a defective system

Stephan watched Richard with a smile, observing hesitantly then certainly. An exceptionally tall elf that looked down upon him understanding his shallow behavior as an attempt of disrespect and dishonesty, the man noticed the sceptre behind his back and chuckled.

"Such a rather weird way for a mage to hold his staff!" he said slowly with an air of dignity, "One has to admit that a wanderer mage isn't a normal occurrence these days. Who paid you to come and greet me with your filthy mouth, human?"

"No one… First, complimenting my mouth wouldn't give you the privilege of me adding golds to your pouch. Second, I am not here to greet you. Unfortunately, I have to complete a quest and I put a certain period over my head to finish it. Third, I don't like it when you make me raise my head like this. Please, get on your knees. It will take me time to become taller like you."

"I heard mages were despicable creatures; they lacked honor and honesty. Being in the presence of one of them was like sitting in front a snake. I do not wish to demean you as you are… only a tiny mage," he turned around, leaving carefully, keeping the presence of the witch in his mind.

She was a beautiful one in his eyes. She could certainly pass as an elf if she put fake pointy ears. Humans didn't have the constant beauty of the elves that didn't fade even when time affected all the surroundings. That woman was cursed in his eyes. With her red hair and red eyes that inspired the colors of blood and hell, she flitted around the apprentice mage like a gorgeous flower.

Richard mounted his mare, the witch not leaving him with her eyes, she had put her eyes on him and she bet the man had his ways with pleasure. He glanced at her one last time before going on his way. He didn't know that destiny would always make them meet, whether in a dance of blood or a dance of pleasure.

As soon as they left, Stephan moved to the corpses and crouched. There was a terrible stench and blood created a pool under their feet. He was sure of the main goal of the test and the reason behind getting the sacred weapons before it was too late.

'You have been keeping this for a while, skeleton. Isn't what we really look for is in that castle over there,' he raised his head to the distance, gazing at the further castle drowning in darkness and mist, standing on top of a cliff.

<You must have noticed for quite a while now. The system Aurora Von Peregrinator made remains proper only to Masmoenia. You will not get real quests until you raise your level. With more level, your strength will grow and you will have powerful quests unlocked. However, the system will stop functioning properly if you are thrown into similar cases like these.>

'Which means you are the one who gives the quests and the guidance… No wonder you called yourself a guide. Aurora meant to leave the system with free choices. If I don't want to do a quest, then I won't have to.'

<The system is an evolver. It will evolve with your level. Therefore, there will be penalties like the one you experienced when you failed the tutorial. Indeed, you will be offered a choice to not do the quests, but you will have to do a penalty quest to annul the main one and mark it as done.>

'Then I won't have to do the penalty quest, either.'

<You don't understand, lad. The system is built in a way you will never escape the main quests. Even if you are offered a choice, you don't have it.>

'Then why do you turn around the bush? Speak directly so I can understand. Since I have no choice in the matter, you should have said so and ended the talk instead of just going around and speaking all kinds of words, contradicting yourself.'

<All the words I say stay true to themselves. What I meant to say is that once you are in tests like these, the system won't be able to help you in anything. You are on your own. You were unfortunate when you had me as a guide. I don't guarantee other tests will have one. I directed you to the main test by helping the messengers. Mostly, you will understand the rest on your own since you experienced all those tests beforehand.>

'You just want to say she is making my life harder. She is indeed a crazy woman. Soprana was right.'

No matter how he turned it around in his head, the system was just inexistent for him. It was mysteriously standing aside and it crept him. He stood up and stretched. It wasn't in his habit to dwell over matters that didn't have answers; it would come all in the right time. For the moment, the most important thing was to reach that castle and get the sacred weapons back before they got contaminated.

"What were you thinking about? Have you reached the answer to your destination?"

He turned around and looked at the witch, not impressed at all. She was playing with her tiny wand and making butterflies appear out of thin air.

"I believe we should reach a town before heading to our destination. We need to catch up to those elves; I might be in need of them and I have a feeling they won't be quite comprehensive."

"You were studying them like rat labs. It's normal they would feel offended. You should probably apologize."

"Why must I do that? They are my eyes and I do with them whatever I want."

"They mustn't be so far from us. I bet they will be looking for an inn in a city since they will need to replenish their resources and rest before resuming their journey. The closest city here is Revampirina. Do you want to go there?"

"Isn't it a city that belongs to vampires?"

"Yes, it is. Even if they control it now, they didn't change many things. They just asked for blood bags as payment for protection and the right to live in it."