A beautiful new world

To say that the landscape that my eyes could reach from the gate of the prison was beautiful, would be a gross understatement. In fact, I couldn't even find anything in my memories that would give justice to the sight in front of my eyes during comparison, as there simply wasn't anything that could match the natural beauty that was spreading in all directions.

Lush, green forest with the tops of the trees that it consisted of swinging on the wind, long stretches of grasslands that somehow gave off the feeling of the best possible place to rest for a quick nap… Even the air itself smelled as some damned toilet deodorant one would use after drinking too much coffee before visiting one's restroom!

"While I shouldn't leave the prison for too long… I will do you a favour and escort you to the election site just in case the patriarch were to seek revenge."

There was something strange with both the expression and the tone of the guard. All the years of experience on both the lowest and relatively high positions within the organisation made it pretty easy for me to notice those aspects, yet I was in no position to actually judge what was the meaning behind them. After all, I had way more important problems right now!

*Universal cleaner Level 1*

*Increases all aspects level by 1 without the growth penalty*

*Your current aspects: O L2(1/2) S L2(1/2) C L2(1/2)*

*Your overall level: 6*

As nice as basically doubling my basic skills was, even though I had no idea how would that influence me or my capabilities, I could already see the general problem that was bound to appear sooner or later.

Compared to my skills that I already found a way to develop with my own efforts alone, there was absolutely no hint as to level up this new constitution of mine!

Thankfully, this empty worry of mine was discarded, as this world proved to me that even the beauty of the landscape that I could gaze at from the hill where the main gate of the prison was located, was nothing but a shadow of the true awesomeness that it had to offer.

"You look strange. Did something happen?"

Outside of how this prison guard was surprisingly attentive to my needs and humour, there was one more thing that managed to catch me off-guard. For some, it might be just a little nuance, for others - like me - it was something that could only be taken in the categories of incredible stuff that couldn't be explained even when ignoring all the laws of physics and logic that I ever heard about.

A floating fucking islands!

From the point of view of someone located on the ground - was this kind of sentence even valid in a world where the ground itself could float? - those islands looked like an inverted pyramid of stone and bare earth, with only a hint of the buildings that sprawled on their surface visible from the level of my perspective.

"Nothing much. It's just that it's a first time for me to fully enjoy the fresh air of the outside after spending my due time in prison. You could say that my time behind bars allowed me to start learning how pleasant even the smallest things can be in one's life… Sir."

Not really sure how I was supposed to refer to this guard, the easiest choice was to just use enough respect to keep my speech polite, without approaching the border of extensive bootlicking that could only lead to the spike of wariness of the man.

"Either way, thankfully we don't need to travel much. You are making me seriously worried that if the selections were taking place just a bit further, you could just sit down on the ground and start jerking yourself off to nature…"

Those two ironic sentences were filled with as much of a jokingly tone as much as they were serious. This kind of reaction from the guard instantly raised my awareness. After all, only someone greatly perturbed by some actions of mine could figure out this kind of silly and infantile comparison… would one?

*Failed to clear the guard's suspicion.*

*Hidden quest failed*

*Emergency quest - clear guard's suspicions!*

Before we could ever cover the short distance that separated our initial position from the nearest settlement where the guard was leading me, this strange entity that dared to infest my mind had to remind me about its existence. As if one couldn't explore this strange, clearly open world without thinking about this something even for a damned moment!

"Sir, this question might sound… a bit intrusive, but would you be as kind as to tell me whether something strange happened at the selection grounds during my… prison caused absence?"

Taking off the stupid smirk that accompanied me to this point, I made my face turn serious. If acting as I did so far failed the quest that this strange entity enforced on me, then in order to clear the emergency task, I could only attempt that my entire act so far was nothing but… an act.

"Hmm? What would you possibly mean by that?"

Openly sending a quick and meaningful glance to the guard, I pretended as if there was some kind of message behind my expression. In reality, though, I only wanted to learn how would this man react to my question without making his suspicions grow even bigger.

"Do I really need to spell that out? The selection is not around the corner but it's happening right now as we speak. Putting a candidate in prison for such a minor offence at this kind of timing? Given how you didn't make any attempts at my life so far, I'm willing to take the risk of asking you this damned question, so you can stop giving me those weird looks."

Instead of allowing the man to lead the discussion in any direction he would like, I used the small trick to subdue the entire conversation. While it bore a risk of the man flaring up at my arrogant approach, I preferred to sour the relationship with someone that I would most likely never met again in my life rather than taking the bet against a system capable with messing up with my vision!

*Host cleared out the guard's suspicions with his clean talking skill*

*Emergency quest fulfilled*

*Doubling the reward of the standard reward*

*Adding two skill points to social cleaning skill*

*New social cleaning skill is 3(1/3)*

"I would lie if I were to tell that everything goes as usual… But it will be better if you see it with your own eyes, young master."