Chapter 57
Blessed and Cursed
Congratulations on conquering the Battle of Ellidson Hills!
Your valiant efforts have impressed quite a few Lords and Ladies!
...
Detected an Anomaly!
Due to the changes in the structure of the Stage, your rewards have been altered!
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Rewarded: 40,000 Souls / 100 Divine Gems / Permanent Upgraded Daily Meal (a freshly baked loaf of bread, a spoonful of jam, two slices of apple, and a quarter of a glass of fresh milk) / 1 Sugar Cube Daily / Permanent Light Fixtures in the bedroom that can be turned on & off
Additional Rewards:
1 Extra Room -- 5x5x3
X2 Grace Ticket (can be used to extend Grace Period by 5 Days; can only be used once before needing to complete a Stage)
X1 Fire Scorn (can be used at the Start of the Stage to empower the Weapon, adding extra 6 Fire Damage to the Weapon’s basic attack/ability)
x1 Lightning Scorn (can be used at the Start of the Stage to empower the Weapon, adding extra 4 Lightning Damage to the weapon’s basic attack/ability)
x2 Tortoise’s Touch (can be used at the Start of the Stage to empower the Armor, increasing Physical Defense by 15%)
x1 Refresh Ticket (refreshes the Daily Stages; does not work on certain ones)
2x barrels of mead
1x Weapon Soul (boosts a Starter Weapon based on the type: +6 Damage to Melee Weapons / +20 yards of range to Ranged Weapons / +10% Magic Penetration on the Magic Weapons / +5% to Status Effects on Support Weapons)
2x Free Furniture Ticket (can choose any piece of furniture costing upwards of 10,000 Souls for free from the Shop)
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Your valiant efforts have awarded you the following Blessings:
Mystic Boon [Rare] -- ensures that your Starter Weapon will be set to Advanced Upgrade the next Stage [lasts 1 Stage]
Halcyon Guise [Uncommon] -- increases your chance to automatically dodge an attack by 20% for the duration of a Stage [lasts 2 Stages]
Zephyrean Blessing [Rare] -- increases your Movement Speed by 100% for the first 3 minutes of the Stage [lasts 2 Stages]
Gossamer Aegis [Epic] -- deflects an attack that would otherwise be lethal [lasts 1 Stage]
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Your behavior has incurred the wrath of some of the Lords and Ladies! The following Curses will be applied to you for the next Stage:
Harrowed Lethargy [Epic] -- eliminates ALL bonuses to Movement Speed. Movement Speed cannot go above 1.0. Start the Stage with 0.3 Movement Speed. [Lasts 1 Stage] -- beating the Stage with this Curse will permanently increase your Movement Speed by 1.5
Accursed Lineage [Uncommon] -- ALL your stats are lowered by 10%. Every bonus to your stats gathered throughout the Stage is lowered by 20%. You can only gain up to [Rare] rarity of the Stat-increasing abilities. [Lasts 1 Stage] -- beating the stage with this Curse will permanently increase your Health by 50, your Damage by 5, your Movement Speed by 0,3, and your Gathering Range by 10 yards.
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Good luck with your future endeavors!
Having finally gone through the hefty list of windows brimming with information, Asher whistled. There were a lot of things--so many, in fact, that he was certain he’d forget a good number of them come tomorrow.
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Quite a few new items appeared in his cabin, specifically in the new 'room' he'd unlocked. Just like the 'bathroom' before it, it was an empty room--well, new things set aside. Two barrels sat in the corner, tiny, spherical marbles lying on top of them, crackling in different colors. One was fiery orange, the other golden, and the last two deep emerald, likely representing Fire Scorn, Lightning Scorn, and Tortoise’s Touch in that order.
He sighed, ignoring them and grabbing one of the barrels, pouring mead in one of the empty jugs of water. Just as he entered the bedroom, he also remembered one of the first rewards in the long list of them--the room was actually dark. Not blackout dark or anything like that as there were no doors blocking the light coming in from the 'living room', but it was dark enough that he'd no longer have to sprawl an arm over his eyes just to trick his brain into thinking it was nighttime.
Fumbling about for a few minutes, he also found the ‘switch’ which turned the lights on and off. It was one of the gems embedded in the wall that he simply had to gently touch in order to turn them on or off. Magic truly was... miraculous, he chuckled.
None of it all made any sense--there were no light fixtures, there was no wiring, there wasn't a fuse box or a generator or anything of the sort. It was like a child had wished for something and it simply... appeared, as-is. He realized, once again, the reason why so many people decided to become the 'losers' in this world--it seemed that, even while partaking in danger, a good life was achievable. Developing friendships, possibly even relationships, obtaining luxuries, decking out the living space... yes, while it all may take a long time--likely years if not decades--there would come a point where he'd have all. Or, at least, almost all.
But he also understood why people chose to throw themselves into the fire instead of settling in. The feeling of being caged in, the dangling of the carrot, all of it was overwhelmingly anger-inducing. Though a good life could be had... that was it. Just a ‘good life’. Nothing more.
After taking a quick nap, he lazily washed a bit in the bathroom and went to the plaza. It was as lively as ever, though more and more he began to realize just how many people actually were trapped in here--he’d tried to take note of as many faces as possible, and though he’d see the same folk rather frequently, he would see new ones in spades every time he came. Today, he barely recognized a dozen or so faces in the masses.
For a moment, he contemplated the effects this had on Earth--the fact that the entire world just ‘forgot’ his existence as soon as he arrived... how would that even make sense? It wasn’t as though he lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere where around sixty people knew who he was. No, rather than it just being the number of people who knew about him, it was also how many people knew of what he’d done--or, rather, the events he caused.
Did they just start to think somebody else did them? Did he, overnight, just become a ‘shadowy’ figure, a mastermind that nobody ever solved? Or did nobody ever even simply... question it? He lined up to see El once again.
It was fun to fantasize and hypothesize, but it was also rather pointless. Whatever the reality was for those he left behind, it was their own and he no longer had anything to do with it. He had his own, stuck here in the battered bastion of beyond, and it was none too easy.
Some fifteen minutes later--surprisingly quickly--he entered the shop whereupon the doors closed. By now, he’d realized that some folk had picked up on it and decided to ask El for a different way in from now on as more and more people like Sarah would appear who’d ask him favors that he had no intention of cashing in.
No, Sarah was different--theirs would be genuine wants, hers was just a sadistic request of sorts.
“What’s wrong?” she quizzed as the two headed to the backyard once again. She took off the soot-filled apron and set it aside, kicking up a visible cloud of dust, before picking up two cups and the same bottle of liquid as the last time.
“Just stuck in my own thoughts,” he replied, sitting down. “The line was fast today.”
“Yeah. I noticed you lining up so I sped it up a bit.”
“Oh. Thanks. You didn’t have to.”
“Didn’t do it for you,” she said. “Wanted an excuse to have a break and a drink.”
“Eh, women have used me for worse.”
“...” she flushed strangely for a moment, her hair attaining a remarkably fiery hue for just a passing second before settling down. She took a deep breath and held it for a long while, looking away throughout, before finally settling. It was then that Asher recalled that on the very first day she ‘appeared’ for him, she set fire to the entire smithy because somebody asked her out. Figuring he should thread lightly, he simply pretended none of it happened.
“Right. Somebody tried to set me up using you,” he said as she finally poured them both the drink. Asher swirled it around the cup a little bit, holding.
“What do you mean?”
“Supposedly, you won’t make items for them any longer, and they asked me to curry a favor with you so you’d start doing it again.”
“I don’t refuse to make items for anyone,” she said. “Even those I hate. So long as they bring the materials, that is.”
“Hm? Then why ask me that?”
"It happens occasionally," she said, taking a sip. "They promise a newcomer a lot of Souls to ask me something. Usually, it's something... illicit..." she barely squeezed out the word. "But occasionally it's something like that. Sometimes it's just to screw with the newcomer, and sometimes it's so I shut down the smithy and don't craft items for a while."
“... so somebody else can’t craft an item they’d need before needing to go to a new Stage?”
“Something like that.”
“Sheesh. Diabolical.”
“How’d you figure they were messing with you?”
“... a gut feeling, mostly.”
“A gut feeling?” El arched her brows, looking at him strangely.
“Hah, right. Back on Earth--uh, where I was before coming here," he replied, finally taking the sip and letting it rip through him while barely wheezing out the words. "That was kind of my job. Reading people. Understanding them. Individually and in groups. Recognizing their strengths, their weaknesses, and parts I could exploit or use or abuse. When they're lying, when they're telling the truth, when they're hiding something while telling the truth... there is a nature to our behavior, a predictable kind, and my job was, well, to predict it.
"I expected people would start approaching me when the word got around that you're closing shop for me," he said. "But she was a bit too quick. That was the first strike. She was overly nice to me--second strike. She offered a blitz-sort insane reward, yet contextually the one that I could understand. Third strike. And then many more after that. I usually stop dealings at first, but, you know, new world, new me."
“... can you read me?” she suddenly asked, a strange trace of a mischievous smile flashing past her lips. Asher got a strange chill down his spine suddenly, an alert that he trusted more than the words of his own mother.
“Nope.”
“Oh. So, you can,” she chuckled strangely, looking away. “Then, for today, I will tell you the story of Mara, the Thief of the Stars.”
“...” Asher fell silent, taking a sip of the drink, and wondering deeply whether his ‘human’ sensibilities were anywhere near enough to survive this world, let alone to understand it and comprehend it.