A change within...

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"We're traveling warriors!"

/Shock!/

/Thud.../

"I... See..."

"But what does that have to do with this?" Dale asked in a confused tone as he closed his eyes to recover his focus

'What is he on about? Is he really trying to talk his way out of this situation?'

'Very bold for him to lie to me despite all of this...'

'Azimuth does give you a lot of freedom of choice, and there are many Quests that can be created on the spot in regards to the player's actions and needs.'

'So he must be trying to create a fake scenario to explain his and his friends' existences and hopefully, try to save himself from being logged out or worse…'

'Normally, an NPC would just tell him to screw off... But I'll give him a chance.'

'More for myself than anyone else, it would only be detrimental to throw away the player that believes in me...'

'Alright, go on, see if you can convince me, otherwise...'

Being given the chance to speak, Rodi looked elated.

So after thinking for a few seconds, he said:

"It's simple… We're traveling warriors in search of places to improve ourselves."

"We've heard rumors about a place where we could train and grow, and eventually, our path led us to this place!"

"I was the first of my companions to arrive, and thanks to that I met you and started earning my keep…"

Rodi was trying his best to not stutter as he continued his ridiculous story:

"But we aren't alone! Those that you saw are our sworn enemies! Following us everywhere due to our fame and accomplishments!"

"So?..."

"Cough!... Due to my carelessness, I may have spilled some things to them…"

"..."

Dale observed Rodi with a serious look, maintaining his poker face thanks to his Skill.

But deep down, he wanted to laugh hysterically.

"Let me see if I understand." He said with a frown as he rubbed his eyebrows

"You are all traveling warriors and recently, you heard rumors about this Village and you came here in search of the possibility of improving?"

"And you drank too much, ending up spilling information to the newcomers who upon hearing it, were blinded by their greed and came to loot this place?"

'What a crazy story...'

'A decent lie, but it has many holes, the biggest one being how they even arrived in this place?'

'And how they made all the way here with their petty skills...'

'Last, but not least, how did they even hear about the Village?'

'Resko isn't that famous of a place unless you go into a library and read the history of the Empire...'

'His story doesn't explain these...'

Rodi nodded with his head down, he didn't have the courage to face Dale as he waited for his words.

[DING!]

[You've been given a choice]

"?"

[Accept his story and allow these players entrance to Resko, or refuse it and punish them for their transgression]

[Your choice will determine the rest of Resko's attitude towards them]

"..."

As he finished reading, Dale's attitude changed a little.

'Interesting, is this what having a high Reputation and a position in the village give you? The right to determine its rules...'

'Albeit, being able to influence others to this degree... It goes past what my position should be able to do.'

'Am I that influential to these Villagers?'

Dale stood silent, giving these players the impression he was going over Rodi's story.

'Players will inevitably come, and these people seem sensible enough.'

'It's in the nature of the average player to take control of certain areas and monopolize resources.'

'And between eliminating these guys who already have a deep impression of me and a new group who I don't know anything about, I would prefer these guys.'

'If they remain as the dominant group, they'll definitely act as a shield for me, preventing other players from settling here in this village.'

'But only as long as they remain under the authority of the NPCs...'

'They may have failed this time, but what about in the future?'

'Besides, if his story has any resemblance to what actually happened, then the entire world may already know of the existence of this legendary item and this event will soon spread.'

'People will come regardless of my choices seeking treasures, Resko isn't solely my place anymore… It only lasted 3 days, but that's already a lot.'

'Still, my advantage is that I 'am' an NPC while they are players… Outsiders.'

Dale had made his choice.

"... So this means that more people will come?"

"Eh?!"

'He believes me?!'

"Answer me." Dale pressed

"YES SIR!"

"..."

With that, Dale turned around, ignoring him.

"If that's the case, It's not up to me to determine whether you are allowed in this place or not."

"But nonetheless, your actions have caused all of this to happen…"

'And I am very pissed because of that!'

"So what are you all doing? It's time to clean this place." He said as he pointed at the ground

"!"

[DING!]

All of the players from his faction suddenly received a Quest at the same time:

[Compulsory Quest, Clean the Mess! has activated]

/Thud.../

Rodi fell to the ground tired due to the psychological pressure while the other players smiled in relief…

Dale on the other hand focused on the ground, looking for something…

{Over here, next to this destroyed bench…}

He heard David's voice whispering inside his mind as he quickly pinpointed a golden head shining in the rubble.

He grabbed him and dusted his head before bringing him to the now completely destroyed Altar.

Most of the Altar was gone, destroyed, and in pieces, but the most important part, the stone base, was completely intact.

'How did they even break it to this degree? Did they use Skills one after the other?'

"Sigh…"

Dale could see a few of the mechanisms in the open, they were very intricate and it would be a pain in the ass to fix it to its previous state…

So he carefully removed the broken pieces until all that remained was the stone section.

He crouched down on the ground, grabbed the cloak of one of the killed Players, and put it on the Altar to act as a cushion before putting David atop it.

"This will have to do for now." He whispered as he dusted David's head

And at that moment...

/FWUSH!/

"DALE?!" Misgurd exclaimed as he jumped inside through one of the windows

"..."

'What an entrance old man...'

"DALE! ARE YOU…?"

"SHUT UP MY EARS ARE RINGING!" Dale said loudly in reply as he looked at Misgurd

"Oh… You're okay." Misgurd said as he scratched his head in embarrassment

/Creak…/

At the same time, the doors of the Church opened, and Testros walked from the outside, immediately noticing the broken Altar and the sorry state of the Church.

But before anything, he first went to Dale.

"You look fine, so I'll ask what happened first." He said as he gave Dale a quick inspection

Dale pointed at the players on the side and said:

"Go ask that to those 'warriors', I'm a bit tired after what happened."

"I'll give you all an explanation later…" He said as he sat on the ground next to the altar

'Give me some time to breathe for now.'

To his words, Testros nodded and went to the side, asking none other than poor Rodi who was recovering from all of the pressure…

And so did Misgurd, despite the fact he had been thrown into the background...

...

"..."

'Things went quite well, and although the players came earlier than I expected, I actually gained something with it.'

'In a sense, despite what we lost due to the Church's damage, I gained more from this encounter than expected...'

'So I need to thank these players somewhat.'

Dale checked his Status…

[Player: DareDevil (Dale Houston)

Attainments: Body Reformation; Eclipsed; Massacre of 100; Culling Blade; Forged Heart amidst desperation;

Level:27 (36.2%)

Class: Heavy Spearman

Character Status:

Strength: 104(119); Constitution: 104(142); Dexterity: 104(119); Mental Power: 79(94); Reflexes: 79(94); Mana: 54(69 -> 138)

Skills:

Slot 1-> Spear Technique 2-Star (Neutral)

Slot 2-> Close quarters Combat 0.5-Star (Neutral)

Slot 3-> Stable Emotions 2.5-Star (Passive)

Slot 4-> Spatial Awareness 0.5-Star (Passive)

Slot 5-> Fighting Spirit 2.5-Star (Active)

Slot 6-> Miasma Immunity 0-Star (Passive)

Slot 7 -> Vital Heart 0.5-Star (Active)

Temporary Skills: None

Current Effects:

Aspect of Might -> All Stats +15

Molded Heart -> Mana Ratio = 2

Body Reformation -> Natural Healing and Stamina recovery speed has been greatly increased

Class Effect -> Constitution Ratio = 1.1

Blessed by Ju-Arkesios -> Constitution +10 while within a 5Km radius of any of her Temples

Inventory (+)

(I changed a few things to try and improve understanding)

]

After he read his Status, Dale almost forgot about the other players, wanting to smile with glee.

'I truly got a lot this time for a rather free quest.'

'If I didn't misunderstand anything, so this is what happened:'

'While I was in the Inn doing my things, Rodi was enjoying a few drinks in the real world… He got drunk and posted something he shouldn't.'

'This attracted the players like flies to a pile of shit, causing this conflict to start.'

'All because they wanted to decide who would be the owner of this item when in truth, it already had an owner...'

'They thought they could just come here and steal the things and leave, but they underestimated what Resko was capable of.' He thought with a frown

'His group of friends must've come either by their own self-interests or due to his request, but they are likely a rather big Clan, explaining why Rodi is stronger than the average player.'

'He must be an Executive or someone of importance within that Clan to receive that sort of help in the first place.'

'They must've understood that Resko isn't that easy of a place to loot and remained absolutely neutral, and instead, they tried to 'help' me...'

'The rest is simple.'

'After this, I'll check for Rodi's streaming channel again, and I'll probably understand everything that happened and their perspective on this matter.'

'In any case... As a reward for this trouble, I got a new Skill, Vital Heart!'

'It gives me a full 3 seconds of damage negation… Not quite, fatal damage negation.'

"Hm…"

'This is quite open, for exemple, as a Hardcore player, the only time I would suffer fatal damage would be if someone aimed at my head or heart.'

'Of course, if someone cuts my neck, that would be fatal since I would die eventually...'

'Other Parts of my body are up for debate since I could either bleed to death or succumb to an injury like in medieval times, so what would the effect of this Skill be in those scenarios?'

'Would it prolong how long I can live by stopping the bleeding for 3 seconds? Or just completely stopping the wound from even happening?'

'And I can't really test this… I don't think it's a good idea to receive a fatal injury just to check it out unless everything is under control.'

'Aside from that, I got a lot of Reputation and I may gain even more.'

'The quicker I increase my position within Resko the safer I will be.'

'This is where things get interesting though…'

'I used to think that an Attainment didn't do much, but I was partly wrong.'

'It was right under my nose and I simply didn't connect the dots.'

'My body was already very strong, and I knew that.'

'When I absorbed the Aspect of Might, I broke through the barrier of my stats and grew beyond it, receiving that strange effect called body reformation, and an Attainment.'

'But that wasn't a strange effect, but simply something my body has naturally... My body went through a special change and it's much stronger than before.'

'Something that I previously thought to be mostly passive has actually affected the result of this situation and was the main thing behind me being here alive and kicking.'

'These Attainments aren't there for fun… Although they still puzzle me somewhat. At least their purpose, after all, there would be no need to display them.'

'What makes an action worthy enough to be an Attainment?'

'Then there is the blessing…. And although it almost killed me, part of it seemed to have remained on my body.'

'It was initially a 5x temporary increase to my mana Stat, and now, I have a permanent 2x increase to my Mana stat!'

'Mana went from my lowest Stat to the highest in the span of 5 minutes…'

"Hum? Oh!"

'I almost missed it at first, but the description of the effects of Body Reformation has changed, a new word was added, and that is *greatly*.'

'It seems this event has changed my body deep down in some way I can't quite grasp yet…'

'I also got 2 other Attainments for destroying these new players.'

"..."

'Overall, this situation ended well.'

'I could've defeated them all alone without these things, but there was the chance of one or a few more of them escaping…'

'Yeah, this end result is not bad at all.'

Dale raised his head and looked at Testros and Misgurd and the pile of items the players had formed.

It was time to take the reins of this situation.

…

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Notes

Constitution: 104 + 15 + 10 -> 129

129 x 1.1 = 141.9 so as always, I round it up to 142