Chapter - 5
"Did your search uncover any information about the player yet?" A handsome young man sits behind a desk surrounded by documents, his gaze fixed on the middle-aged man in front of him.
"Not as of yet, young master, but this player seems quite uncompromising. Not even our offers seem to entice them enough to show themselves." Said in a tone that reflected how much work he puts in for the young man. He has gone many days without getting enough sleep in order to find out more about the notification and player. Atlas, the fruit he had so diligently attempted to pick, turned out to be a waste of time masquerading as progress.
"Not taking the bait? Then all we have to do is downsize our leading line. Adjust the reward to 10 million, and access to top level gear. Unless they are wealthy, and have nice gear, they'll bite sooner rather than later," said the young man casually, as if 10 million was chump change.
"I understand." The middle age man vanished from out of sight, leaving the young man alone.
"I'm going to get my hands on this player no matter the cost. This person is either extremely fortunate or has connections to the game's developers, allowing him to gain an advantage over the rest of the player base. If I can persuade him to join my guild, my family's position will skyrocket."
In a similar vein to this scene, many powerful figures are doing everything in their power to track down and recruit this enigmatic player. Nefeli, who is aware of his situation, is unaware of how much of a stir he has caused in the game and in real life. Unlike Nefeli, who saw this as merely a game to make money, this was not the case for others, who had their own agendas.
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He began to doubt the compass's legitimacy after walking for what seemed like an hour following the red point. The compass had been stationary since he first noticed it, leading him to doubt its functionality. He eventually decided to trust Nephanie and followed the compass anyhow.
"Arghh, Nephanie! Where are you? Out of all the times for you to leave, why when I receive this compass!" Nefeli shouted loudly in the forest at his frustration.
"What am I doing?" He took a deep breath and continued to follow the seemly broken compass.
When he inspected the item from his inventory, while on his walk, nothing notable was revealed. Other than disclosing the original owner of the compass, it couldn't do anything else.
He began to doubt the danger of the forest in the same way he doubted the compass. Nephanie had warned him that if he entered this woodland, he would encounter something far worse than a beast. He had been going through the woods, and had not come across anything that could be described as "running into something worse than a monster."
Nothing unusual was found but, if there wasn't any monsters here, what should he be looking for in order to locate proof of the danger Nephanie spoke about? There were no tracks, no smells, nothing. He thought about it for a while, and then realized he hadn't even seen any animals.
It became more magical and captivating as he progressed. Huge roots twisted like the vast backs of sea dinosaurs as they spread-eagled the ground.
Abruptly, snatching him out of the atmosphere of the forest and his doubt, the pointer began to shake.
"Okay, what's going on?" He voiced aloud.
He poked it, caressed it, ordered it to operate, and even threw it to the ground, but the compass remained unchanged. He decided to leave the compass to its own devices after numerous attempts and failures.
"Nephanie, how could you give me something without clear instructions on how to use it."
Just as he was becoming more frustrated than he already was at the fact he couldn't understand the compass, as though the heavens felt pity for him, the darkened forest soon shone a light.
Was that light an illusion generated by the forest he was passing through, or was it the exit? Was it a new game mechanic, or was he about to encounter yet another odd npc? All he could do was follow the compass towards wherever it pointed.
Suddenly, as though the heavens wished to see him suffer more, the ground trembled.
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The sound of metal clashing resounded, followed by shouting and cursing.
"You won't escape from my shuttering strike, you son of a bitch!"
"You piece of trash, take this, Rapid judgement!"
Boom! Nefeli was caught off guard when he heard a huge bang in the distance. He pondered what had just occurred. What caused the ground to tremble, and what caused the explosion? Was there a bomb detonated... In this game, there were bombs?
Cling! A rush of air raced through the area, nearly throwing Nefeli to the ground, as the sound of metal colliding resounded once more.
"You're going to lose today, I swear it on my name, kaius!"
"Ahahahahaha! Then give me another, the name didn't seem to fit you anyway! Die!"
Cling! Clang! Clank!
Ripples of air that could be seen with the naked eye, swifty swept through the sky after each of their mighty clashes, leaving Nefeli very confused.
Deciding to act out a bad idea, he followed the noise to its source. In the process, he neglected to pay attention to his surroundings. In his rush, he had changed scenery without notice.
"Wait! Was this the result of a fight between two people? "Did they create this mess?" Nefeli was taken aback, but not surprised; he expected some form of PVP in this game, but not to this extent. "To fight in this supposedly dangerous forest, they must either be brave or idiots."
Two figures could be seen battling not far away from Nefeli, although they appeared to be flying from his perspective. He noted their appearance since he was able to catch a glance of both of them when they were talking to each other in between their fight. One had long brown hair while the other had short black hair. They appeared to be jumping into the air at breakneck speeds, creating the impression that they were flying. They were slashing at each other with tremendous sword attacks, causing the ripples Nefeli had sensed earlier.
"So, they can fly just like that old guy from the beginning". The old man he referred to was philander, the old guy who gave him, and hundreds of others, a brief instructions about the world while standing on a giant bird.
The both of them seemed to be equal as neither gained any advantage over the other while they fought. They've been fighting for a while now, aren't they tired he thought.
They moved closer and closer with each strike between them, despite the fact that his health was slowly deteriorating due to the ripples they had generated. They got close enough for the ripples to start stealing enough of his health for him to notice.
Despite not being a part of this fight, Nefeli could feel the dominating pressure coming from the two, to the point he couldn't even move.
"Stop blocking my attacks, be a man! Rampage!"
"Then you should learn to be quiet, are you compensating for something?! Quiet bolt!"
Ever increasing, each ripple topped the last, only dissipating after reaching the horizon.
Nefeli, who has still been feeling the effects of their fight, could no longer handle the pressure and coughed up a clear liquid, that seemed to replace blood, into his hand. "Shit, at this rate I'll end up dying, and I'm not even fighting". He said wiped the rest of the blood from his mouth.
The strain was too much for Nefeli, who was still reeling from their fight, as seen by the clear liquid he coughed onto his hand. "Was this supposed to be blood?" Despite his concerns about the ramifications of using a transparent liquid as a blood substitute in the game, he had more immediate things to deal with. "Sh*t, I'm going to die if I keep going like this, and I'm not even fighting" He voiced aloud.
Not acknowledging the taste of iron in his mouth, that definitely reminded him of blood, he applauded the creators for the immersion. The pain he was experiencing and the realistic features of the game temporarily made him forget that this was just a game.
"Can't let them get close, I'm not going to be collateral damage today." He began running away from the two, but the further he got the more it felt their clashes were getting stronger.
"Ragged strike!"
"Flamboyance!"
Boom! The trees around him shrank, and the clouds receded almost as though they were running alongside him. Unlike the clouds that were able to escape, he wasn't so lucky. Nefeli was sent flying towards the remaining trees and rocks, knocking him unconscious moments later.
-
"Kaius! I thought you said this would be the end of me, what's wrong?" One of the figures said, appearing disappointed at the other person who had been stabbed. "Number five in the guild and this is the best you can do? What a disgrace."
"Your the... disgraced one here Paius! I WILL KILL YOU HERE!" Kaius roared, the aura around him turning red.
Was it possible to see someones natura?
"Ah!" Paius eyes widened at the unexpected outcome of his opponent. "Your natura appearing means you've broke out of your cap, you must be serious."
"You disrespected the guild leader, I will be an avenger of her honor, even if I have to be stabbed multiple times."
"Is she your lover by any chance? Then let me tell you something important before I kill you... she doesn't feel the same way towards you! Maybe after I'm done here, I'll go tell her of your feelings, maybe lower your chances."
"Kaius, you monster. A man should confess his feelings HIMSELFFFF!" The the silver sword in Kaius's hand darkened with a blackened glow.
"Tempered slash!"
"Are you mad! Are you trying to take me with you? Just because you rank higher in the guild, the same as me doesn't mean we are equals. You are a part of us, but we do not grant you the title." Paius brown hair began to flow through the air as if it had a life of its own. Along with his eyes beginning to glow, he appeared similar to the Kaius.
"Sublime blade!"
A girl in a black dress with horns materialized in between them like she materialized from the air surrounding them, interrupting the two from unleashing their powerful abilities. What was wafting around her caught everyone off guard. Two big metal gauntlets were to her sides, open, as if signaling the two guys to come to a halt.
"Don't the two of you see the trouble you've placed my master into? Look at him, he's nearly dead." With the snap of her fingers, both men had a Debuff casted onto them. "The both of you seem to strong for me to do anything about, but this debuff should be enough." Kaius and Paius felt their natura drain from them.
Not catching on quick enough, the both of them fell to the ground without natura supporting them. Luckily, they were strong, as the fall from where they were didn't hurt them.
"Who the hell are you? Kaius called out as loud as he could, while crippled on the ground in pain. "To be able to crippled someone of his caliber with a mere snap of a finger, she must have spectacular skills.
As for paius, he was lost for words. He could only stare at the girl who had stopped both of them from using their special techniques.
"What did we do to you, for you to interfere with our fight!" kaius shouted again, commanding an answer from the girl.
However, she ignored him once again while slowly falling from the sky, heading towards the unconscious body of Nefeli.
They noticed the person she was referring to when they glancing in the direction she was going. "I knew I felt another presence here, while fighting that idiot," paius said. "Leave it to him to endanger others." Paius was aware of another presence in the area, but was too preoccupied with the battle to confirm it. Furthermore, the guy's aura was not strong enough to cause either of them any concern.
The girl kneeled down to wipe off the blood from Nefeli's face, her hand hesitating slightly, afraid she might hurt him more. "For injuring him... you both deserve death!" Her expression grim and filled with killing intent.
"However," she said while exhaling her animosity. "It feels your intentions weren't to hurt him, so you two will survive today."
The two metal gauntlets that were following few meters away from her, disappeared similar to how she appeared.
comprehending the situation, paius decided to speak up. "Uh, I have to apologize for this, your right we weren't trying into bring others into our fight. My brother usually has more sense but it looks like that was thrown out the window.
"Don't speak for me, your sense was thrown out the window!"
Though, they were caught off guard by her appearance, and that their attacks were somehow haulted, they were fine. Other than the wounds they gave each other, her debuff barely registered. This gave the two men the impression that her level was low, thus her master's level was low.
They had not sensed another player, added with the fact that her debuff was weak, this all confirmed she was a servant.
"Forgive us for... hurting your master? Again, it was not something we were trying to do, he happened to be in the wrong place at a bad time."
Still, he wondered, how had they not sensed him earlier!? They were in a open field with not a lot of places to hide, how did he only sense on the middle of their fight?
"She's a servant and she could stop our attacks! Who is this master of yours, speak now," shouted kaius once again.
"My master called out to me and here I am, I'm in the same boat as the two of you. As for my power and master, why would I tell you anything?"
"Right... " Paius said. As she was a servant, her stats could not be discerned without the permission of her master. However, he could use it on the fellow that was unconscious. Having taken the opportunity to glanced at his stats, it only confirmed his suspicion.
"A warrior and he's level 10, a new player."
Paius, was surprised his brother could beat him to the punch. "right, but how could he summon a servant while still unconscious?"
They both looked to each other with concern in their eyes, this was something familiar to the both of them, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it.
However, before they could press her for any more information, a sound resembling a alarmed resounded from Paius.
"isnt that the return alarm, Paius? It's time to return already."
"so it seems brother, you know what would happen if the guild master finds out we're late again." they both geimished at the thought of what happened last time.
"seeing as we can't stay long, and we cant help much with an unconscious player, we'll leave you with a parting gift, a token of our apology." he said, Reaching into a small void, pulling out two small vials filled with red liquid, "use these to heal him when he awakes."
"how thoughtful, seeing as it were the two of you who put him into this state."
"right... well, if you ever come to the city, come find us, we'll make it up to the both of you" he said as he looked to his brother, who wasn't as concerned, and nodded his head.
The both of them vanished, like their presence there was just some visual joke.
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When Nefeli finally opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the lack of two people attempting to kill each other while ignoring the guy caught in the middle.
Other than the few knocked over trees and scattered cavity's littered about the ground, the magnitude of their fight didn't seem to reflect how he imaged the area to look.
"Wait—they only did this much damage after all that fighting?" Ridiculous!" He voiced. However, he had not relaxed his guard. He knew what he saw was real: their power. They had to be skilled gamers if they were that powerful and were capable of doing this much damage. He couldn't image the control that was required to not cause a mess of the area.
"They must've been hitting their shots."
Suddenly, the shocking revelation of what was going on jolted Nefeli upright. It was in this moment that he realized that he wasn't alone, he had been lying next to a stranger.
"Ah! You finally woke up, You had me scared there master," informing him that she had been watching over him as he slept.
Though pleasantly surprised to see a cute girl next to him, having met Nephanie, it made him suspicious of random women.
"And who are you?"
"Well... seeing as I haven't been named yet, I'm just your servant."
"A servant? But I'm not level... wait... that's what the prompt was telling me."
He had been unconscious, but not in the manner he would be in real life. It appeared to be a debuff that stopped him from feeling, seeing, or hearing anything, although he was able to operate the menu to some extent. It had to be a gaming feature designed to prevent people from experiencing something awful.
While he was unconscious, the menu that appeared in front of him was limited. You could view your inventory, stats, and settings but not change them or log out. When he accessed his menu this time, he was greeted with a prompt for a servant contract immediately.
The prompt gave a quick description of what a servant was, and what you could do as you created them. The prompt listed three options you could choose from:
He opted to have the game construct this character for him because it was urgent and he didn't want to waste time reading. As a result, the npc beneath which he now lay was created.
When the character was being created, that notification popped up when it was done.
Seeing as he had summoned her, he concluded that he must've hit level 10 somehow. However, he hadn't done anything that would grant him any experience to level up.
Instead of dwelling in the past, he decided to not think much of the technical stuff, but on what he should do moving forward.
It was better to have a cute npc character looking after him after he woke up other than dying by two brutes.
"So... what happened to the two guys fighting? Don't tell me you stopped them," he said scanning her body for any injuries. It was easier done than said seeing as her character showed skin. She didn't have any injures.
"Don't worry about those two, what's important is making sure you're okay, master."
"Hmm, master... it has a nice ring to it, but ultimately it might get annoying. You can call me Nefeli, as for yourself..." he took a moment to think of something clever. She had horns, grey hair, and her dress was lined with the different phases of the moon.
"Furui tsuki, how does that sound? It incorporates your hair and dress design."
"Any name from you master is a honor to have, it's a wonderful name!"
"Now there won't be any misunderstandings if we happen across others."
"Then..." her eyes becoming even more brighter than they were, "Master!"
She suddenly hugged him, hiding the bashful smile on her face. Materializing behind her, her gauntlets clapped with joy, causing loud clangs.
"Yeah..."
Name: Furui Tsuki
Rarity: greater
Master: Nefeli
Natura: 300/300
Legacy:???
Bloodline: Tiefling
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[skill progression]
-
[new skills available]
[skills points available: 8]
[new title available]
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