rlin was shocked to the point he found himself unable to respond, so he continued to stab the troll in silence.
「Critical hits remaining: 22」
"Wait, seriously?" rlin snapped out of his daze. "You and Kilo, I don’t see it."
"Her na isn’t Kilo!" The elf angrily remarked. "Her na is Cecelia, or it was before she took on that strange alias."
rlin was taken aback by the snappy response, but his curiosity grew.
"Oracle, she’s no oracle... She’s a demon who stole the body of my wife." The elf banged his fist on a nearby table, sending various torture implents into the air.
Various questions were racing through rlin’s mind, but it didn’t seem like the elf was willing to answer any further, and his mood took a turn for the worst. rlin didn’t want to risk falling out of favour with the NPC, he still had to interact with him in the future and having a good impression would make his life easier.
「Critical hits remaining: 3」
The last three attacks ended almost instantly, causing a notification to appear before him.
「You have completed the quest, "The Thief Lord’s expectation", visit the leader of the thieves guild to receive your rewards.」
He was hunched over while attacking the troll, which caused his back to stiffen up. So he spent a few monts stretching as he stood up. He walked over to the elf, each step being followed by slight resistance as he traversed the pool of sticky black blood that surrounded the troll.
"You pass." The elf spoke up. He seed sowhat disappointed, but rlin wasn’t sure if that was targeted towards him or not.
「You have empty soul slots, would you like to absorb, "Class Soul: Thief (Level 1)"?」
rlin accepted the notification, and another notification appeared, informing him that he absorbed the soul successfully.
「"Class Soul: Thief (Level 1)" has been successfully absorbed.」
An information window appeared showing him the stats of his new soul.
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Class Soul: Thief • Level 1
Bonus Stats: 2 Dexterity, 5% Stealth
Abilities: ⟪Sneak⟫
Origin Soul Bonuses: 2 Agility, 1 Dexterity, ⟪Ambush⟫
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rlin waved the information window away. He was satisfied, the three quests had boosted his dexterity by four and an extra two from the soul had raised his dexterity stat to ten. Leaving it only three points lower than his strength stat, but high enough that using a dagger wouldn’t be disadvantageous.
The elf walked over and kicked the troll around a few more tis, continuing to ask questions in a domineering voice, but the troll remained silent.
"Just tell who the leader is and I’ll give you a painless death." The elf lashed out in frustration while sinking the heel of his boot into the troll’s face. "I’m sick of this, they never talk."
A few minutes passed, and the two eventually left the makeshift prison. The thief lord appeared to be dejected, rlin just walked beside him in silence, fearing that any further inquiry would result in the elf redirecting his anger towards him.
A few monts passed before the elf spoke up, a barely audible, yet sombre tone. "Has anybody told you about the strange phenonon that happened a few months ago?"
rlin’s ears perked up when the words escaped the elf’s lips. He had heard similar conversation starters before, and more often than not they typically led to quests, this was an opportunity to get back the NPC’s respect, but he was also just generally very curious.
"No, would you tell about it?" He asked in a sympathetic tone.
The elf looked at rlin for a mont, and then turned back towards the dark tunnel they ca from. "Sure, this probably involves you too, so you should learn about it."
rlin’s curiosity had peaked, he hadn’t heard anything about a strange phenonon in the beta stage last ti. And yet for so strange reason, it apparently involved him, he was even more invested. rlin slowed his pace to match the elf’s, and gave him an expression to show that he was ready to listen.
"Alright, well it all started a few months ago." The elf recounted his story with sadness in his voice, "One day, a deafening boom echoed throughout the lands, and those outside bore witness to a large hole in the sky. It was as if the sky had shattered like glass, revealing an eerie darkness underneath."
"It was pure nothingness, there is no way I can properly describe the feeling, but staring into the darkness made feel empty." The elf’s body started shaking, as though he was afraid. "It was in the sky for only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. The temple ordered all the priests to pray for divine intervention, that included and my wife, so I never saw how it disappeared, but when we left the temple it was gone."
rlin was shocked that nobody else in the beta stage brought such an event up, not even in the previous tiline. Such a world changing event would surely be common knowledge, but this was the first ti he had heard of it. But what rlin was actually focusing on was that the elf and Kilo were apparently once both priests, and he found that more surprising.
"But that wasn’t the end of it. Strange events continued to occur days, weeks and even months after the sky had shattered. The biggest issue was that monsters beca increasingly violent, choosing to leave their territories and raid our settlents."
"The first attack was just a horde of orcs that had attacked the city of Charisia, which at the ti was extrely unusual as their territory was in the mountain range much further west." The elf explained, "Everyone thought it was an unfortunate coincidence at first. But hordes of monsters from various territories began attacking all the towns and cities on the west side of the region. Those closest to the monster’s territories were attacked first, but they continued a path of destruction that only ended once the major cities fought them off."
"A large wall was built to separate the east and west, but it couldn’t be made big enough to wall off the entire region." The elf continued, "There are still perfectly thriving towns and cities on the western side of the wall. And most people living in those settlents still retain the lifestyle they enjoyed prior to the incident, while others have enjoyed the new occupation the situation has afforded them, monster hunting."
"But while we do receive news from, and even trade with, the various western settlents. There are still plenty of them we can no longer reach, or have confird that they’re no longer inhabited. One of these settlents we’re unable to contact is the fortress city Charisia" The elf finished his explanation of the monster invasions.
"So the sky event led to a monster invasion, but what does that have to do with ?" rlin asked, not sure if he had properly understood.
"I’ll get to that part in a mont. The monster invasion was the first strange event to happen, but what ca next ties into it." The elf began leaking bloodlust as he continued explaining his story. "We later found out that a great deal of villages and towns hadn’t been destroyed by monsters, but rather by people."
rlin realised where this part of the story was going, but he still listened.
"Lycosura was a city southwest of galopolis, it was the ho of a secretive mystery cult. They were worshippers of the mistress, Despoina. They were once friendly, preferring to keep to themselves and worship in silence, but after the phenonon, they suddenly beca enamoured in the taboo magic of soul manipulation." The thief lord began grinding his teeth, "Using the monster invasion as cover, they began raiding towns, using the villagers for taboo experintation. And by the ti we realised what they had done, they had already fled, only showing up every so often to raid another town, but we believe they’re planning sothing big."
"And one more major event occurred." The elf’s voice dropped once more. "My wife suddenly left the temple, pushed and our daughter away, and locked herself in a walled compound while calling herself an oracle."
"The temple wouldn’t help when I told them my wife had been possessed by a demon. She was calling herself Kilo, so I searched through every piece of scripture the temple had, looking for any ntion of a snake bearing demon, but I couldn’t find anything." He continued to speak, his voice sounding incredibly hoarse. "Eventually I was stripped of my title and kicked from the temple, but I continued to search for a solution, I wasn’t going to let a demon steal my wife from ."
"In my desperation, I involved myself with even the lowest of society, and this organisation ford by chance." The elf laughed in self pity, "Can you believe it? A priest who runs a criminal organisation, how shaful."
"It’s not as unusual as you might think." rlin remarked.
"I began sending spies into the compound to figure out the demon’s goals. But the demon caught and bewitched them, turning them into mindless puppets. And as if to mock further, she dressed them up like they were dolls and kept them as pets." The thief lord was clenching his fist so hard rlin could see small trails of blood form. "Eventually one of the spies I sent in had escaped, and all we discovered was that she was hunting down a man who goes by the na Rig. All those losses for a single na."
"Wait, I t with her, why don’t you suspect as a spy?" rlin asked.
"I did, at first... But while manipulating a person through their soul is a dangerously powerful form of magic, it has a lot of quirks and restrictions. And in your case, your status as a lost one, or traveller, is what protected you. You cant use that accursed magic to manipulate those without a whole soul, or those with several souls. So both you and those vile creatures are safe." He said, pointing back towards the troll hybrid.
rlin realised at that point why he was allowed into the thieves guild, even though he was extrely suspicious. It wasn’t just the elf’s curiosity, but the elf had an agenda and rlin just so happened to be the perfect tool for the job.
"And finally, the biggest event in your life was also most likely a result of the strange phenonon. You sohow arrived into our world, I can only imagine it is related to the sky shattering, a hole forming in our world, allowing you to fall in." The elf didn’t seem so sure of himself, "That’s my theory anyway."
The conversation ended as they reached the end of the tunnel, the elf’s downtrodden expression suddenly lit up as though he was happy, but rlin could tell it was a facade. The elf walked off after giving rlin a final nod of acknowledgent, causing a quest notification to appear before him.
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[Hidden Epic Quest]
The shattered sky.
A strange phenonon occurred only months prior to your arrival, causing various world changing events to occur.
If you figure out the cause, perhaps you could discover a way to reverse it or at the very least quell so of the issues it has caused.
• Warning: Accepting this quest will increase the possibility of strange phenonon occurring around you, this could potentially interrupt other quests.
• Reward: ???
• Failure: ???
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