14 Unhappy Reunion

The tavern at the farming village of Daenia was empty almost throughout the day. It seemed that the locals were too scared to venture here. Instead, they retreated to their homes and cowered there waiting for news that the monsters that encircled their town had been defeated.

It gave me time to get to know Alfred the barkeep, his wife Hilda and their daughter Thomas. Alfred used to be a mercenary in Dorn or as they were commonly referred to in a derogatory manner; Sellswords. He killed whomever he was asked to kill until he came across Hilda, the daughter of the man he had just killed. Through a twist of fate, they ended up in love and Hilda with child. He used the proceeds for his evil deeds to open a tavern and become a barkeep.

"I was terrible at first," Alfred said.

"At being a father or a barkeep?" I asked.

"Both, young lad," Alfred said with a hearty grin. "I drank what I was supposed to sell to my customers and got home drunk everyday."

Somehow I didn't find it hard to believe. Alfred reminded me of my grand-father. He had an honest smile and haunted eyes. His stories seemed to go on forever. Until another figure appeared at the door of the tavern.

"Jon?" a familiar voice said from behind.

I look around to see my team members from serenity. Apparently, they were the adventurers sent from Dorn. Luxy rushed into the tavern and embraced me tightly until I could barely breathe. Alfred gave me a wink and a thumbs up and retreated behind his counter. I looked flush with embarrassment.

"Where have you been?" she asked. "We went to Lindisfarne and only found a massive crater where the town was supposed to be."

That was my doing. I put in all my mana into a single strike with Auriel's bow even though I knew what would happen.

"That was my fault, I said. "I went overboard with Auriel's bow."

"How did you survive that?!" Savage asked.

"That's a long story," I replied.

"Well, we all missed you," Luxy said. "Are you going to rejoin us?"

"That's also a long story," I finally said.

I had no qualms about rejoining serenity but I needed to do something about Altair. One way or the otherm he had to be stopped.

"Is it just me or is the tavern way too empty?" Namey said. "The entire town seems semi-deserted."

"I think I know why," I said.

"Tell us," Luxy said as she took a seat at my table across from me. Namey and Savage joined her and took seats on either side of me.

"I think the monsters are turning the locals into monsters like them and now they're too afraid to come out," I said. "Except for Alfred, he strikes me as someone who isn't afraid of death."

"You worked at Genesis, Four-eyes," Savage said. "What are these things?"

"Don't call me four-eyes," Namey said to Savage. "And there isn't a class of monsters that can convert NPCs into monsters."

"Can you stop calling them that?" I said

"Calling them what?" Namey asked

"Stop calling them NPCs. To me they're real people with lives and families," I said.

"We're sorry Jon. We'll stop," Luxy said.

"On a more important note, we need to scout these things first," Savage said.

"I already did that," I said.

I took the time to explain my findings in detail. How the red monsters were human-like, how they shuffled around mindlessly until they got an order from the purple queen who was slightly smaller but still bi-pedal and then suddenly moved with stunning speed and attacked with powerful, vicious swipes of their elongated talons. I told them how the monsters were blind and required constant communication with the purple queen to locate their prey using fear also how only magic attacks were effective against them.

"Then the strategy is to lure the followers away from the queen and let Jon take her out?" Namey said.

"How do you know it's a her, four-eyes?" Savage said.

"I think he's just assuming," Luxy said.

"How are your strength and sneak skills, Jon?" Namey said ignoring the jab from Savage. "You should upgrade your strength and agility to improve your range,"

"How?" I asked.

"Open your status window," Namey said.

"What's a status window?" I asked.

They all stared at me like I had just asked why water was wet. Now that I think about it, why is water wet? Luckily, Luxy came to my rescue.

"This might help," Luxy said while handing me a ring. "It's an item I got for killing a B-class fairy."

"Why would you kill a fairy?" Savage asked. "I thought they were gentle and helpful to players."

"It ran its mouth about how my armour was ugly so I shut it up," Luxy said with a smile.

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. We all thought of Luxy as the calm and kind one. We didn't like to imagine her as a cold-blooded and sadistic killer.

I quickly put on the ring and a floating box appeared in front of me. I nearly keeled over in my chair from sheer surprise. It had my details at the top and a list of what seemed like my attributes.

Jon Winchester

[No Class]

[Survivor of Lindisfarne] -[No Other Titles]-

Rank: F

One-Handed: LVL 1 [7 upgrades available]

Two-Handed: LVL 1 [5 upgrades available]

Archery: LVL 1 [19 upgrades available]

Heavy Armour: LVL 1 [2 upgrades available]

Strength: LVL 1 [10 upgrades available]

Sneak: LVL 1 [12 upgrades available]

Agility: LVL 1 [12 upgrades available]

Vitality: LVL 1 [11 upgrades available]

Speed: LVL 1 [13 upgrades available]

Skills: Fast Learner (+1000% XP bonus), True aim (Archery +20lvl), Jack of all trades (No armour equip penalties), Shadow play LVL 1 (2 upgrades available)

"Wow, this is so cool," I said. "I honestly didn't know about this before."

Jon Winchester

[No Class]

[Survivor of Lindisfarne] -[No Other Titles]-

Rank: C

One-Handed: LVL 8

Two-Handed: LVL 6

Archery: LVL 20

Heavy Armour: LVL 3

Strength: LVL 11

Sneak: LVL 13

Agility: LVL 13

Vitality: LVL 12

Speed: LVL 14

Skills: Fast Learner (+1000% XP bonus), True aim (Archery +20lvl), Jack of all trades (No armour equip penalties), Shadow play LVL 3

***

I stood on a cliff and watched my teammates from serenity enter the woods with my shadow clones. The plan was to find the queen and lure out her minions so that I can take her out from a distance.

Easy peasy. Nothing could go wrong.

Hopefully once the queen was dead, her minions would fall as well.

The plan went almost smoothly. Nearly perfectly.

Until the end.

They lured out the red ones and held them back until my shadow clones located the queen. My first shot wounded her but the next three took her out. And all done from a high vantage point and at long range with a crappy bow.

Unfortunately for us, we found out the hard way that the queen was merely holding them back. Without her mind control, their eyes became unsewn and they attacked viciously and indiscriminately. While we battled some of them, the rest headed for the village.

Namey obscured their vision with his sandstorm skill while Luxy buried her dagger in their limbs immobilising them so that Savage could cut them in half.

I on the other hand went after the ones that escaped, desperately trying to kill them from range but I was almost out of magic. I started to regret losing Auriel's bow. It took minimal mana but allowed me to unleash powerful attacks. My current bow was a useless piece of stick in comparison.

We were eventually able to subdue the rest but not before they killed a few of the townspeople including a family who were slaughtered in their home while they slept. The monsters tore their victims to shreds and painted their home with blood.

It was only the next day that I knew that the home belonged to Alfred.

At the next days light, we made another startling discovery.

The vampires (as we now called them due to their bloodthirsty nature) were indeed transformed villagers. After they are turned, they seek out those who they hated, resented or merely envied while they were alive in order to exact their revenge.

Namey had no idea how this could happen because it was not part of Tomiyasu's world design. Whatever was happening it was new and unplanned.

Someone was purposefully corrupting characters.

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