The dearest friend(1)

After Cyrus and Chu departed, the former walked around, freely exploring the city.

Without the commotion from earlier, the beauty of Cape Immergroen only now revealed itself.

"The city of canals and windmills..."

Every inch of every street exhibited signs of the long history of this city.

Apparently, the entire city was once an island far away from the coast, but after the land reclamation projects that created new farmland, the island eventually became accessible on foot.

As he aimlessly strolled around, he recalled that he still needed to do something.

Thanks to the quest chain he completed in Berglion, he was now Level 6 and had 15 Stat Points since he didn't allocate any from the levels he gained in the fight against the bear.

After some serious contemplation, he went with his usual choices, prioritizing Attack, Agility, Vitality, and Dexterity.

His profile now looked like this:

(Paragon Cyrus - Level 6 Unranked Unclassed)

Experience: 78/1139

Health Points: 160/160

Endurance: 130/130

Mana: 100/100

(Statistics)

Attack: 18

Dexterity: 15

Agility: 16

Wisdom: 10

Defense: 10

Vitality: 16

With that out of his mind, he scrolled through the forum, only to find nothing interesting.

Then, an earth-shattering noise made him clench his ears, but he could not block it.

(Global Announcement: Asura's Dawn(Guild) has cleared Stalenrots Dungeon, making them the first organization to clear a dungeon!)

(Global Announcement: Asura's Dawn(Guild) has cleared Stalenrots Dungeon, making them the first organization to clear a dungeon!)

The notice repeated itself a few times to all of the players in the game.

Reactions ranged from jealousy, astonishment, to pure confusion.

The forum was lively from this news, but there were mostly just praises for the guild's achievements.

Cyrus shrugged, but without warning, he saw a group of people running in his direction.

At further inspection, each of them wielded sharp machetes.

"Find Markus!"

"I've heard he lives somewhere in Heuveltop district..."

"Ask that man if he saw him!"

The gang(?) stopped in front of him, and one of them took the lead.

He cleared his throat, and asked Cyrus, "Have you seen a glasses-wearing man around here?"

'Huh, that narrows it down a lot,' Cyrus snickered.

Then, two interactive screens appeared in front of him.

These were quests.

(Apprehend Markus)

Quest Rank: Mundane

Quest Rewards: Favorability with the quest-givers.

Description: Certain residents feel that Markus, head journalist of Savant Times, a small newspaper, engages in propaganda in favor of Truscany and the new Imperator.

They request that you, Paragon Cyrus, help in apprehending the man without alerting the city guards.

There was also the second quest.

(Protect Markus)

Quest Rank: Fair

Quest Rewards: Experience Points, Favourability with the archeologist and historian, Markus.

Quest Failure Penalty: -1 Level, death of Markus.

Description: The archeologist Markus has been spreading the news about his studies on ancient times, which have been received poorly by the superstitious residents, and he faces the threat of death.

Cyrus frowned and quickly processed the information.

The first quest was easier, but the rewards were lower, while the second one was harder, but had better rewards.

However, he quickly made his decision.

His hands touched the crumpled-up newspaper article in his pockets.

Ever since he saw it, his curiosity about this piece of lore didn't extinguish, and this man, a historian and an archeologist, likely had answers for him.

On top of that, it didn't sit right with his moral compass to accept the first quest, which entailed contributing to the murder of a man.

Thus, he unhesitantly pressed the second screen.

Instead of replying to the armed men, a sickle appeared in his hands, and the blunt outer edge of the weapon slashed towards their leader.

"Huh?" The man was confused by this sudden attack.

"You're trying to kill the archeologist, Markus? Well, I think I've got bad news."

"Leader, I think he's with the sympathizers."

"I can tell!" The man chuckled and ordered his underlings to attack him.

This was five people against one.

The machete parried the sickle, and the ringing metallic sound hurt their ears.

However, the attack pushed the man back a few steps.

Cyrus had greater physical strength and overwhelmed the group.

Eventually, he defeated the leader, who was now full of bruises and on the ground.

Unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough to counter 4 other opponents who surrounded him.

(-3 HP)

'Ughhh...' The pain of the blade cutting into his skin was horrible.

Then, someone threw a small ball in the midst of their fight.

Soon enough, the ball exploded, and thick smoke covered their position.

Cyrus coughed up a few times.

Then, he felt a hand around his arms.

The hand pushed him out of the range of the smoke and revealed the person responsible for this.

"Run! Quickly!"

The man began running towards a narrow alley and hinted at him to do the same.

Cyrus caught a glimpse of the glasses that the man was wearing and nodded in understanding.

Then, they ran and they ran until they were both fatigued.

There was a small house in front of them.

The man took out a key and twisted it in a keyhole of the door.

*Clank*

He opened the door, and said, "I'm Markus."

"I've guessed from the glasses."

"You know me already, I suppose? Come in."

Cyrus politely went inside.

There was an aggressive smell of cigars inside the house.

The place was rather messy, with stashes of paper thrown about everywhere.

Markus rubbed his head in embarrassment and frantically cleaned a couch.

"I'll make you some coffee."

"No nee-

"Make yourself comfortable, I know why you fought against those thugs."

Now, it was his turn to be confused.

____

-A few minutes later-

Cyrus suddenly caught a whiff of fragrant coffee, and Markus came back with a steaming kettle, two mugs, and a platter.

"Are you a reader of Savant Times?" Markus sipped on coffee.

"Frankly, I'm not, I was just curious about this, and I thought you would maybe know about it."

Cyrus showed him the article.

Markus stared at him in a strange manner, "Are you not from this continent?"

"Uh-

"It's alright, you don't need to say."

"What did you want to know about?" Markus kindly inquired.

"Why was there such a big riot, and what does it have to do with this new ruler?" Cyrus sipped on the coffee too.

A line of text attracted his attention.

(Successfully consumed: Coffee. +10% Endurance, -10% Health Points)

"Well, this dates back to thousands of years ago,"

Cyrus started listening attentively.

"Nowadays, Truscany is but a small region of the former Atmian Empire, but back then, it ruled over the entire continent."

"It was a great, and prosperous time."

"However, due to some explainable, and other unexplainable factors, the empire collapsed in the span of a few years."

"Over time, Truscans gained the reputation of being cursed due to this, and now, people don't want a Truscan general atop the throne of a big empire, thinking it will bring great misfortune to everyone."

Cyrus now understood a bit more.

He nodded and voiced one of his other inquiries, "Why did those people attack you?"

"It also has to do with this."

"In reality, the biggest factor in the collapse of the empire was climate change in the Mavros Desert, which was the main supplier for the precious metals and resources of the empire."

'Mavros Desert?' Cyrus nodded and kept the name in mind.

As he listened, he received a message.

The sender was Chu Wang.

(Chu Wang: would you want to go defeat some monsters on the coast?)

(Paragon Cyrus: I'll be coming.)

"Thank you for all the information, Markus."

It was also nearing nighttime in the game, so he couldn't intrude on this man's private life anymore.

Though, he didn't know why he didn't receive a quest completion notice.

"I appreciate that someone is willing to listen to scholarly evidence instead of superstition."

Markus stood up to send him off.

Then, he leaned down and grabbed a scroll from the floor.

"You dropped thi-

He accidentally saw the contents, and his eyes widened and began twitching.

He coughed, and said, "Do you need someone to decipher this scroll for you?"

This was the document Cyrus wasn't able to examine earlier.

"You can?"

"Of course, the language is Ancient Truscan, I can read it."

"Then, feel free."

Markus seemed agitated, and turned on a lamp, before sitting down and reading the scroll.

As his eyes swiped through the line, he exclaimed out loud, "Incredible!"

"Please, wait here."

The scholar climbed up the stairs of his home, and the sound of swiping pages reached downstairs.

Following that, he came back down with a scroll in his hand.

"You are extremely lucky."

"The scroll you have is the continuation of this document."

"Oh? What is it about?"

"Polymedes, an ancient lunatic from Truscany."