“Okay, I’m done,” Jenny said. Standing by the roots of the Tranquil Oak Tree, Jenny adjusted the bags that were holding the materials she collected.
“Alright, I should be done in a few minutes,” Walter replied. He was kneeling on the ground and fiddling with a few tools.
Jenny and Walter led a group to the Tranquil Oak Tree to look for materials that might be useful in their jobs. Although Elijah didn’t pay for the upkeep of this natural resource, he recognized that it could be valuable and mentioned its unique properties to the elders, and other members of the village. The group Jenny led consisted of four warriors, seven goblins, a few other craftsmen, and the three players, Tyler, Atom, and Boss Bitch.
“See, I told you everything would be fine,” Tyler said. He addressed the other two players after Walter finished speaking. “Now we just need to head back and collect our rewards. Easy peasy.”
“Yeah, because we definitely won’t run into any danger on our way back,” BB sarcastically replied. “A high chance means something is definitely going to go down. If we fail to prepare, then we’re preparing to fail.”
“BB is right,” Atom added. “There has to be a reason why the quest has such a severe penalty. Since we weren’t attacked on our way here then we will definitely be attacked on our way back.”
Quest: Dangerous Stroll
Description: Several villagers have invited you to visit a natural resource. There is a high chance that the villagers will encounter danger on their journey. Your task is to protect the villagers from all threats and see that they return to the village safely.
Reward: 1x Random talent, 3x Skills, experience
Penalty: Loss of 10 cultivation levels
“I would feel more confident about this quest if Eli was here,” BB said.
“Well, he’s not,” Atom replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “The villager said he was sleeping in his hut, so that means he’s logged out and none of us have a way to contact him. Besides, adding another person might reduce the rewards we could receive. Also, I don’t think the game would give us a quest that was impossible to complete.”
“I don’t know about that,” BB said. “Magic Blight and a few other games have missions that are impossible to complete. Even if this mission isn’t impossible, we may not be able to complete it because we may have overlooked something. We might be missing a necessary item or a necessary person. For example, Eli. I don’t know if he’s cheating, but he definitely has a lot of skills while we barely have any.”
“Well unless you have his number, the only way we can get in touch with him is by abandoning everyone here and heading back to the village to look for him.”
“Hey, maybe we should exchange numbers,” Tyler suggested. “If something like this happens again, we’ll have a way to contact each other.” With bright eyes Tyler turned to BB, but she quickly changed the topic.
“We should focus on the quest first. Since we can’t rely on receiving external help, we should focus on looking around for hidden items that we can use.”
“Let’s try talking to one of the NPC’s,” Atom added. “They might be able to tell us new info now that we’ve been here for a while.”
“Danger!”
Before the group could approach any of the villagers, they heard one of the warriors shout out a warning. Then, they heard some rustling sounds followed by several growls. A few seconds later the group realized they were surrounded.
Several foxes with different colored fur slowly formed a circle around the group. Walter and the other craftsmen began to quickly gather their belongings as they prepared to defend themselves. The warriors stepped forward to fight and commanded the goblins to do the same.
Atom and the other players were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the foxes. Although they didn’t know the total number of enemies, it was clear that they were outnumbered. Nonetheless the group took out their weapons and prepared for a bloody battle. However, the battle did not come.
Once the foxes surrounded the group, other than a few gentle growls, they didn’t perform any threatening actions. Some foxes stood in place while others paced around the group as they quietly observed them. Tyler was quite unnerved by the quiet, large foxes that were taller than his chest, but at the same time he was a bit mesmerized by their beautiful eyes.
Suddenly Tyler heard a powerful bark, and the foxes made a path for a large and powerful fox to step forward. The fox had red fur, yellow eyes and it looked down on everyone in the area. Following alongside the fox were several beautiful women.
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Based on their clothing and subdued expression, it was obvious that the women were captives. Tyler immediately knew what he had to do. Working with Atom and the other males they launched a courageous assault against the powerful beast. The battle was bloody and full of danger, but in the end they were triumphant. Since they defeated the strongest fox, the other foxes willingly knelt down and submitted to them. The captured beauties threw themselves at Tyler and the others who happily embrace their warm, soft and fragrant bodies. Now the only thing left to do was get on the backs of the foxes and ride off into the sunset.
“Wake up! Wake the fuck up!” BB shouted at the top of her lungs in a desperate attempt to break Tyler, Atom and the other males from the illusion they were under, but she was unsuccessful.
Without warning, Tyler and the other males began furiously swinging their weapons and screaming at the top of their lungs. BB and Jenny, the two females in the group, were shocked to see the males suddenly go crazy, but they quickly realized the males were in danger and needed their help. They tried to wake the males up, but whenever they got close the males would swing their weapons at them.
Gradually the males got closer to the foxes as they swung their weapons through the air. Eventually they stopped swinging their weapons, but Jenny and BB couldn’t reach them because they were too close to the enemy. The only thing they could think of doing was use their voices to break whatever spell the males were under.
“You can stop shouting.”
Both women turned their heads when they heard a female’s lazy and aloof voice. A mysterious woman with milky skin, snow white hair, and icy blue fox eyes appeared out of thin air. The women were dazzled by her beauty and in awe of the power she emitted.
“Relax, neither of you will come to harm.” A gentle smirk, capable of stirring the hearts of men and women, appeared on the mysterious woman’s face. “In fact, one of you will be able to return to your home. However, I will ask you a few questions first.”
…
“I tried not to say anything, but it’s like she pulled the words right out of my mouth,” BB said. “Honestly, it was really creepy. I never played a VR game that was able to control me like that.”
Standing in the communal area, BB explained her experience to Elijah and the other villagers that were able to gather in a short period of time. Elijah already heard her tell her story when she found him after running into the village. As Elijah listened to the story for a second time, he started to feel annoyed.
“Did you manage to get any information about the enemy?” Elijah asked. “How many of them are there? What’s the average level? What’s the highest level.?”
“All I know is that they have some mind control abilities.” BB let out a frustrated sigh. “Everything happened so fast that I didn’t get a chance to look at their levels. Oh, the fox that stayed behind was over level fifty.”
“Great, so let me set things straight. You took on a mysterious quest that was way out of your league. A quest that led to my villager getting captured by a mysterious enemy, you gave up important information about the village to said enemy and obtained no important information about the enemy. Is that correct? Fuck! What were you all even doing taken on that quest? Didn’t I already give you all a quest to search for dungeons?”
“Yeah, well, your quest was boring. We only found one dungeon after walking around for hours. And it’s not like the villagers wouldn’t have gone to that tree without us.”
Elijah was ready to continue arguing but Elder Jeb interrupted him. “Eli, I think we should focus on rescuing the villagers.” Elijah let out a huff and waved his hand. Elder Jeb nodded and took over the conversation.
“You mentioned that one of the foxes stayed behind. Can you tell us why?”
“After that woman finished questioning us, she told the fox to stay back and make sure I didn’t leave immediately. It let me go after a while and it should still be there. The woman said she wanted to speak with our-”
Elijah didn’t need to listen to the rest of the conversation. He already heard everything BB had to say. He hoped that going over the information again with Elder Jeb and the others would be beneficial, but Elijah realized it wouldn’t make a difference. He knew what he would have to do next. Of course, this didn’t mean he was happy about it.
“This, fucking, sucks,” Elijah thought to himself. “Why do I always have to clean up after these people? Honestly, I don’t know what my future self was thinking. With the cultivation technique he gave me I could easily reach a high cultivation level take over a large city or a weak kingdom.”
Other than Elijah, nobody in the village had any skills, talents, or abilities that would help them resist illusions and other forms of mind control. Elder Jeb’s sword energy had some resistance, but Elijah doubted that it would be effective against multiple opponents in the first tier. No, in the end it was up to Elijah to resolve this situation.
Naturally, Elijah had absolute confidence, or absolute arrogance when it came to saving the villagers and resolving the threat. Yes, Elijah would be facing multiple tier one enemies with mental powers. However, he was the supreme ruler, and he had the Supreme Will talent, so his victory was practically set in stone.
“Alright, that’s enough complaining.” Elijah was annoyed, but he wasn’t truly angry or upset. “This is a path created for me by my future self, and I didn’t hesitate to step on it. I’ve enjoyed watching this little village grow, so I shouldn’t get hung up on the few negative things. Besides, I would be lying if I said I’m not happy about having another opportunity to flex my muscles. Also, the rewards for the quest I received aren’t bad either. I mean, who can say no to another skill.”
Quest: Rescue
Description: Several of your villagers and a few players were taken by an unknown enemy with unknown intentions. Find out who the enemy is, where they’ve taken your villagers and free your villagers from their grasp.
Rescued: 0/12
Reward: Skill, experience.
Penalty: Loss of 1 job level for each person you fail to rescue.
“Yeah, if I didn’t join a village then I wouldn’t be able to improve my specialty and job so quickly. Of course, if I went to a city there would be a lot more people and opportunities for quests. Whatever, my path is set and there’s no point in thinking useless thoughts.”
“Alright,” Elijah said out loud. He interrupted the current conversation in the communal area, and everyone focused on him. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”