Greythorne Manor Aftermath
●●●After A While●●●
She awoke from her slumber to a melodious lullaby. Yawning along the song, she could not help but snuggle closer to the soft, warm pillow beside her.
"I'm hungry..." she whined good-naturedly, settling on a comfortable smile.
"For what, little one?" Asked the smooth voice, draped in silk and honey.
"Hmmm... some danish?" She wondered, wrapping her arms around her human pillow. "Or cookies. Something pillowy."
"Cookies, I can grant, child." Replied the voice as she too draped her arms over Annalise's figure. "Pray tell, little rascal, do you still crave that of flesh and blood?"
Annalise tilted her head, confusion on her cute face. "Ew, no. Just cookies, please."
"Good, very good. Your brother, as his wont, would like that too." The voice was relieved as she caressed Annalise's blonde hair. "Now, you need not tell me if your ache bears too much..."
"Ugh, mommy. You talk like an old lady." She whined, loathing her way of words. Although she bragged herself mature for her own age, she still often falls prey to the wordplay the voice emits. A fact that had endeared her to the straightforward thoughts of her brother. "I won't talk to you if you talk like that."
"What a spoiled child you are!" the voice mused loudly, which caused Annalise to snuggle into her form tighter and roughly. "Fine. Pray tell, sweet pea, did you see who bit you? You do not have to tell me if you do not want to."
Anallise hesitated for a moment, guilt and frustration pervading her senses, yet her love for her brother and the voice prevailed. "There are four of them. Daddy Wally, old creepy zombie guy, Mrs. Thorrin, and then someone who I don't know."
The voice hummed as she picked up Annalise's figure and placed her next to her. "Good. Now why not tell Mommy all about it while we make cookies?"
Annalise's smile widened as she rejoiced, jumping from her bed and urging along the voice. "Yay, cookies with mommy."
●●●Jesus Christ●●●
"-, so it's done? I came here for nothing?" Asks the blond-haired middle-aged man, irritated at the scene before him. "And I thought I'd be the one to do the Greythorne wolves in. Shame."
"Yeah, me too." Replied Garth, still nursing the large bruise on his stomach with a cold brew. "Hey, thanks Bobby for me, would ya?"
"You tell him." Replied the other hunter, grumpy from the long drive to California for nothing but scraps and crumbs. "At least tell me you have a body?"
"Nah, the human family took everything in." Replied Garth, shaking his head before producing a thick stack of bills. "But they did tell me to give you this."
"W-what's this?" The hunter was aghast. Never in his decade long hunting jobs had he seen such a huge stack of money. "They're gonna bribe us again?"
Garth chuckled. "Nah, $2,000 is compensation for driving here for nothing and the other $2,000 is for, uh, what was it?"
"Future collaboration." Another voice finished Garth's thoughts. "We wouldn't want Kubrick after our ass, after all."
Kubrick raised an eyebrow, his hand instinctively going for his Colt Python holstered to his side. "You know me?"
"Of course. My father keeps a list of hunters skilled enough to hunt them down." Said Irwin, as he stepped out of the shadows of the Manor's guardhouse.
"Well, I just employ God's gift." Replied Kubrick, but a twitch in his kith betrayed his pride. "You, Richard?"
"Yes, sir. I killed the werewolf and gave you that money. Just wanted all our darkness to be left behind." Irwin explained, hoping his acting skills were enough to fool the experienced hunter. "As is God intended." He added, just in case.
"Good on you. I'll leave you be and I'll use this money to greater good, huh?"
"I know you will." Irwin smiled as he waved off the hunter. He then turned towards Garth, whose bandages made him look like a mummy. "How about you stay in town for a while. I have a business proposition for you."
"Business?"
"Job offer, to be specific."
●●●Cremation's The Only Way●●●
"Why so?" Asks Ellaise as she held the stiff icy hands of her mother.
"Any other than that and we risk supernatural entities comin' after her. Ghouls and Zombies more so. And it's dangerous for us too when her memories are browsed." Expounded Irwin as he readied a hunter's pyre for Eleanor. It took a day of poking and awkward conversation before he could propose the proper disposal of her mother to Ellaise. "I assure you, I will be very gentle and respectful."
"Like how you killed her?" She accused.
"You killed her!" He retorted hurriedly, but winced once he saw her face. "I'm sorry. Look, she was a werewolf, and she was trying to kill you for a futile cause. It was never going to work."
Ellaise huffed, secretly wiping her tears away. "Just make it quick."
Irwin watches her leave with an apologetic look on his face before turning to the corpse of Eleanor.
"Life's a bitch, huh?" He said then commanded his system. 'Trade Shop'
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[Trade Shop]
[Please Select And Specify The Item You Wish To Trade]
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"Eleanor Thorrin." He responded, a bit disappointed that he missed his chance of trading with Wallace. For when he awoke the next day, Archibald had told him that Anastasia and he decided to intern his corpse unto the Greythorne crypts. Well, part of the crypt that they had transferred over from England.
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[Trade Accepted]
[Trade List Incoming...]
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A blue window listing all possible trades appeared in front of him. His eyes rolling up and down as he skimmed every item. "Fuck, I still need a cloaking spell or item for the Seed of Eden. Why'd I have to buy that?"
He sighed upon his impulsive purchase, for he thought that the seed's effect was very much like a herbal supplement, capable of healing his body's moral wounds. Fortunately, he had half a mind to trade in another item.
He took a seat next to the corpse as he filtered through the list. "Show everything that helps with cloaking extensive areas or reducing visibility in it."
The window soon changed, removing the weapons and such in favor of keeping in the various spells, artifacts, and miscellaneous creatures capable of his demands. It took an entire minute for the filtered list to finish, after which Irwin started browsing, his fingers tapping the stiff eyebrows of Eleanor in silent contemplation.
"So, I should probably exclude consumables for it..." Irwin remarked to which the system complied immediately, removing the consumable items. "And should I include spells? Can I cast spells even? Menu."
[Character (!) || Skill || Supernatural Record (!) || Status || Quests (!) || Trade Shop]
"Oh, god. I forgot about the quest reward." Facepalming for being remiss, Irwin commanded the system to show his rewards.
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[Congratulations! You have accomplished your first Quest. Next Quest will be activated on: 29 Day/s]
[Basic Quest Reward: Five (5) Monster Banishing Sigil]
[Basic Quest Reward: One (1) Enchanted Iridium Dagger]
[Congratulations! You have completed the |Hidden Quest: Save Annalise Greythorne|]
[Hidden Quest Reward: Twenty (20) milliliters of Dragon's Breath spray]
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[Congratulations! You have activated a sub-function of the |Quests| Window: Rewards Counter]
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"Cool. Very cool." Elation thrummed and traced throughout his body as Irwin muffled his joyful laughter. He had a somewhat, if not outright, terrible relationship with Ellaise right now and laughing in a crypt while he was alone with her mother's corpse seemed creepy enough to warrant her resignation. "Navigate to Rewards Counter."
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[Rewards Counter]
▪︎ Monster Banishing Sigil 5x
▪︎ Enchanted Iridium Dagger 1x
▪︎ Dragon's Breath Spray (20 ml)
Note: All retrieved items cannot be returned to the counter
Note: No refunds
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"Sweet." Although it did not enable him to have a storage system, he could still use the counter for the same purpose for unusable or irrelevant rewards, so Irwin was still pretty stoked to have unlocked it. "Now show me Character."
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Name: Irwin Bellios/ ...Richard Greythorne IV
Age: 23
Race: Baneblood (Human)
Blood Type: 0 Negative
---
Level: 01
Job: Please Select!
Last Hunt: Pure-blood Werewolf (2nd Generation)
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"Oh, shit. So the Ancestor was a fucking second-gen wolf. Does that mean the Alpha Werewolf turned him?" Irwin shuddered at the thought of his previous opponent. He came so close to dying and didn't even know half of his enemy's danger. "I'll the Job option tomorrow. System, spells. How do I use it?"
"Really? We're doing this now, in front of a corpse, no less?"
"Fine. Define magic and system use."
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[The Great Hunter System hosts all eight types of magic available in this universe, of which five can be used using either the system function known as |Job| or through manual learning]
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"Alright, so it's possible. You're still a dick, though." Irwin nodded at the response, yet still understandably irritated by the system's stringent query system. "Return to the trade list. Include all aforementioned parameters and filters."
He skimmed the list as it popped up, looking for a suitable item or spell to hide the effects of the Seed Of Eden. "Hmmm, this should be fine. A bit costly, though." He remarked, taking note of a particular spell and asking for its information.
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● Ward Of Obviation [Spell Scroll] [Human Magic] | Trade For: Two (2) Copies
● Mark Of The Unending Dreams [Consumable] [Pagan Magic] | Trade For: One (1) Token
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[Ward Of Obviation: Inspired by the shadow magics of the ancient vampiric factions of the Baltics. The ward affects those who travel within its range, mentally and magically persuading them to return to their destination or, in stronger cases of infiltration, guides them to circumnavigate to their destination.
Ingredients: One (1) litre of One-hundred (100) year-old vampire blood...]
[Mark Of The Unending Dreams: Once the token is planted upon a land or area, the earth surrounding it will give rise to a shrine of Brėkšta whereupon she will bless the land with eternal darkness and retaliate any hostilities with the dreams of infinite chaos.]
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"Ok? The mark is a bit too much. So, yeah, give me two of the Ward." He commanded, to which the system complied promptly.
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[Ding! Trade Complete]
[Congratulations! You have traded more than once with the Great Hunter System and have activated the |Trade Shop| sub-function: Trade Counter]
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[Trade Counter]
▪︎ Paracelsus' Alchemical Concoction (1x)
▪︎ Seed Of Eden (1x)
▪︎ Ward Of Obviation (2x)
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"Well, now you're just spoiling me." Irwin joked as the smile on his face reached up to his ears.
●●●The Oak Tree●●●
"I don't say this often but... I hated this tree." Archibald said, grunting along as he sat atop its large overground root. "When we came here, it was raining. The people were looking at us like we were... monsters. But this tree? It gave us life, gave us a shadow with which we survived the rain with. Prolonged us, prolonged our suffering. I hate it."
"The tree is old, Archibald. Older than most. Its roots, embedded within the very land itself. Hate it, if you must, but it will still be here." Replied the grim feminine voice, warning him in her usual cryptic fashion. "Yet, for all its history and vitality, none had come to affix itself to such... an old conduit."
"So, you wish to be the one to do it, then?"
"I have no need for one. A spare, however, would not be unwanted." The voice's tone was hopeful, yet had a twinge of disinterest. "Yet I sense a different purpose for it in your mind.
"Aye, my son, Richard, said we ought to use this as an olive branch for the people of the Valley." Archibald had a content smile on his face as he remembered his son's passing remark. "Though I am not sure if he suggested such a move to remove me from his room. I could never guess with him."
"You are a loving father, Archibald, and a hopeful one, too." The voice complimented, bringing a wider smile to his face. "That, however, would be your doom. Naivety comes with a price."
His face fall flat from the insult, though it soon regained another one. "You speak, as my so-called naivety was all bad. Annalise was born of it, was she not?" He jerked his brown up and down, in his unsubtle meaning.
The voice sighed, yet a light chuckle soon came after. "Just... Careful with him, macushla, for with new nature come new thoughts. And new thoughts arise danger we not know of."
"I know, I know. I just... still... he still cares for us. He would not have killed the Ancestor if not for his love for us, no matter how many reasons he had." Archibald suggested more to himself than his companion.
"And that's why I fell for you."
Archibald chuckled before groaning, stretching his neck sideways. Remnants of the pain he had suffered from his brother's attack. Although he was thankful that his son's concoction had disabled the curse from proliferating in his body. "Speaking of whom, have you?"
"Aye, buried and protected. I have already contacted the Men of Letters of our predicament. Though their queries leaves much bitterness to my taste." The voice replied, chuckling to herself.
"Can you blame them? As much as they killed our kin, we eviscerated much more of them."
"I could, actually, blame them. But I would not. For you, grādh, I, too, will begin anew."
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End of the Greythorne Chapters. I'll see if I can post the next set of chapters within three days. Thanks!
Also, do the CTAs actually work?
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