The Shattered Sky

Merlin 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?" Merlin snapped out of his daze. "You and Kilo, I don't see it."

"Her name isn't Kilo!" The elf angrily remarked. "Her name is Cecelia, or it was before she took on that strange alias."

Merlin 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 implements into the air.

Various questions were racing through Merlin'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. Merlin 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 moments 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 seemed somewhat disappointed, but Merlin 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)"?」

Merlin 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, +5% Stealth, ⟪Ambush⟫

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Merlin 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 times, continuing to ask questions in a domineering voice, but the troll remained silent.

"Just tell me 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, Merlin just walked beside him in silence, fearing that any further inquiry would result in the elf redirecting his anger towards him.

A few moments passed before the elf spoke up, a barely audible, yet sombre tone. "Has anybody told you about the strange phenomenon that happened a few months ago?"

Merlin'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 me about it?" He asked in a sympathetic tone.

The elf looked at Merlin for a moment, and then turned back towards the dark tunnel they came from. "Sure, this probably involves you too, so you should learn about it."

Merlin's curiosity had peaked, he hadn't heard anything about a strange phenomenon in the beta stage last time. And yet for some strange reason, it apparently involved him, he was even more invested. Merlin 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 me 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 me and my wife, so I never saw how it disappeared, but when we left the temple it was gone."

Merlin was shocked that nobody else in the beta stage brought such an event up, not even in the previous timeline. Such a world changing event would surely be common knowledge, but this was the first time he had heard of it. But what Merlin 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 became increasingly violent, choosing to leave their territories and raid our settlements."

"The first attack was just a horde of orcs that had attacked the city of Charisia, which at the time was extremely 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 settlements 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 settlements. There are still plenty of them we can no longer reach, or have confirmed that they're no longer inhabited. One of these settlements 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 me?" Merlin asked, not sure if he had properly understood.

"I'll get to that part in a moment. The monster invasion was the first strange event to happen, but what came 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."

Merlin realised where this part of the story was going, but he still listened.

"Lycosura was a city southwest of Megalopolis, it was the home 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 phenomenon, they suddenly became 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 experimentation. And by the time 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 something big."

"And one more major event occurred." The elf's voice dropped once more. "My wife suddenly left the temple, pushed me and our daughter away, and locked herself in a walled compound while calling herself an oracle."

"The temple wouldn't help me 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 mention 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 me."

"In my desperation, I involved myself with even the lowest of society, and this organisation formed by chance." The elf laughed in self pity, "Can you believe it? A priest who runs a criminal organisation, how shameful."

"It's not as unusual as you might think." Merlin 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 me further, she dressed them up like they were dolls and kept them as pets." The thief lord was clenching his fist so hard Merlin 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 name Rig. All those losses for a single name."

"Wait, I met with her, why don't you suspect me as a spy?" Merlin 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 can't 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.

Merlin realised at that point why he was allowed into the thieves guild, even though he was extremely suspicious. It wasn't just the elf's curiosity, but the elf had an agenda and Merlin 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 phenomenon. You somehow 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 Merlin could tell it was a facade. The elf walked off after giving Merlin a final nod of acknowledgement, causing a quest notification to appear before him.

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[Hidden Epic Quest]

The shattered sky.

A strange phenomenon 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 some of the issues it has caused.

• Warning: Accepting this quest will increase the possibility of strange phenomenon occurring around you, this could potentially interrupt other quests.

• Reward: ???

• Failure: ???

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