Chapter 7
Unmasked
Asher woke up rather well-rested.
Yawning and stretching, he went to the ‘kitchen’ where he saw a loaf of bread and a small cup of water resting on the ground. Wolfing both down, he realized that it was far from enough, food-wise at least. For now, it was fine; but considering both the mental and physical taxation of doing runs every day, the lack of proper diet would eventually catch up to him.
With nothing else to it, he started to stretch and do a small workout. Not wanting to burn too many calories and exhaust himself, he decided to do a light one just so he could say ‘he did it’.
Luckily, he had a decent amount of water from yesterday's rewards. Even if it was lukewarm and had a strange aftertaste, at the very least it was safe to drink. He'd noticed a phenomenon--ever since coming here, he didn't feel the need to go to the bathroom. It was as though his body didn't accrue waste or, if it did, it expelled it in some magical fashion that was unknown to him.
After finishing his workout, he went back to the bedroom and on the bed, folding the blanket a couple of times and lying on top of it. It was still thin and uncomfortable, but certainly better than raw food beneath. It was also then that Qyne appeared in the puff of smoke, her face strained in the patented mischievous smile.
“You hungry?” she asked with a cackle.
“Funny,” he remarked sarcastically. “Where do you even go when you’re not here?”
“Ugh, to the paradise? I hate that I can’t stay there. Could you hurry up and die?”
“Do you have a memory of goldfish? I would have died if you didn’t help me.”
“Don’t remind me,” she said, landing on his thigh and lying down. “The biggest mistake of my life.”
“... yesterday,” he broke the silence after a little while. “In the tavern. Was the wine the cause?”
“For them beating the shit out of each other?”
“Yeah.”
"No," she replied lazily. "It's what they wanted to do all along. I think you have a slight misconception about the people who've come here with you," she flew up and started fluttering directly in front of him. "Do you think they're all just like you? Pathetic sacks of shit who drowned in self-wallowing because of the soul-sucking guilt that gnawed at them from within?"
“...” Asher’s eyes widened, but only for a moment. It was natural that she knew... she seemed to know everything, after all.
“Nobody, nobody here is a good person. Including you,” she chuckled. “That’s why you were selected. Not because this is your punishment or anything of that nature, but because... well, honestly, because it’s a lot more fun,” she began to laugh for a few moments before continuing. “Ah, I’m not supposed to say it but, hell, they can’t punish me. You know that kid? The self-absorbed one?”
“Zane?”
“I literally don’t care enough to remember your name, let alone the name of some peck-sized bore so, yeah, sure, that’s his name. Anyway, seems innocent enough, no? Just your random teen who was a bit too much into summoned savior stories and imagines this is a scenario of one, no?”
“...”
“In truth,” she landed on his nose with a wide grin. “When he was fifteen, he woke up in the middle of his night and butchered his entire family.” Asher gasped in horror. “His mother, father, and two younger sisters. Voices told him, he claimed.”
“...”
“Or how about that innocent-seeming brute?” she continued. “She seems sweetly too dumb to have done anything, no? No, no, ha ha ha, she used to kidnap young women, lock ‘em up in the basement of her house, and sodomize them until they died. I don’t believe she was ever even caught until we’ve brought her here.”
“Or how about--”
“Stop.” Asher interrupted. “I, I don’t... I don’t want to know.”
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“... pfft, ha ha ha,” she broke out into laughter, ‘falling’ off his nose and landing on the bed below, rolling over it. At the same time, Asher’s heart pounded like crazy. He didn’t even consider it--not for a moment. Though they seemed somewhat odd, they didn’t seem evil. Maybe... maybe she’s lying? "Aaah, haven't laughed like that in a while. And no, you rock-brained terrestrial, I didn't lie. Why would I lie? Just ask them the next time you see them. If you dare, that is.”
Asher fell silent, his mind drifting. If it were true...
Sighing, he looked down at Qyne who stared back at him, lying, kicking her feet up and down, hands on her chin supporting her head, smiling. It was as though she enjoyed misery and self-doubt, going out of her way to create it. Racist behavior toward humans was just one thing--it was easy to chalk it up to nigh-immortal fairies simply being that way--but her cruelty seemed more purposeful. As though she could read his mind, she sighed and stopped smiling, flying up.
“Don’t bother your broken brain too much,” she said. “My intentions and, indeed, intentions of everyone are well beyond your grasp. Just do what you are told, like an obedient, well-trained dog. If you do well, you'll prosper. And if not, well, you will die. But, tiny boy, that should sound like a sweet harmony to you, no? You've been desperate for death for a long while. Too cowardly to pursue it, however."
“I--I’m not--”
“Then prove it,” she interrupted. “For the next stage... just walk into the monsters and let them have a snack. It’d be nice, after burning so much of their kin these past two days.”
“...”
“He he~,” she laughed freely at his expression. “Just go and have some fun. Empty your brain. You humans are very good at doing precisely that.”
She vanished, once again.
He noticed that it was a norm--she’d come in, like a storm, and upset him in some way before disappearing to wherever she went when she wasn’t here. Sighing, he shook his head.
If everything she said was true, he’d have to be mindful of others. Much more mindful than he had been. It was still difficult to believe it, however. Everyone seemed rather unsuspecting, and though they didn’t seem exactly like ‘nice people’, there was a long, long line between ‘not nice’ and ‘kidnaps women for fun’. That was human nature, however, he reckoned. It was difficult to glean past the surface and see people for who they truly were.
He spent the rest of the time mulling about and doing nothing, occasionally taking a couple of sips of water. It was boredom on steroids, but it was still preferable to walking out into the grassy fields and having to kill hundreds of monsters.
Furthermore, as there were no ways to track time, he couldn’t even anticipate when he’d get summoned--only that the piercing, searing pain would come and take him away.
Once again, he was back on the grassy fields, though this time rather than growing out, they shrunk back down to 400 yards across. The mist, once again, covered the edges, and the grass was once again grown and green, and the sky was once again blue and clear... as though his horror from yesterday never happened. At the same time, the quest popped up.
Quest: Grassy Lowlands [III]
Defeat Monsters: 0/100
Defeat Rare Monsters: 0/3
Defeat a Boss: 0/1
Reward: 200 Souls / 2 Divine Gems / ‘Chosen’s Choice’ Upgrade
[Chosen’s Choice] -- select a Starting Weapon; it will always appear as one of the choices.
Bonus Reward: 2x Jugs of Water / Second Daily Meal for 7 days
A moment after the quest appeared on the side, so did the selection of the starting weapon. Looking about, he paused; there was no Wooden Staff as a possible choice. There were still Wooden Sword and Wooden Bow, but the staff was replaced by a Wooden Spear.
Wooden Spear [Common]
Level: 1
Effect: Stab forward in the direction you are facing, dealing damage to all monsters within reach. Deals 3x damage if there is only one target.
Damage: 4
Attack Speed: 1 attack per second
Reach: 3 yards
He frowned, cursing the world inwardly for throwing in a wrench. Perhaps the reason others failed to kill the boss yesterday was that the selection of choices they get wasn’t streamlined but instead randomized and he simply got... lucky? It didn’t matter. He wasn’t lucky today.
Pondering for a moment, he eventually elected to go with the Wooden Spear. What convinced him was the quest itself--he’d have to kill three monsters like the thunder spider and the ogre, and, today, he’d also have to kill a boss monster. Those were all fights that required high single-target damage, and though the bow was a safer choice, it also dealt half the base damage of a spear, and even less if the spear was striking a single target.
Furthermore, the 3 yard reach was actually quite decent all things considered. While certainly not like the staff with the unlimited range, raw damage output should be just fine. He just immediately planned on going harder into movement speed and movement abilities to keep himself as mobile as possible.
The world unpaused and the monsters appeared--once again, there were spiders, 10 of them in total. He rushed toward them, simple, wooden spear in hand. As soon as he reached the three yards of distance, he paused; against his will, the spear was yanked forward, unleashing a burst of air that sliced toward the spiders, dealing 4 damage to 3 of them. A second later, it happened again, killing the 3 damaged ones and damaging another 2.
After each strike, he’d backpedal a step or two, maintaining as much distance as he could. Optimally he’d keep them at three yards, but he was far from good enough to do that. Soon enough, a Level-up came and three choices appeared in front of him.
Muscle Training [Uncommon]
+20 Health
Level: 3/99
Nimble Footing [Common]
+0.3 Movement Speed
Level: 1/50
Extended Arms [Uncommon]
+1 yard to range of ‘Melee’ skills and weapons
Level: 1/20