Sudden Failure of the Hidden Quest

Although Mirage looked handsome and graceful but every smile he made would make him look like a psychopath that would make one tremble in fear, he's indeed terrifyingly charismatic just in a bad way.

'W-what is this? I wasn't informed that hiding beneath that graceful and handsome face was a sadistic man! Is it really okay for me to accept him as my disciple? Would I be branded as a sadistic raiser if he goes on a killing spree someday? I don't want that!'

She was already having second thoughts and opinions about whether she would still accept the sadist Mirage as her disciple or not.

Mirage was still clueless that he had missed the golden opportunity of becoming the apprentice of a great person.

***

After killing the last wolf, Mirage immediately received a notification that he leveled up.

[ Level 7 "Dire Wolf" has been slain. ]

[ You have been awarded 50 EXP as a result. ]

[ Congratulations! You are now Level 10! ]

[ You been awarded 1 attribute point as a result. ]

[ You now have the qualifications to change your class. Talk to the village protector for more details. ]

He had already leveled up to LV9 due to him killing monsters when he was on his way back to Misty Town yesterday.

He was extremely tired yesterday thus he immediately stopped hunting monsters and avoided them instead and when he arrived at the town he then went to find a room to rent so that he could rest from his long journey.

And right now, after killing countless monsters he was finally able to change his class, but that would have to wait until he gets back to town though.

For now, he should accompany Mercedes inside the forest instead.

He opened his character panel.

< Character Information >

[ Name: Mirage ]

[ HP: 54/54 ] [ MP: 120/120 ]

[ Race ]

— [ Human ]

[ Class ]

— [ None (Eligible to Change Class) ]

[ Title ]

— [ None ]

[ Level ]

— [ Level 10 (0/10,240) ]

[ Attributes ]

— [ Strength: 1 ]

— [ Agility: 1 ]

— [ Intelligence: 10 ]

— [ Stamina: 1 ]

[ Usable Points ]

— [ Attribute Points: 1 ]

— [ Skill Points: None ]

He stopped himself from allocating the attribute point he received as he felt that it would be best used in an emergency.

Just a single point would probably not do that much though, but as the saying goes "Every little thing matters." Thus this would eventually serve its purpose someday and who doesn't want a bit of an extra precaution anyways?

He was checking his gains when he suddenly heard a clapping sound behind him, he turned back and saw Mercedes stiffly clapping her hands with a somewhat awkward smile.

He did not know why she's acting this strange but he still went towards her and wanted to thank her for her timely assistance when he saw her suddenly stepping back, he paused in his tracks and he looked at her with a face of utter confusion.

She saw that he was taken aback by her sudden actions thus Mercedes immediately restrained her emotions and kept them in check, she then went on towards Mirage and congratulated him for his success.

She thickens her face and shamelessly said.

"It was a splendidly marvelous fight, you look heroic while you were fighting with the wolves earlier. I could deal with them by myself though but still, I appreciate your kindness in protecting the beautiful princess in distress."

She smiled cutely and giggled, her laugh made the awkward atmosphere between them greatly dissipate, he was relieved and embarrassed at the same time but she did not retort her claims as she was indeed right that she could definitely deal with the wolves with her strength.

When he was fighting earlier she wasn't even the least bit noticed by them and only focused their attacks on him, she had even managed to confused her enemies to help him when he's in danger.

He thought that her illusion skills were really good and felt that she was quite deserving of her title as the Great Illusionist.

He was silently thinking to himself when he heard her ask in a concerned voice.

"Y-you... can't you go and clean yourself first before we continue our travel? You look really filthy right now..."

He was touched by her show of concern towards him and thought that there was still someone in this game who cared for him, so he gave her of what seemed to be a bright and sunny smile towards the horrified Mercedes.

In her eyes, he looked extremely malevolent and it was as if her thoughts from earlier were coming true thus she was extremely scared and her emotional defenses immediately broke down with just that single 'bright' smile of his.

She opened her mouth and let out a terrified shriek then she instantly ran away from him without even saying anything.

Mirage froze on the spot as he did not know why she had suddenly screamed like that and even run away from her position.

He woke up from his stupor and hurried to chase after Mercedes while occasionally calling out her name it was as if he was hoping for her to stop running as his running speed is much slower than her after all.

Mercedes didn't do as what he was thinking and even ran faster while leaving a panicked and anxious voice behind.

"Don't come near me you madman!"

She gave one last shriek then she finally disappeared from his sight and he also simultaneously received a prompt for his quest failure.

[ You have failed a quest! ]

[ The following quest penalties would be applied shortly after... ]

[ Your favorability with Mercedes has been reduced by 10 points! Current Favorability: -10. ]

[ Your level has decreased by 1. Current Level: 9. ]

[ Your 1 attribute point has been retracted as a result. ]

His level immediately went down from the initial LVL10 to LVL9, his face went pale and his face wore an expression of shock and anger after seeing this.

***

All this time, he thought that his little sister was just jesting at him for saying that he looked creepy every time he smiles and he indeed did not believe her claims as he asked their mother about this but she only gave him a sweet and gentle smile.

She looked at him with love and care while his father would only look at him with his cold and emotionless eyes thus he had not bothered to ask his father about this.

Sadly, he had no friends that he could ask for he's living in a secluded manner due to the various attempts of assassination.

He felt quite lonely now that he thought about it.

He silently muttered to himself.

"Am I really that scary?"

He said this in a helpless voice but then he suddenly remembered the penalties that the quest had given thus he immediately lashed out.

"That little girl! How could she do this to me?! I'll remember this grievance that you've caused and you will pay for this someday for sure!"

He grinded his teeth in hate while saying this.

He was known for his vengeful personality of not letting himself suffer any small grievance and he had played quite a number of games which he was often PK'ed by other players.

He hated these types of people that bullied the weak thus after he gained enough strength he immediately went on to suppress the people who had bullied him and some even quit the game either in rage or embarrassment.

His malignant personality did not go unnoticed by the gaming circles and in fact, he was a shockingly infamous figure that was often called by others "Mad Cloud".

"Mad" means his crazy and vengeful personality while "Cloud" means that his graceful and skillful gaming skills were like that of fleeting yet malevolent clouds.

His title made others feel repulsed on befriending him thus even though he had already played games for so long, he had not managed to befriend a single online friend himself.

No one knows if they were afraid of him because of his unstable personality or just felt repulsed because of his title.

Mirage still felt upset when he was interrupted by another pack of dire wolves and this time he wanted to use them to vent his anger on these pitiful souls.

Thus he immediately jumped towards the pack without hesitation.

***

A whole day passed and it was almost nighttime when Mirage finished his monster hunt as he had to stop because he already received the long-awaited level-up notification.

[ Congratulations! You have become Level 10! 1 attribute point awarded. ]

[ You now have the qualifications to change your class. Talk to the village protector for more details. ]

He breathed a sigh of relief and said to himself.

"Sigh, I can finally go back."

At this moment, his face looked extremely haggard and tired while his clothes were drenched with varying colors of blood.

He sniffed himself and thought that he's too smelly right now thus he wanted to at least find a stream of river or a small pond of clean water so that he could wash himself clean right now.

He then took a map out of his inventory, he opened the paper parchment and it displayed a detailed drawing of the town and the forest that surrounds it.

There were various marks indicating the different types of monster lairs and he could even see the unmarked location of the Goblin Castle on the map.

He thought that it was quite strange for it to be still undiscovered by the adventurers even after all this time.

They should've been able to discover this castle considering the establishment time of the town but he had no plans on informing the town about this discovery though as he didn't want for the town to keep all the loot they discovered for themselves and possibly reason him that its either saying for his 'protection fees', 'taxes', etcetera.

He resumed finding a body of water on the map and immediately saw a long river not far away from his current location and it's just a few kilometers away so he immediately went on and set off to where the river was.