Chapter 14: World Breaker

When the light faded, all that remained at the scene of the villain's defeat was an Elf plopped on the ground, shivering slightly while holding onto his staff. Rocking back and forth slightly, he muttered, "Back to the forest... Yes... It'll be safe there."

The other players didn't know what to make of this peculiar circumstance; however, the fairies did. Gia, Aqua, Therma, and Electra all flew over excitedly and landed on his shoulders to give him supportive hugs, blurting:

"Hey! Stop shriveling, you did okay."

"Don't be scared he's gone now."

"Yeah, you showed him who's boss."

"You saved us!... That's crazy."

Alexander regained control of his emotions and realized he had been affected by several Status Conditions caused by the darkness, including Fear, Confusion, and Hopelessness. He took a few deep breaths and said, "Thank you, friends. I'm fine now."

The next moment, he saw a window pop up:

image [https://imgur.com/6nhLyHw.png]

He used his staff to help himself up to his feet and finally noticed the stunned eyes of the people around him. Rubbing the back of his head innocently, he commented, "Ah, that was unexpected."

Riri was the first to recover and blurted, "What was that skill? With Morgoth's Blessing he had resistance against everything."

The Elf shrugged and responded, "It's just an attack that stuns people."

The humans were ready to ask more questions, but the Fairy Queen declared, "Friendly Hermit, today, not just I but all of Fairykind are indebted to you. If the avatar of Morgoth had been summoned, then the World Tree itself may have fallen." The fairies in the tree behind him took to the air and began to circle around him as the woman went on, "In honor of noble actions, I present you with my blessing."

The next moment, a notification appeared before the Elf:

image [https://imgur.com/mEEDxQw.png]

Alexander barely had time to process this before the Queen added, "And on behalf of the World Tree, I shall present you with this." A branch suddenly fell from the tree behind her, then flew over and landed in the Elves' hands. With this done, the woman bowed and finished, "From the bottom of my heart, I thank you."

The fairies all let out cheers and swarmed him with hugs and laughed.

Alexander barely had time to store the gift, which a quick inspiration told him was a branch from the world tree itself. Buried in a tidal wave of happy voices, he refined himself to the celebration, glad none of his friends had been hurt.

The rest of the celebration flew by, during which Alexander had become a celebrity. His fellow players all swarmed him, begging to see the branch of the world tree, and once, they had begged to buy it from him. The Elf expected he would be practicing magic in the future. Riri had honestly told him such an object could be used to create a powerful magic staff, so he kindly refused. Regardless, everyone recorded each other as friends and created a Fairy Defenders group chat.

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They partied for the rest of the day and celebrated till sunset.

The Fairy Queen herself escorted them to the exit portal and wished them all a fond farewell while encouraging them to spread the knowledge of friendly contracts with fairies. They departed on good terms and with full hearts, having grown closer to their respective fairies and each other.

Riri made sure to punch Alexander hard in the arm before stating, "Be sure to message me, and if you're ever looking for a guild, you better come to Lothlorien." She considered this and added, "But get a better class first; taking in a Hermit would be too embarrassing."

The Elf laughed and responded, "I'll think about it." At this, the woman nodded and left with her Light Fairy without another word. Alexander then turned to the cloud of fairies behind him and called happily, "By everyone, I hope we can meet again someday."

He then left with his four companies; however, he did not expect that as soon as he arrived back in his cave, the fabric of reality that made up Eden would fracture around him. His heart began to pound as dark cracks tore through the space around him. As this happened, he received a notification:

image [https://imgur.com/umMkhk7.png]

More notifications began to appear, repeatedly stating the word "Error," and his fairies let out screams as the cracks grew closer to them.

Alexander had no idea what was going on, but the next moment, everything froze—the spread of the cracks, his fairies, everything. It was as though Eden had been paused.

The next moment, a figure materialized before him as though he were just logging into the game. This person was a middle-aged man with blonde hair and keen blue eyes. He was dressed in a formal suit and, after seeing the Elf before him, smiled and held out his hands, "Congratulations! Alatar the Hermit, you are the first person on this Server to Break the World."

Once these words were said, a notification popped up mirroring him,

image [https://imgur.com/DCdDmC0.png]

Alexander blinked, still bewildered by what was happening, and responded, "Ah, thank you."

The man beamed and elaborated, "See Alatar, although Eden is supported by the most advanced AI systems known to man Because we set absolute rules, errors can emerge." gesturing to the Elf, he went on, "For example, you have managed to increase your Mana Stat to 1000 without gaining the Mana Control Skill" Smiling he confessed, "A very impressive feat, everyone in the office was startled by your diligence and play style." He refocused and said, "Anyways, by having your Mana Stat reach 1000, you unlock the Magic Prodigy title. Here, you encountered your first Absolute Rule, which states you must gain the Mana Manipulation skill as a reward. However, this contradicts Absolute Rule number two, which states that one can not gain the Mana Manipulation skill without first having the Mana Control Skill. The AI managers of Eden can't autocorrect conflicts between two Absolute Rules, causing an Error to occur." Point to himself, he added, "Which is why I'm here."

Alexander took this in and nodded, "Okay…" He considered everything and asked, "So what happens now."

The man smiled and held his hands, "Not to worry, I've already edited your character so that you will have the Mana Manipulation skill, but it will be sealed until you learn Mana Control." Winking, he added, "And for pulling off something so amazing, you get a World Breakers Token. You can cash that baby in at any time and ask for anything. It can be a piece of equipment, information, a rare Skill, or anything. As long as it's not too outlandish." he held up a finger and added, "But you can only use it once, so make it count." He then checked his wristwatch and blurted, "Oh, look at the time…" Looking back over, he finalized, "I best be going. The AIs hate when we interfere too much. Good luck, and keep being interesting."

The next moment, the man logged out, and the world around Alexander restored itself.

As soon as his fairies recovered, they looked around, and Therma blurted, "By the Holy Ash, what was that?"

Alexander felt a strange wind blow about him, which was concerning given that they were in a sealed cave. He glanced at the token engraved with an image of seven stars surrounding a circle. He gulped his eyes on him and responded, "Who knows?"

He spent a while longer calming his friends and eventually settled down to log off. It had been a fun, scary, and bizarre day, though that didn't change the fact that he was nearing the end of his journey and could not afford to lose sight of his goal. The Green Mountains were becoming increasingly treacherous, and conquering them would require his full focus.

With a calm and determined heart, the Elf prepared himself mentally for the coming days.