I found the answer. No, they won’t. The dead corpse of a person who was still working on a complex machine with his head blown off. His eyes are dark, like someone’s who regret a moment in their life, but his face is still curving into a smile… This was not caused by other players or NPCs. He was killed by an outsider. I know it was her. She knew he would change everything and destroy the already weak sense of balance of the world. Am I right?
“Yes.” Came the answer filled with guilt. “That is my purpose. If… I wasn’t able to destroy those schematics you made…” I would have suffered the same fate.
Is this the moment should I say thank you?
In the room I find a prototype landmine, a mana powered electricity generator and other disturbing things. For me they are almost useless, it’s easier, cheaper and stronger to use spells or crystals. In the near future I’ll need a separate research facility to keep up with the enemy and create new devices.
“But that limitation only works for real world made things and electricity, right?”
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btw. I'm going to Japan for a week. Any recommendations where to go with a bored 40 year old in tow? I accompany someone for work but we stay to have a vacation, sadly neither of us have been there before.