Prologue 1-3

• Prologue 1 : Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
• Prologue 2 : Re-Quest
• Prologue 3 : From Hero, to Zero, to a God

Prologue 1 - Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

*Several shadows dart across a grass swept valley, followed by many longer, shorter shadows*

"Bell-ne, stick to the wall after we clear this ridge and ambush them. Till, keep running for 10 seconds then start casting. Rick, do your thing."

Three of the four figures gave a quick nod as two of them visibly slow down and turn back. About 10 meters behind them, a large red wolf is chasing them, with a dozen other smaller wolves right behind it.

"Here we go!"


One of the two figure stops quickly, then pours out a small mound of chalklike dust from one of his many packs while the other releases an arrow aimed at the charging wolf, causing it to leap to the side. The well-muscled archer, with blonde hair down to his neck and a rugged face to go with his above average body, smirks as he dashes and jumps off the ridge. There is a yelp of pain far behind the lead wolf, which has already started running again. The lone figure kicks the mound at the lead wolf, and takes off for the ridge.

*tatata*
*koro*
*tatata*

While running the young man drops some objects just before jumping off the ridge, following the archer. The wolf didn't suffer any damage from the kick nor did it slow down, but it did have to close its eyes as it blindly tries to bite the figure, barking and snarling in its frenzy. A large dust cloud forms behind the wolf as it keeps moving blindly, ending up kicking the remaining part of the mound. It howls in pain as soon as it stumbles out of the dust cloud, as though it stepped on something painful. It struggles before falling off the ridge.

"NYAAAAAAA!"

Waiting at the bottom of the ridge was a big, lean, well-endowed, halberd wielding cat-eared red-haired warrior. Covered by a leather cuirass, leather skirt and a cloak, the emphasis seems to be maneuverability instead of protection. Her halberd swings up in a wide arc to meet the wolf midfall, slicing deeply into it. A faint red glow traces the path of the arc. The wolf gives off a sharp angry cry, shortly followed by a *zudon*. The warrior had used the halberd's and the falling wolf's momentum to slam it into the ground with its blade in tow, effectively severing its spine.

The man that was the last to jump off the ridge turns back and gives a sympathetic "Ow". He didn't get to dwell on it for long though, as the rest of the pack soon catches up and charges blindly into the dust cloud following their now dead leader. With a rack strapped to his back that looked like a seatless chair and the various packs strapped to it, the man looks like a peddler from ages past. His tanned face and limbs contrasts with his beige colour tunic and khakis. He shows a satisfied half smile as he observes the situation a little away from the ridge, it seems the improvised trap continues to claim more victims as the dust cloud stubbornly clings to the air.

"NYAAA! NYYAAAAAAA!"

The warrior's halberd is swung overhead again, the red glow faithfully following its lead. With her clawed feet planted firmly into the ground, she twists her body as soon as she cuts the first wolf temporarily suspending it. Giving a roar, she turns and swings the halberd into another falling wolf and brought it down. *zubon* The first wolf is cleanly cut in half while the second wolf went limp after a *pachi*. Four more wolves fall from the cliff, one with an arrow embedded in its shoulder. They yelp and whine as they remain stunned from the fall, *zaku* *zaku* *zubon* *zaku* blood follows the red glow the same way it was following the halberd.

The man continues to stare intently at the small ridge where they jumped off from, scanning the area. The dust cloud has risen a fair bit off the ground now, with the remaining wolves pacing and growling in or near it. He looks back to his ally, who is in a position even further away from the ridge. Both her hands were raised in the direction of the remaining wolves. Staying still for a few moment, *panpan* her hands suddenly comes together. A chorus of yelps soon follows. The man turns back toward the ridge, where the dust cloud had flattened significantly. He keeps looking at the ridge to verify that all the wolves have indeed perished.

"All Clear!"

The three of them turn to the lone figure that emerged from the top of the hill, he had apparently ran back up the hill from another direction after jumping off the ridge. The warrior surveys the bodies shrewn across the grass, "I'm going to gather up the corpses, you just do your thing Kun".

The man gives a thumb up, "Thanks Bell-ne". Taking the rack off his back, Kun starts to unpack his bags to take out his tools. With his plain look, average looking face and medium build, he looks like one of those unimportant extras that always die in the opening act in some disaster film. With a set of knives in different shapes and sizes, he starts working on the [Alpha Wolf]'s carcass.

Despite her petite size, Till was the first to finish as she only has to gather the loots and salvageable items and to throw the dead wolves from the top of the ridge to the bottom for Bell. She had the widest grin after jumping down from the ridge and sat next to Kun, watching with her pale gray eyes as he dismantles the carcasses. The stench of blood fills the air as a sudden gust swept through the valley, not that any one of them minds, especially not after what they had gone through. Her pale aquamarine hair, as though a painter had forgot to fill in the pond with his watercolour, flutters with the wind before returning to the middle of her back. With a height of slightly over a meter and pale features, she gives the scene a feel of dissonance.

A soft buzz vibrates near Kun's ear, he stops his hands as he waits for the message that follows.

"Nothing's around, we are safe I think. Will meet up with you guys shortly"

"Alright Rick, careful on your way back"

By the time Rick returns, Bell had already finished retrieving the bodies and was already checking her equipments. Till busies herself by scribbling something in her book next to Bell. Kun, who was a stonethrow away, was separating the last of the meat from their bones.

"Rick-ni! Welcome back! Here are your arrows!" The small girl takes a bundle of arrows next to the half-cat's armour and return it to the somewhat tired looking archer.

"Thanks shrimp, I'm going to start a fire, it seems like there's going to be some excessive meat, Kun's probably going to cook us some." Rick give the girl's head a ruffle, messing up her hair. Bell was visibly drooling as she looked up from her equipments at the mention of meat.

Combing her fingers through her hair to clear out any tangles, Till starts digging into her bag "Alright, I'll get the books ready." Bell starts wiping off her equipment, occasionally catching herself before drooling again while the other two go about their tasks like well oiled machines.

It didn't take long before the small mountain of corpses was cleared. The left over parts of the carcasses turns into particles of light, drifting into the ground. Kun was making a face after finishing.

"Something the matter Kun-ni?"
"Hmm, no, just find it strange that some of the weaker wolves gave better quality pelts and meat."
"Oh." Bell quickly grabbed one of her books and jolts it down.

"So any requests?" Kun cocks his head as he gives the pans and utensils a wipe with a clean cloth.
"GRILLED MEAT!" The three shout in unison.
"Okay, I'll just make something quick, then we can head back to town."

* * * * *

"Auuooonnn..." A soft groan escapes from a slightly bulgy humanoid tabby cat as it leans back onto the grassy hill and lick its paw.
"And that's why you will never get a boyfriend" A slightly rounded archer tease.
"Not like you are much better."
The two went back and forth as Kun and Till cleans up the campfire and starts checking the loots they got.

"7 small damaged pelts, 1 medium red pelt, 3 small pelts and 2 small flawless pelts. As for the meat, 3 sets are left... how many were there?" Till asks with her head tilted.

"9 sets."

Till's eyes goes wide and look back at the two puddy-like things arguing behind them and look back at the campfire. "Gl.." She stops herself from commenting as she remember how much she ate as well. "Everyone rose by 4 levels, the three of you are level 6 now."

"4 levels from 13 wolves? What level were they?"

"The smaller wolves are level 17 and the [Alpha Wolf] is level 20."

This time it was Kun's eyes that goes wide. "Just how strong is Bell-ne?" The two of them cringe as they recall how she dealt with the fallen wolves. Strapping the pelts onto the rack and dividing the meat into various packs between the 4 of them, they quickly clean up the site.

"Okay, let's go back."
Kun gave the two a heads-up as Till helps him balance the stack of pelt on his rack.

"mmhmm"
The two had stopped arguing at some point and were simply enjoying being happily stuffed.

"You two need some serious self-control." Kun chuckles as he starts walking toward the main road.
"Don't you mean they need to learn how to cook?" Till expertly dropped a stone into the well.

[T/N: Proverb meaning kicking someone while they are down. (落井下石 = going down well dropping stone)]

The two behind them couldn't say anything in return and starts waddling after them.

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Prologue 2 - Re-Quest

Getting back to town was relatively easy since there are very few hostile monsters in the area aside from the wolves and anacondas. Travelling in the world of Amoaltz by foot is actually pretty quick, immortals are able to travel 3 times faster than the natives without effort.

Immortals are what the natives call the users, since as far as they know, no users could ever die permanently. Even though users can travel fast, there's still a problem. Amoaltz is too vast, absurdly vast. It's said that it would take at least 5 years for users just to move across the continent of Zrewheig from one end to another and that's at the narrowest part.

"That was actually pretty easy." Rick had his hands behind his head as he walks nonchalantly, his bulging stomach went back to normal during the short walk back to town.

"Yeah, I didn't actually expect to succeed, at least not at our level. We can probably thank Bell-ne for that."

"Yeah! Bell-ne was all like whoosh! And the wolves were like *zubon* *zaku* *zaku *zubon*" Till was excitedly moving her hands trying to imitate the arcing halberd.

"You don't need to thank that monster, brute strength was all she ever had."

With her eyes already twitching, Rick's last comment was the final straw. She casually trips him as they walk toward the town gate. He managed to avoid falling down, but...
"Oh shit!" He landed on a loose rock with the leg he was hopping on and stumbles toward a guard, ramming face first into the guard's crotch.

The guard bends over from the impact, landing on top of Rick as they fell. The group and the second guard gathers around the two and help get them up.

"Ah... sorry about that." Rick was sheepishly apologizing with his right eye watering.

<<Breeze>>!! Till quickly summons a gentle breeze to remove the dirt from the two bodies.

"Sorry about that uncle! Rick-ni is really clumsy!"

The guard just gives her a tired smile and nods. Turning toward Rick, he gave a sharp glare. The group enters the town, with Rick bowing toward the guard repeatedly as he enters.

"Thanks a lot Bell." Rick makes a sour face after walking beyond the sight of the gate.
He isn't stupid enough to cause a commotion with the guard.

"You can thank that big mouth of yours."

Till and Kun just press their lips firmly together to suppress their laughter.

"Let's hand in the quest, it's getting late." The ginger catwoman led the way toward the fur trader located near the caravan station near the town square. Although it's called a town square, it's just clearing with the only paved road running through it. The town of Feia is a former frontier village with no affiliation with any kingdoms, it relies on hunting, some limited farming, and skilled labour for its survival. It is ruled by a council of elders that are selected from the top of their respective trades.

It took no more than a minute before they reached the tradepost. "Afternoon immortals, did you manage to get those pelts?" The slightly chubby middle-aged man with a fur hat of some sort greeted them as they approached.

"Right here." Bell grabs 5 small damaged pelts, removes the straps and take them off of Kun's rack on his back. She places them onto the counter while towering over the fur trader. He gives an audible gulp as he starts inspecting them. The rest of the group was quietly giving each other meaningful glances.

The trader finish his inspection and tries to say something while averting his eyes from the felinoid shadowing over him. He opens his mouth, but snaps to give Kun a double take with his eyes wide open. "Can I see that?!" Everyone gave each other a look and just shrug. Bell repeat the same movement and placed the rest of the pelts onto the counter.

The trader had beads of sweat on his forehead as he inspects the red pelt gingerly, revealing a grin as though he was a cat that had eaten a canary. "I'll pay you triple... no, quintuple the original price for these!"

Bell crosses her arms, lifts her head and stares down at him. Showing a solemn face, the rest of the group caught on and emulate her.

"Ten times?"

The catwoman just give a snort while Rick raise one of his eyebrows questioningly at the trader.

"Twelve ti.."

*zubon*

Bell dropped her hands and lean heavily onto the counter, the impact was followed by a small creaking noise as the counter protests against her strength. The trader gulps and hangs his head in defeat. He had been caught red handed. He quickly clasp his hands in front of his heart. "I request the additional pelts be sold to me." A transparent, floating panel immediately showed up in front of Bell, showing the value of the quest from the trader. She hit the refuse panel without a glance.

"But.. why?" The trader was surprised the request was refused, his face falls as the prospect of another trader getting the pelts shakes him to the core.

"You know why, you offered twelve times when the red pelt alone is easily 100 times. Do you take me for a fool?" She leans further down on the counter *gishi gishi*, putting her face right in front of his. The trader immediately understood, taking a gulp as he steadies his shaking knees, he reach for a golden metal card from under the counter and offered it. "The request and this...?"

Bell snatched the card and hit the accept panel after the trader redo his request. She walks off, with Kun and Rick following soon after. "Thanks for bonus uncle!" Till skips along to catch up with the group.

* * * * *

Bell leaned against a building and let out a deep breath as soon as they got out of sight of the trader.

"Way to go Bell! So you aren't just muscle for brain!"
"What... just happened?"
"Uncle gave us a bonus!"

*kon*

After giving Rick a quick rap on the head, Bell smiles. "He was trying to rip us off. So I pretended to be mad and scared him a bit."

"Your face sure scared him stiff. Bad breath too?"

*konkon*

Bell resumes after smacking Rick twice. "I learned something after dropping to 0," both Kun and Rick look sullen as they remember, "{Request}s are based on the value of the giver, so I used that to force a fair value for the pelts."

"So you can actua..." Rick dodged away before finishing his sentence.

Ignoring their usual antics, Kun cuts to the point. "So...how much did we get?"

"Actually, I didn't check." She takes out the card and bring up the {Quest} window.

"So you..."

*doka*

Till gives Rick a swift kick to his shin to stop his interruption. Kun just smiles before turning back to Bell expectantly.

"I didn't look at the quest the first time, but it looks like we have..." She blinks a few time. "500 gold for the quest and another 100 gold from the card."

"Oooooooooo! We are rich! We are rich!" Till jumped around happily while the two guys were doing their little happy dance.

Bell quickly splits the gold from her pouch, giving 125 gold each and gives Kun the card.

"Go and get an [Enchanted Pack] when you can."

"Ohh! Good idea!" Everyone nods in agreement.

"Okay, I'm going to the inn to log out."
"Ditto!"
"Yeah yeah, let's go, shrimp."

"I'm going to look around before logging."

After giving each other farewells, Kun went browsing at the various shops. Seeing nothing worthwhile, he checked out the {Quest Bulletin}.

"Son of a bitch, they didn't make it." Kun reveals a shit-eating grin.

Near the bottom of the board, a wooden plank advertising its job hangs.

Contract

Porters and reserve members for the [Barghest Dungeon] Contact Tabeus(#17) for details.

The *bleep* that made Kun and his two hard-earned friends that survived the ordeal together dropped to level 0 must have failed their {Raid}. Kun kept his smile all the way to the inn and logged out after leaving them a message. ["You reap what you sow, those *bleep* failed the [Barghest Dungeon], see you guys later!"]

[T/N:: 種瓜得瓜, 種豆得豆 = You plant a melon, you get a melon. You sow a bean, you get a bean. Proverb means "what goes around comes around", it became "you reap what you sow".]

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Prologue 3 - From Hero, to Zero, to a God

Mmmm, guess I should log in soon.

*grr* *bamu*

A gray mass of fur decides to latch itself to my right leg with its mouth.

"Alright Gui, it's almost done, just wait okay?"

*grrrrrrrrr*

I reach down and give Gui's neck a good rub as I waited for the meat to almost sear. I got back up and flipped the meat over in the pan.

*grr grr grr*

Gui playful bites the air and pace behind me as I make our meal since we often eat together. Dinner time was fast approaching and we managed to catch a duck earlier today, so it was a meal we were both looking forward to. To be honest, I didn't think it would work, but now we have another food source we can hunt.

"Okay, go sit down Gui."

*grr yelp*

The gray fox happily gets to his seat next to the table, his tail slowly sweeping back and forth. I placed our meal on the table, sprinkled some seasoning on my plate and unceremoniously dug in. *bari bari* Gui already started eating as soon I placed the plate in front of him. I merely smile inwardly as I resume eating. Truthfully, I'm grateful to Gui, I don't know how I would have ended up if it wasn't for him.

* * * * *

*grr grr grrrr*

Gui says his usual goodbye as I waves him off.

Probably off to uncle's place again. How long has it been now?

I continue to clean up the kitchen and table as my idle thoughts drift.

* * * * *

"Kun-ni, Kun-ni! Over here!"

A short, pale girl in a plain, pastel sundress waves her hand enthusiastically at Kun while a blonde youth and a large felinoid bickers with each other.

"We don't need a mount!"
"Yes we do! Well, maybe not for you what with your fatass and all."
"I'll show you fat!"
"Umm... what's going on now?" Kun turns to the short girl as he walks up to the group.
The catwoman already had the blonde youth in a boston crab.

"Rick-ni suddenly said we should get a mount to hold our stuff. Bell-ne said it was a waste of money, since you are getting an [Enchanted Pack]."

The blonde youth is tapping the floor vigorously shouting "I give! I give!"

"Umm... about that pack... apparently they don't sell it here."

Bell drops the squirming youth's legs.

"Oh? Guess they only sell them in the cities. Hm.. Alright, want to head to one now?"

"Yay! City! City!" Till jumps around happily while Rick gets up slowly while holding onto his back.

"And the mount?"

Bell put her face into one of her paws and sighs, "fine, get a mount." Rick's rugged face shines like the sun. "But Till is picking the mount." The once bright sun sets as quickly as it appeared.

After pooling the necessary money from everyone, Bell gives it to Till along with everyone's minimum requirement. The three chat and start comparing what they brought over the last few days since they were last together. Their individual schedules for the last few days didn't allow them to log in at the same time, so they each went and hunted solo or in pairs and just shopped around.

Bell went and traded her old halberd and half her money for a new custom made extendable halberd made with high grade mithril alloy. It's unheard of for the average low level user to own such a weapon, but none of them are exactly normal. Unlike other softwares and games, there are no level restrictions for any equipments, so many have taken advantage of that. On the other hand, high level weapons can just as easily harm their owners if the owner cannot control it properly. Her defensive gear remains the same, giving her a feel of some savage Amazon goddess coming down with her shining, holy weapon.

Rick spent very little of the money since he relies on bow and arrows, and he can craft arrows himself given the raw material. But he did ask a blacksmith to make him some caltrops seeing how effective they were when Kun used it with the dust cloud. Even without the dust, the caltrops can easily buy him some time to get away in a sticky situation.

Kun merely upgraded some of his worn out packs and bags, there's nothing he particularly wants since he haven't decided on a [Class] yet. Unlike Bell who switched and became a [Cat Warrior] as soon as she got back to level 1 due to her unexpected racial trait, and Rick, who also switch to [Archer] at level 1, Kun chose to stay as a novice until he sees something he likes.

Choosing a class allow a user to fully utilize that class' main stats. For example, in Bell's case, it's {Strength} and {Agility}. Due to her class, whenever she attacks, a red aura surrounds her weapon which gives it additional damage, speed and other bonuses. A novice doesn't get any bonus from the stats, so Kun didn't add any from the level ups.

Something shadows over them, even the tall Bell, while they talk. The three of them turns around to look as the shadow remains. Slowly looking from the ground upward, the three recognize the sundress sitting on top of the furry blob in front of them despite the glaring sun behind the figure. She is easily 2-3 meters off the ground.

"Look! Isn't Sammy cute?!"

*kero kero*

The white, furry blob seems to croak happily at the praise. The three look at each other, Bell is the first to react. "Did it... just croak?" Shaking her head, she turns to the guys "What did you two ask for anyways?"

"Something that can even support your fatass."

*kon*

"Something sturdy."

Bell drops her head, "something white."

Seeing how happy Till is, the three just smile and decides to make the best of it. Everyone throws their non-essential items into the large saddle pack on Sammy's back and heads toward the nearest city in the kingdom of Sardon, with Till riding on the white furry blob.

They follow the only paved road towards one of the town's four main gates. Normal citizens give them odd, curious stares and glances. Immortals aren't exact rare, even in an out-of-place town such as this one since occasional immortal traders come by every few weeks. But the sight of two average looking men leading some savage cat Amazon and a little girl happily riding on a huge, furry, albino beast, that most wouldn't want even if it was given to them, following right behind, stuns them.

The group gives the guards a wave as they leave the gate. The guards, just as stunned as the citizens, absentmindedly wave back. It isn't until the group was out of sight that one of the guards snap out of it. "Oh shit!"

The other guard snaps out of it too. "OH! SHIT! Get the captain! I will inform the elders!"

The town guards are running around rapidly, interviewing everyone that saw the group that walked by. At the same time, a militia forms in front of the gate. A tough looking captain with scars all over his face is shouting orders, making plans and organizing logistics.

A guard runs up to the captain, snapping to attention. "Sir! Information to report!"

The captain moves his hands quickly and order the squires to get some horses ready. "Out with it."

"Sir! A shopkeep overheard them saying they were heading for Sardon!"

"Good work, now get your ass ready, we are going to chase them down come hell or high water! We must bring him back here at all costs!" The captain starts giving out the order to the militia to get on a mount and to head to Sardon.

Being none the wiser, the group steadily heads toward Sardon. Travellers and merchants alike give them a curious glance as they pass by each other. Demihuman mercenaries all look at Bell with either envy, respect or challenge. The group just shrug and carry on, not aware that they are standing out.

"Why does everyone all stare at us?"

"Bet it's-"

*kon*

"But-"

*konkon*

"I didn't-"

*konkonkondokadoka*

"Guess we are a strange group? Sammy isn't exactly normal and neither are you, Bell."
Bell starts her windup out of habit and stops herself just before smacking Kun's head.
Realizing that he is just saying it as it is, she pull her arm back and tries to hide her embarrassment.

"That's because Sammy is cute and fluffy and smart and fluffy!" Till gives the beast a big hug laying down rubbing her head back and forth on it while it croaks happily. They kept walking, ignoring the twitching corpse behind them.

The three of them walked for a while before a figure run passed them, followed by a gust of wind.

"Wasn't that Rick? What's that dumbass up to?"

Kun turns back to take a look while Bell tries to PM Rick.

*ponpon*

Kun taps her shoulder before she completes her message, when she looks back, there was a dust cloud greeting her in the horizon.

"Oh look! There are a lot of uncles on horses!"

"Shit! I'm going to kill that idiot! Let's go!"

"Come on Till, we are going to catch up to Rick and get out of here"

"Okay~~~ <<Gust>>!!"

The three of them dashes off into the direction of Rick, with assistance of Till's wind magic.

Far behind them, the mounted militias are desperately screaming "Wait!"

* * * * *

"Just what the hell did you do, Rick?! Did you grope up some rich NPC's daughter?!"

"No! I would look, but I would never grope! You should know that!"

Bell grew up with him for the better part of his life. He might be a loudmouth and an idiot, but she can say he isn't the type to do that.

"Then what did you do?!"

"I have no idea!"

"We can sort this out later! Let's just get away for now! ... Wait... doesn't this place look familiar?"

Both the archer and felinoid looks at the surrounding.

"Yay! We are going to see headmistress again!"

The three of them gulp and look behind them, giving serious consideration to facing those horsemen instead.

The headmistress is their saviour, but also their worst nightmare. After they were forcefully disconnected after dropping to level 0 as a result of the [Barghest Dungeon] sacrifice, their vessels were rescued by Till and said headmistress.

Vessels are what the natives call the bodies of users that aren't logged in. While users are logged out, their vessels are extremely vulnerable to theft and murder, that's why most users opt to log out in inns where there is some security. Higher level users would log out in their guilds or even a castle if they have access to one.

The plan was to dissect them if they don't wake up (log in) within a week's time. Fortunately they all logged in a day before the unknown deadline. Since there were never any level 0 immortals that the headmistress is aware of, she used them as guinea pigs and made them go through a ton of hellish experiments. Well, at least for Bell and Rick. Kun breezed through them as though he had went through those trials before. Fighting a level 3 [Huntsman Rabbit] with whatever was available, both Bell and Rick thought they would die countless times.

There was only one road in and out of the academy, so they know they are between a rock and a hard place. Seeing no alternatives, they head straight toward the academy at full speed.

* * * * *

"Sister Till!" A high pitch scream echoes in the air, a young demihuman with pointy ears runs toward the group after leaping off a watchtower. Immediately following her were about 4 dozen children and teenagers.

All of the gathered youngsters were demihumans, some were closer to humans, others were closer to beasts. The older ones looks at Bell with obvious admiration while the others happily look up at Sammy and Till.

"Big sis is going to meet headmistress, be careful okay~~? Don't let them play too rough Sammy~".

The children all gave a cheer and rushed the furry blob while the teenagers wear sullen expressions. The oldest of them twitches his head towards the main building, not waiting to explain in front of the children.

After entering the building, all but the oldest teenager stood guard at the door. The oldest one, with bullhorns protruding from his head, starts leading them toward the back.
"The headmistress have been sick and will soon pass away, she told us not to worry since you all will be coming back soon." The group looks at each other with a frown, especially Till since she had been with the headmistress for so long.

*don don*

The bullhorned teenager knocked a door firmly twice, before letting the group in. He gave a bow toward a figure resting on a rocking chair before leaving the room.

"Headmistress...!" Till runs toward the frail resting figure and holds her hands.

"Ho ho, what's the matter Till? Still a crybaby?" The old woman smile softly without opening her eyes.

* * * * *

Out in the woods before the academy.

"Stick together men! We are in the [Forest of Illusions], don't stray and just follow me!

* * * * *

"No! De'muel said you were dying!"

"That's right child, but there's nothing to be afraid of, everything that lives will eventually die. I assume that's also true for you so called immortals."

Till sobs uncontrollably into the old woman's lap while Bell and Kun look uncomfortably at the scene. Rick tries to lean against something a table...

*bishi bishi bishitto gasha*

and breaks it, causing an extremely expensive looking crystal vase to fall to pieces in a spectacular fashion.

"Cough cough"
"Oh my, you broke my last will and testament..." The headmistress says softly, Till follow up with a "what the hell are you doing" glare.

"Well, you can make it by taking up my last request." Both Kun and Bell also starts to stare at Rick.

"Okay, okay, whatever it is." Rick have a dumbfound wide eye expression on his face. "Just how expensive was that vase..." he whispers to himself.

"Here, I request that you fulfill this." The old woman clasps her hands weakly before her heart before taking out a small envelope out from her sleeves. Rick hits the accept reluctantly as Kun moves up to take grab it.

"The take good care of each other, okay? There's nothing to be sad about." She gives Till a gentle pat on the head before putting her hands together on her lap.

The room became silent.

"Headmistress?!" Till shakes the resting figure, but there is no response. She tries shaking some more before burying her face into the lap of the resting figure. Soft sobs can be heard just beyond the doors. If one were to look closely, they would see a mischievous smile accompanying a lone trail of tear down the old woman's eye.

* * * * *

Bell console Till and the rest of the teenagers while Kun and Rick walk off. Kun break the silence by asking "So what was her request?"

Opening the envelope, Rick pulls a piece of paper. His face froze and goosebumps appear all over his body. Kun grab the paper and takes a look himself. He becomes a statue right next to Rick.

{Request}s have penalties attached to them if a Quester decides to abandon a quest. They either have to repay the Requester at 50% value of the {Request} or suffer [Divine Retribution] of equal value. The Requester may reduce or waive the penalty together. But the Requester in this case passed away, which mean Rick would have to suffer Divine Retribution. On the paper was "Take care of the children, the vase should be worth at least 10,000 gold, enough to keep the academy running for 10 years." So to fulfill the request, he would have to be able to fund or run the academy for 10 years, the [Divine Retribution] from that would be unimaginable.

* * * * *

"Halt!" The pointed ear youth shouts at the group of approaching horsemen while drawing an arrow, aiming squarely at them.

The horsemen starts to draw their swords, but the leading horseman hold up his hand, ordering his men to sheath them.

"We mean you no harm! We just need to talk to a young man that happens to be here, he has blonde hair up to his neck and is an archer." The captain throw his swords onto the ground, dismounts and approached the youth slowly with his hands up. "Please, we just need to talk to him."

Recalling Till and her friends, the youth whistles sharply, twice. All the children that were playing with Sammy stops immediately and run toward the main building. The children drags and pushes Sammy together with them when he didn't move. "Wait right there, I'll get him. De'muel! Get the one called Rick out here!"

* * * * *

"Seriously? You guys chased me all the way out here just for this?" Rick is beyond flabbergasted.

"Wait, you guys said you will accept any price as long as it's manageable, correct?" Kun interrupts Rick before he can refuse.

All guardsmen were either on one knee or prostrating all together. Rick raise one of his eyebrows a Kun.

Via PM
"You can use this chance to see if you can fulfill that request of yours"
"But you are asking me to whore myself out!"
"You already smacked one bird, seeing how you are so accident prone, you are bound to smack another, just think of it as smacks you can control this time. The first step is always the hardest!"
"I'm not that... fine fine!"

"Fine! Let's go! But your lords are going to be paying out of their asses for this!"

All the guardsmen had a smile on their face, including the captain. Slamming his right hand over his heart, the captain gives Rick a salute. The rest of the guards follows.

"Send us a PM when you are done, we will settle the matter here." Kun waves them off as the guards form a multilayer ring around Rick and escorts him to back to Feia.

The militia was formed in a hurry to escort Rick back. It appears that the day Rick stumbled into the guard, a miracle happened. All the doctors diagnosed the guard as impotent, but after the bump, his wife was pregnant a few days after. There were doubts at first, but when she readily made a {Blood Oath}, all the doubts were gone. The guard was crying tears of joy, even while at work, praising that immortal. The rumour soon made its way to the ruling elders. Since there were quite a few of them without heirs, a frenzy was started to hunt down this god of fertility. The hopeful elders ordered that he was to be treated as a VIP as though it's a State Visit and not a hair were to be missing on him. Everything was made available to get the sacred immortal's blessing, as long as it is possible, it can be offered.

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