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The Unfortunate Fool
Vol.5 Chapter 5 - The Nightmare Begins

Vol.5 Chapter 5 - The Nightmare Begins

Part 1 – Dress Up Plans

First of all I like to say that I'm not tied upside-down under a tree.

Second of all I like to say that I prefer being tied upside-down under a tree right now.

“Eden lift your arm up” said Linda pulling up the dress onto me while struggling to not take pictures of me naked.

Are you confused right now? Don't worry, I am to. Why exactly am I standing in an inn playing dress up with hundreds of different dresses?

“Linda....why are we doing this again? The readers will be confused about this transaction from the last chapter to this.”

Linda looked confused on what I said while placing the make-up on me.

“I don't know what your talking about but since you need a recap, there is a ball coming up soon for the daughter of a high ranking noble next month and you can take that opportunity to finish that task in one go.”

“I see but why am I dressed up?” I asked once again.

Does this girl not know that there is a much simpler option to me?

“Because you can infiltrate the place before causing a massacre.” Linda said blatantly.

“I can use large scale magic to blow the place up.” I replied.

“You can loot the place later.” said Linda

“Don't care for money nor loot.”

I have quite a bit of gold at this stage and that's enough for me. Loot such as weapons and armour are worthless since they'll break easily with the foes I face and I already have some top quality armour from the church of Freya on me.

“There's good food being served there.” said Linda one more time.

“Alright, let go through with this plan.” I replied immediately.

I thought back at the days where I had to use creation magic to make some bread at best and it taste even worse then the Rye bread at the beginning of the game.

After Linda helped me dress up in the.....I don't know the number dress, I handed her the list I had on the number of people I could kill.

“Wow! This list is really really accurate. There's even information on their relationship with other people in here! I think most of these people will be at the ball so your fine.” Linda said reassuringly.

Why is this person fine with me killing so many people....?

“Linda....aren't you part of the church of Freya?”

“Yeah,” she replied and then continued, “There's an order to help you, Alexandra and Viv since the teachings of the church of Freya tells us to try to recruit beautiful people. Plus the church owes you on helping Alexandra on her quest and besides....those nobles rejected the church when we were trying to expand our influence here a while back.”

I see so the church of Freya is quite vengeful in these types of things.

“What are the churches in this area of the continent?” I asked. I need to know these kinds of things.

“Well....there's the Order of the Golden Phoenix, Master of the Lion and Church of the Heavenly Trio which each control one of the big Kingdoms in the Western Continent. I think they don't like you so they generally talk bad about you.”

“What the hell do they say about me?!”

I, to my knowledge am a perfectly fine person to get alone with.

“A homicide driven monster that would only bring death and destruction everywhere you go.”

That....this really accurate for some reason. But I still don't like it at all.

“I think that's actually really inaccurate.”

Well...if you think so.

“You're more of the homicide driven monster that will bring absolute fear and destruction everywhere you go whether you like it or not.”

Is it me or that sounds worse.

“Anyway, I'm done with the make-up....now all you have to do is seduce a rich old disgusting noble in order to get into the ball.”

“...”

“I know is a weird question but where did you think this plan of yours will go wrong?” I said almost sarcastically to Linda.

Linda pondered to herself for a while then said, “The part where you accidentally kill the ass?”

No the part I intentionally kill the ass in the most horrible way. That's the problem there and I can't change it for the life of me.

“Why can't you invite me to the ball? Aren't you, a member of the church of Freya get into the ball?” I asked hoping that I don't have to seduce an old man after this which I assure you will be the cause of death of many many people if I actually have to do it.

“The three churches I mentioned are being dicks and blocking a lot of churches out of this part of the continent. It would help us a lot if you destroyed them completely in the most horrifying way possible as everyone else looks away for a second then exclaim 'what in the world did this devilish act?'.”

“...”

It seems there are a number of problems that the churches of this land have. I sighed and took out the mana detector to see how far away I was to the next mana fragment.

The compass pointed still to the west and was quite near. The problem was navigating the terrain which will more than often lead me back to where I started....several times. Trust me I know from my escape week. The land pretty much is untravelled for the most parts and I found that I get lost easily.....for some odd reason.

“Well the only other way you can possibly get in is to get someone to invite you or....become the stripper.”

“...”

“...”

“Sword”

I summoned the golden sword in hand and pointed it at Linda in a threatening way to most people. I'm saying this because its not threatening if you point it to Alexandra. At that time, its more like self defences than threatening.

Linda with her hands up and sweating with fear then said, “What about....you sneak in. Yeah that'll work” she averted her eyes after saying that.

Sneaking....now I think about it, I never really sneaked before....hell didn't even try. I blasted my way through everything for the most part.

I scratched my chin and said, “In that case, do you have a way to hide my presence? I think most people can tell its me when they see me...”

Linda waved her hands casually and said, “Try not to think about killing them then.”

That doesn't work at all. People naturally avoid me just by my naturally high fighting spirit combined with my domination stat.

“Anything else?” I asked once more just in case.

Linda thought about it for a moment and said, “I can....try to convince a friend to get you in....though you 'may' have to be a servant.”

“...”

I stared at her in disbelief.

“Why couldn't that be the first option?”

I sighed and then replaced the clothes I was wearing with my usual gear. As I walked out the room Linda asked, “Where are you going?”

“To complete a quest I have. I'll be back before the ball begins.”

I have one month to kill the monster with the mana fragment and come back here. That should be enough time....even if I die a couple of times.

Part 2 – The Lake by the Town

As I made my way through the town with a hood on to avoid the masses of people chasing me to try to kill me, I noticed that there weren't many people in this town players or NPCs.

According to what I know, this place was near a lake that was a good fishing spot for beginners. There are a number of quests that are associated with the lake...and I think the next mana fragment is there.

I made my way to the general store where I was to dump the loot I got from the players that tried to kill me, placing the large sack of it on the counter with the shopkeeper's eyebrow being raised at the sight.

“What have you been doing to get all of this?” he said with great suspicion.

“Some 'bandits' attacked me on the way and I got their stuff.” I replied casually not highlighting the part that the so called bandits were actually bounty hunters and I was the actual bandit that was taking stuff from them.

“A-hur. You do know that I don't have enough money to give you for all of this?” said the shopkeeper examining the content of the bag I gave him.

“I know, just need some information.” I said casually.

“You mean on the nobles you are going to kill? You are well known in these parts.” The shopkeeper had his eyebrow raised when he asked that.

“No”, I paused to take a breath and said, “Its for something else, I have everything I need for that task. Just need to know has there been any unusual creatures near this place?”

The shopkeeper chuckled.

“There's one right in front of me. Never knew that one of the most wanted criminals in these lands would casually stroll into a place like this. Aren't you worried that people will attack you?”

“I would kill them if they attack. Its all self defence you see....unless they manage to piss me off.”

“Hahahaha!” The shopkeeper laughed out loud now. It seems he didn't mind that I was killing people left and right. Well most NPCs don't care if you kill other players unless it was inconvenient to them.

“Anyway, I can give you all the gold I have but you don't need it do you.” he said looking at bag of loot on his table.

“Are you trying to get free profit?” I said with a smile.

I don't like it when people try to take advantage of me at all. And yet I was smiling at this man in front of me. The shopkeeper made a hand gesture and started speaking.

“Of course not, I have no intention of doing that. Its just that the lake nearby has....a problem. No one goes near that place anymore for very obvious reasons. The fish population in that place is declining rapidly.” he said with a bit of fear in his voice.

It seems I'm at the right place after all.

“Is there anything else about the lake?” I asked.

I better get some more information off this guy since I know what happens when you face foes that you don't know about and are more likely to kill you than you defeating them.

However the shopkeeper shook his head and said, “Don't know. Its just that everyone that went near that place died.”

So....poison? Or this creature is just good at killing?

I sighed and said, “Thanks” before leaving without the loot bag since it was heavy. I checked the mana detector again and went to the lake.

By the time I got to the lake which was actually a lot further away than I thought it would be, it was turning dark. That moon was quite clear from my point of view and it reflected quite nicely off the lake.

“No wonder why this place was a tourist attraction....well 'was'.”

I looked around and found that there was absolutely no one around at all. Though I think I can see a couple of weapons and armour laying around....something was definitely here.

Damn I really need a second opinion on what to do.....too bad llyfr is mostly out for the count.

[Who the hell is out for the count?]

llyfr! Why the hell are you speaking to me?!

[Because I think you need a second opinion on what to do. Do you even know how many months has passed since the mana fragments have shattered around this continent?]

Umm.....no?

[8 months. Roughly the same amount of time you were started off. Well to get to your point at this amount of time is almost....no really unheard of but you are still weaker than these guys with the power of the mana fragment backing them up]

Then why don't I just use the power of the mana fragments as well? I have four of them don't I?

[Well....the thing is, you are using them right now. It's passively increasing the rate in which your body is growing. You only take a fraction of the time to become stronger compared to other normal people. This of course also extents to Alexandra and Viv....well they still should have the effects on them as well]

“...”

So that explains that rapid stat growth I was getting for a while now.

[Well your growth is still nothing compared to the ones that have fused with their mana fragments. I believe in terms of levels, it would be at this point, comparable to a level 400 boss]

“Shit”

This is bad. I really do not that much power to take on something like that, especially since I'm kinda half sealed right now.

Anyway, llyfr why are you talking to me right now? The real reason why.

[Well.....to be honest, I think you need to power of body transformation to face this thing.]

Wait....WHAT?!

[It'll be fine if you defeat It before you become....well....yeah, it should be fine as long as you don't due too often. The rate in which the skill will grow will return back to normal but you are near the part where you can get rid of it. A mere month cannot screw you over unless you are using it constantly. Also this way you can use all the magic you want against this new foe]

Are you kidding?! This whole journey was to make sure I don't turn!

[Do you rather face Warlic and say that you failed?]

Never mind, how do I do this?

[Well I'll start the process when you find whatever it is you're looking for. No need to waste precise bits of your life on a wasted transformation. Hurry up and get to the lake]

Right.....

I stumbled my way to the lake since it actually went dark due to me talking to llyfr all of a sudden. Well the only light source was the moon after all and that doesn't give much room for people to walk with, unless they have certain skills or something.

“This is....”

There was a foul smell that covered over the lake.

[Looks like there are lots of corpses around here]

“Corpses?”

I looked around and found no human parts anywhere.

“What corpses?”

[Well, its not human of course. Most of the fishes in this place was killed and eaten]

Great...so I have another eater on my hands and its worse than that rabbit....well hopefully it doesn't have a taste of human meat.

[Anyway it seems like its in the lake...can you see it?]

“No at all.” I replied to the being that no normal person who hear.

The mana detector was pointing at the lake...to be more precise in the lake.

“Hey....don't tell me that I have to....”

[Seems like your going fishing...or do you prefer to swim]

Hey don't give me two choices to this! Fishing is extremely boring. I hate it and you know it! Then the only other choice is.....damn.

“I didn't tell you before but I....can't swim”

Damn it, if only I had some sort of bait to use!

[Don't test your luck. Something worse then mere bait may appear with your luck]

Oh shut it! I still remember the time I wished to eat some ice-cream and several snowmen attacked me! And they were really strong as well!

[Yeah that was really funny....be careful! Its near!]

The sheer seriousness of llyfr's voice immediately made me go really cautious. I gazed down on the mana fragment to see that it was going haywire which means....its near.

Splash~

Damn where the hell was it?!

Splash~

I swear I'm going to die soon if I can't find this thing!

Splash~

Seriously, where the hell is it?The mana detector is still going haywire...

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Umm....can you see it llyfr?”

[Yeah....look in front of you]

I looked forward, in fact I was actually looking forward. There was nothing there at all.

Splash~

And there was this splashing sound still. I wonder where this creature was. Was this creature invisible?

“llyfr, do you know how to counter invisibility?” I asked.

[Invisibility? Couldn't you just use that Soul Scan skill or something? Besides, look down]

Look down? Was there such a creature below me? Well might as well see what it was before it kills me.

Splash~

Splash~

Splash~

The creature below near my feet was a creature that was mainly red in colour. It had large eyes and it's mouth was open wide. The whiskers on the sides of it's mouth was yellow in colour and it had fins on its side and on top.

I think I recognise this creature....

Name: Magikarp

Level: Unknown

Type: A fish

Strength and Weaknesses: Its a fish. What do you expect.

I don't know what to say...

[Oh, its been a while narrator!]

Wait, you know this guy?!

[Yeah. He's one of the few creatures that I could call a friend. He's been with me since a long time ago, even though his body got destroyed or something like it a long time ago....or will it? I get those two things confused]

Don't think about it old friend. Just enjoy Eden here get through this with all our help~

[Agreed]

Wait, you two have no intention at all to help with at all, are you?!

[Well you do need to learn how to fight on your own]

What the hell can a Magikarp do to me?!

I kicked the Magikarp that was near my leg back into the lake.

Eden used kick~

Eh, why are you saying that? It sounds like you're narrating a pokemon battle.

Magikarp used splash. It had no effect.

Indeed there was some small splashes made with the Magikarp splashing around. This may be the easiest collection I would ever have!

[Eden if you underestimate that creatures, then you will die. Also tell me when you want me to release the seal]

“Ha!”

I don't need to release seal to beat this thing.

[Well....its your death]

Eh?

True~

Magikarp is evolving~

The Magikarp in front of my eyes was glowing white and forth before me. There seemed to be a large amount of energy being released from it. If I remember correctly.....it evolves into.....

The Magikarp shows its new form. It was several times larger now, larger than me and probably a small house and it blue in colour. Any part of it that was flimsy or weak certainly disappeared when it evolved into that.

Magikarp evolved into Gyarados!

The Magikarp....no Gyarados looked at me with its large eyes and it turned red in rage....against me. Well I'm screwed....HELP ME LLYFR!!!!

Gyarados used surf~

A large wave of water appeared under it as it made a big tidal wave at me. Crap....

BANG

I was hit hard at the wave of water and was pushed back by the sheer power behind the attack. I think I was rolled around several times in the water before I hit something on my back. Well it stopped me from being pushed too far away from the Gyarados.

[Ohhhhhh~ That was a nice attack~]

I know right? I'm currently controlling this one for fun~

[Let me try later~]

Okay~

WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TWO GOING AGAINST ME?!

[Why.....?]

It's fun why?

SCREW YOU GUYS

Gyarados used Hyper Beam~

You got to be kidding me!

[Ah, too late for help now Eden]

Yep~

The Gyarados that was being controlled by that narrator guy gathered a large amount of energy in its mouth in the form of a ball. If I remember my pokemon moves correctly.....need a shield right now!

Neutral Formation ? Mana Shield

“Mana Shield!”

I formed the strongest shield I could make around me to protect myself.

ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!

The Gyarados unleashed its Hyper-Beam against my mana shield.

BOOM

The impact of the Hyper-Beam left my surrounding destroyed as myself being the last thing that was not destroyed in its path. However....

My mana was decreasing rapidly, more quickly than I thought. I didn't even have time to unleash the first and second seal at all.

30000.....20000.....15000.....10000.....5000........0

You have died

Part 3 – On the other side again

I was back in his place again. It has been a while.

Well might as well recap on everything that happened since the last time I died. Let's see.....first thing that happen was that I was going around hunting with Alexandra and Viv....met some perverts....then ended up helping a town though they ended up trying to kill me in the end....then there was the forest and stuff happened. That Clam then.....shit.....well after that was the sea city place.....got some physical moves since my magic was sealed....then we sailed and a Kraken appeared! I think everyone shit themselves when it appeared. Next thing that happened was Morata and I was dragged into what Alexandra wanted. Then things went weird....and then I spent a good 3 months relaxing until I was forced once again to help Alexandra. Got another quest which finally benefits me...then the Phoenix incident which I actually died so yeah.....wrong point to recap..spent another month or so trying to level me up some more and went to the western continent where I was immediately attacked. Met two strange guilds and was forced to hunt down nobles.....yay.....got a bounty at last. Ran around for a week escaping thanks to that.

“Hello? Anyone there~” I shouted as if someone was going to respond back to me.

It has really been a while since I actually died and came here....the last time I died was in the shore city...and I was immediately revived afterwards so I wasn't stuck in here.

“Hello? Its about time you died again!” said a certain person that sounded like a girl.

What was this person's name again....?

“Meraph Hommulous the fourth” I said confirming his name.

“SERAPH ROMMULOUS THE FOURTH!” he retorted back.

Eh? I thought I got his name right this time.

After a few moments of waiting for Seraph to calm down, the conversation started again as usual. Well it was more like a report on what I did.

“Lin.....have you been doing some extreme things recently? Your data coming out this way says....some things that other players don't usually happen, occur to you.”

I kinda blushed since this was a compliment right? Right?

“First of all....how did you die this time? There was some weird.....data coming through when this happened.”

“Well.....”, I started and thought about it and summed it up in a few words, “I was killed by a fish.”

Yep, that should do.

“...”

What's with this silence? Did I say something wrong again? There was nothing wrong with what I said right? Damn I need advice....wish llyfr was here as well.

“Lin....stay in town at all times if you're that weak. First a rabbit, then a butterfly, a bird and now a fish....” advised Seraph with a lot f concern in his voice.  There was a hint of pity in his voice for some reason.

“Hmm? But I'm not weak at all.” I replied with confidence.

“Then what level are you?”

“233”

“You're lying”

“What? How the hell am I lying about my level? I told you the truth!” I retorted at this unreasonable person whom I can't see but only hear.

Why the hell would someone lie about their level in the first place. Sure people usually judge people by their level overall but saying you're of a higher level can only bring trouble since you would be expected to be stronger than you would be. Of course, this is the complete opposite of me who has more strength then my level or stats would say.

“Says the person who was killed by a rabbit, butterfly, then bird and now a fish...” Seraph muttered out loud to the point that I could hear him.

Seriously? Did these people at least not expect that those creatures were boss monsters? I mean who the hell dies to some weak creature? Those things were literally monsters in their own rights!

However I can't just say that to these guys since they may think I'm more mad then I actually am.....wait did I just admit I was mad? Meh.

“Anyway what do you guys want with me now?” I asked, “There should be no need for all of this if you didn't want something from me.”

“This is an experiment.”

Seraph told me that in the beginning and I didn't forget at all.

“I know that.”

“An experiment to see if a certain theory will work.”

I frowned at those words. Trying things on vague theories never ended up well for the experimented person, in this case me.

“What theory?”

“Immortality.”

“Ha? What?” I managed to stutter out. I think I heard the wrong word somewhere, else I might have heard the word 'immortality' come out of Seraph's mouth.

“It has been a theory for a very long time that humans can at least become semi-immortal by placing their consciousness into computers. Of course the technology capable to support a human mind did not exist....until now. Thanks to Royal Road which has a more complicated system to support the human mind which can be comparable to the difference in the amount of technology of a top level government funded lab a century ago to the ones currently. Its only thanks to this that we can do this in the first place. Don't you see how important this research is? If we are able to do this, humanity will essentially live on for nearly internally even if something were to happen to our bodies. Naturally maintaining the devices which support our new bodies will cause some problems but with some programming and resource gathering robots that are currently being developed to replace humans in mining and other activities, I believe we can sustain such activities long enough for us to find a way to get resources from the other planets on the solar system and eventually beyond that. However we still must be cautious since a number of people will rather blow all the hard work we done in order to be pro human without any extra bits. Those people are complete hypocrites since humanity has advanced itself via the use of foreign substances in order to decrease the number of diseases we catch and reduce the number of people who starves. I believe these very same people are the ones the also support research on incurable diseases as well which can be negated if we don't have our flesh and body to support our minds with. Of course other than that....”

[TDLR: This person is bat shit crazy]

“So......”

It was quite difficult to get my input into the conversation here. I feel like I'm going to feel a lot of guilt for stopping this one way train ride that this person is on. However I wasn't so kind to actually consider it more than a moment.

“Am I the first one to succeed?”

“Huh?”

There was a short pause that felt longer than it should've. Well one person was still in his thoughts not paying attention to the other while the other rudely interrupted the other.

“What, what, what? Of course not! You're the first one to last this long!”

“...”

That doesn't make it any better.

“Don't worry, we have it all under control. We actually managed to stabilise most of you during the last time you came back here. For starters, we managed to fix the issue where you can't watch television.”

“What was the problem in the first place?”

“I think it had something that related to the physiological aspect where your mind would not be able to cope with the fact that you're actually completely dead.”

Well that was nice to know.

“...”

“What?” I asked in alight irritation now.

How come Seraph isn't talking to me right now? Was there something wrong on the other side?

“That's strange.....your data says that this level of shock or whatever you call it is quite low despite knowing that you are actually completely dead and have no chance of going back to your normal life.”

Well I had to suffer through all of that. I'm actually considering the game to be more real than....well this right now.

“We didn't want to cause too much strain on your mind....Doesn't help that the last one ended up wanting to curse us while slowly disappearing completely....also there's the risk of getting thrown in gaol for life thanks to these events.”

That doesn't sound nice at all....no wonder why you guys are completely cautious since this can...no is essentially human experimentation on the highest level which will pretty much mean a lot of people will hate your guts for this.

“Wait, then there are others like me?”

“Yeah. It's not that surprising though since we can't put our eggs in one basket due to many many reasons. Also the ones who 'survive' long enough are like you. Normal folks go insane after a while with lots of stuff. I'm surprised we got a real psychopath here on a random collection.”

Oh great.....a couple more like me will help a bit. Though their personalities will be a problem based on what was just said.

“Will I meet some of them then?” I asked really hoping that I don't.

“Well......damn got to go! The other test subjects are....”

With those words, Seraph left me to do what I want.

I think I can watch T.V now right....?

Nothing will go wrong if I try right....?

Continue Misfortune?PreviousExitNext

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Author's Notes:

- 5000~ words

- It Begins muhahahahahahahaha

- Last bit was an extra on real life since I didn't want to write up a separate extra chapter for it.

- Geez you guys are already halfway through this volume....