Ashton rushed through the hallways of the school. As he did, he already prepared a few coins. He had more than five thousand coins now, so he could afford to buy a few more items. For one, with how useful the shoelaces were, Ashton was hoping to get something else good out of the random boxes. Grabbing another potion wasn't a bad idea, either.
The moment he got to the vending machine, he grabbed the two random boxes he wanted, quickly spending the money that was given to him by the Guardian of the Innocent, and then bought another red punch potion, plus another one that had an interesting name. 'Rabbit's Foot'. It was a bit of a gamble for Ashton. It might be something that boosts luck, which would be an incredible find in a place like this, or more likely, it would boost running- and jump-power.
Ashton gave the items to the backpacker and then-
[Contract | Backpacker - Level 3 -> Backpacker - Level 4]
"Okay, great," Ashton smiled, patting the spirit on the head before heading off. He was very happy about that level-up, but right now, he had way more on his mind. But instead of rushing back outside to see if he could deal with the Marked right away, Ashton needed to talk to those kids first.
He rushed up to their classroom, and the moment he pushed open the door, the kids ran up to him.
"Did you do it?!"
"How strong were they?"
"How many were there?"
"Was the lady from across the street really a witch?!"
They huddled around Ashton, practically pushing him out of the door. Poppy was clutching strands of his hair, both because she was scared to fall off with how fast Ashton was running around, and because she was worried because of all the sudden noise from the kids. And when things got too loud, before any of the kids could even notice, Poppy disappeared inside of Ashton's vessel, hiding out there for the first time.
"Hey, hey, calm down," Ashton laughed a bit, stepping into the classroom as he quickly answered the questions, "Yes, I got rid of the monsters. The goblins were pretty weak, though there were a lot, and the orcs were stronger but not too bad, except for their leader. You guys were spot on with their numbers, roughly 100 goblins and 8 orcs, including the leader. And the lady from across the street..."
He stopped for a moment. Ashton wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to them. Should he spare these kids just a little bit longer from the new reality of this world, or should he be honest? Though, before he could say anything, Millie spoke up.
"She died, right?" she asked, sitting cross-legged on one of the tables by the window. Her face was serious, like she was almost dreading the answer.
Ashton raised his brows surprised, and slowly nodded, "Yes. She was killed by the monsters that forced their way into her house." The room turned quiet a moment later, and Ashton took a deep breath, "I'm here because I wanted to thank you all. But I also wanted to tell you something. It's good that you're excited about all of this, but... it's not a game. You're going to be able to leave the school at some point, but you need to be careful. Don't run off on your own, listen to your teachers, and take care of each other. I know that you're having fun with all of this, and you guys are clever and brave and genuinely so, so bright in these dark times. And that shouldn't change. But when your teachers tell you to stay away from the windows? Don't run around to try and count the monsters."
The silence was almost suffocating. He sat down on a chair. It was far too small for him, but that was fine. The kids sat down on the ground around him, as Ashton did something gave them a small crash-course on the most important things they had to know about growing up in these times.
He answered all of the questions they had, tried to alleviate of the worries and fears that they were pushing down, and explained to them how they could help not just each other, but the other students that weren't dealing with this situation as well as they were.
He had told the teachers that it was their job to take care of these guys, but at the end of the day, Ashton was the world's foremost expert on what was going on right now. And since he had already gotten involved, Ashton felt like he couldn't just stop halfway through. Especially since he got help from these kids in particular.
Some of the kids started to cry a bit, though they were holding themselves together really well. For nine or ten year olds, these guys were insanely brave.
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"You all have a bright future ahead of you, no matter how horrible this world is becoming. I promise," Ashton explained, smiling. "If you keep at it, and if you learn to truly, truly understand this situation, you're going to be great."
Ashton stepped back outside. He had continued speaking to the kids a bit longer until they were okay. The teacher that was in the room almost seemed more emotional toward the end of that than the kids. But after a little while, he really had to get going, since he had little to no time to waste.
The Marked were dangerous, extremely dangerous. A lot of them were probably dead by now due to the changes in their behaviour after going down that different route.
You didn't just become a Marked because you killed someone. You became a Marked because you chose to kill humans rather than monsters, so the system, or rather the council, marked them as monsters. They basically switched to the other team.
This happened if you killed a vast amount of people, if you killed someone in a particularly gruesome manner, or if you chose an alternate route in particular quests. And well, anyone that chose to kill other people over some vicious, blood-thirsty goblins... you just were a monster yourself.
And with that came a few other side-effects. Like, for example, developing that murderous rage that monsters felt toward people. At least that was just temporary, like a momentary insanity as a punishment. Connected to the new questline of the Marked, they were supposed to kill more people to regain their sanity.
It was a bit weird, though, Ashton always thought that. Being forced to kill more people as a punishment for killing others in the first place? Or maybe it was just the council telling them, 'You want to kill? Okay, then go ahead.'
That second part was probably the most likely, though Ashton had no way of knowing their intentions were with specifics like this.
The only reason why he knew so much about the conditions to becoming a Marked was because the Summoner was the type of psychopath that became one for the crimes they committed against the people of their own world. They got bored of it pretty quickly and just started doing their own thing for a while, doing the bare minimum necessary to clear all the quests. They were never even really affected by that 'rage' either.
Most people would become mindless, rampaging fiends for a while, but the Summoner? They were a little more annoyable for a few hours, that was all. They also rejected most of the other changes they could potentially experience, since they said they were 'the only one allowed to determine this physical form'.
For now, Ashton was trying to figure out what routes the people here might be going down. It probably wouldn't be huge changes, since there were a lot of humanoid species here. People living in the wilderness would be changing a lot more, maybe even turning into something like werebeasts, but in cities it would probably just be minor physical alterations that would become a little stronger as they followed through with the Marked questline.
For a while, Ashton was strategizing while walking the school grounds one more time, to make sure that he didn't miss anything important. He properly said goodbye to the teachers, alleviated their concerns a bit more, and then made sure that Rory and James both knew where to go in case of an emergency - Calibur Games. Since Sam was there, that was going to be the best way to find him.
But there was something else.
James, the headmaster, led Ashton to the parking lot. Specifically, to a bicycle standing at the side of the parking lot.
"You see, I had been trying to stay in shape a bit more lately. My ex wife bought this for me, but I never used it when we were still together. Maybe that's why we split, actually," James laughed a bit. Ashton didn't quite get the joke. He knew it was supposed to be a joke, of course, he just didn't know how he should react and just stared at the man in front of him for a while. James cleared his throat. "Any... anyway, please, go ahead and take it. It might be a bit easier to get around town with this."
Ashton raised his brow. He had never actually thought about that, but it wasn't a bad idea. Taking a closer look, though it was a little scratched up, it seemed to have been mostly ignored by the monsters. The wheels were totally fine as well.
"I won't say no to that. Thank you," Ashton nodded, and quickly grabbed the bike by its seat and handlebar. "In that case, I'm going to head right out."
"Of course. Take care of yourself."
The headmaster made sure to properly see Ashton off as he climbed out over the rudimentary blockage in the front of the school.
Ashton set the bike down, and quickly adjusted the seat, before climbing on. Without even really looking back, he started speeding off past the massive pile of monster corpses.
It had been a while since he rode a bike, so Ashton felt a little awkward about it at first, but he soon got used to it again.
"Huh, I guess you really never forget how to ride a bike." Ashton laughed to himself, quickly turning around the corner. Of course, being on a bike had both benefits and drawbacks.
Obviously, you were a lot faster. And with Ashton's stats as well as Poppy's magic, it was possible for him to speed up to more than thirty miles per hour. If he really put his all into it, he could probably get up to thirty-five, but this was already way faster.
However, with how much shit there was on the road, it was hard to dodge past at times, and if there were any monsters, Ashton wasn't exactly in the best position to attack them. Then again, he could just swing his staff at them while driving past. That would definitely finish most monsters off. Ashton just had to make sure not to get thrown off or crash the bike right after.
Either way, Ashton managed to make his way back to Market Street relatively quickly. He hadn't encountered any Marked, but they probably wouldn't exactly lurk around the walls here.
Ashton stopped and knocked on the wall, "Yo, let me in, it's Ashton."
A few moments of confused scrambling later, someone yelled back from the other side, "Ashton? Who's Ashton?"
"The fuck do you mean, 'Who's Ashton'? The guy that helped you secure this whole street, so just open up and let me inside," he replied with a loud groan. "I'm here to take help out because of those guys running around with Monsters."
The rudimentary gate was opened for him and Ashton quickly stepped into Market Street. He had only left yesterday afternoon, but in that time, this place had really changed a ridiculous amount.
For one, there were just far more people around here. It was actually pretty damn busy right now, with people walking through this place. There were some individuals trying to keep fortifying the main walls, and others that were sorting through all the stores' merchandise, carrying them around to some of the adjacent buildings and living spaces.
The smell of food wafted through the air, and it smelled delicious. The roads were clean as well. All the corpses that were strewn around were now gone, and the fountain was cleared up properly as well. And to Ashton's surprise, they had actually started a garden here.
The cobblestones had been torn out and the space was instead filled up with soil. A few people were preparing it right now, trying to plant seeds taken from one of the shops.
It was actually an incredible idea. The people here wouldn't know this yet, but mundane plants grew way faster when in contact with mana. Of course, a few generations of those plants later, they would adjust to it to some degree, but where there was more mana, plants grew larger and faster, that was a sort of universal truth.
Since they knew that Ashton was pretty interested in this, and that the hobgoblin had gathered here, they obviously managed to figure out that this spot was special.
"Clever," Ashton walked through the street. A few people recognised him, but for the most part, he was ignored. That was, until Ashton was approached by someone.
"Hey! You, you're the one that helped us out the other day, right?" she asked, and Ashton turned around toward her with a quick nod.
"Yeah, that's me. And you were..." Ashton started, looking her up and down. Her cheek was pretty badly bruised and swollen, and she was wearing plain clothes, but Ashton still recognised her, "... one of the police officers that were in the supermarket, right?"
She quickly nodded, happy to be remembered, "Yes, I'm Police Sergeant Harriet Price. I'm, uhm... out of uniform right now, it got dirty during one of the last trips outside."
Her cheek flinched a bit, so that injury probably came from that same 'trip'.
"Right. I'm Ashton. Well, I'm glad you're okay. Do you know who's sort of in charge here at the moment?"
Sergeant Price smiled, "Yes! That would be Albert Fischer, who you already met as the manager of the grocery store. Him and some other managers and owners that were on-site at the time of the 'Update'."
"Update?" Ashton asked, not sure what she was talking about, and the sergeant just smiled in response.
"Oh, apparently that's what all of this is called on the 'Community' right now," she explained, and Ashton raised a brow. It had a lot of names in Lumia. Divine Wrath, Integration, System Apocalypse... but 'Update' wasn't one. It was actually a pretty apt name. The world was 'updating', after all.
"Hm, I see. I guess I must have missed that," Ashton replied, continuing to look around as he followed the sergeant through the street. People were starting to get equipped pretty well. While they were using the old, blunt and rusty items that they got as a reward for the first quest, it was still better than not having any weapons at all.
Plus, the items were looking a lot better than Ashton thought. It seemed like the people here actually knew a thing or two about taking care of this stuff. De-rusting and sharpening actually seemed pretty in-tune for this place, now that he thought about it.
However, there were also plenty of people that were carrying around other items like bats or golf clubs, some people had bows strapped to them. Hell, there was even someone that was carrying around the bar of a barbell. Pretty clever, actually. If Ashton hadn't gotten his hands on a proper staff, he might have considered that as well.
The sergeant led Ashton into the grocery store. It had been completely re-arranged, with all the food being put back into the storage spaces in the back. The shelves were used, in part, to build the barricades after all, so Ashton knew that this was going to happen.
But beside that, this space was also used as what seemed to be some kind of 'community centre', because there were people learning things from each other in here because of how much space there was.
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People learning how to sew, how to properly handle a weapon, how to use the tools that people had access to. It was also where food was being handed out to people. Of course, this was all happening in different parts of the grocery store, but it was big enough to accommodate all of this.
And in the actual office space in the back, including the break room, the man in question was already sitting with a few other people stuffed in here. They were discussing the inventory of their respective shops right now, and how long they could stretch out the perishables.
The other police office was also standing there in the corner. It looked like these guys decided to help out with security. Well, that was their job, so that obviously made sense. He was still in uniform, though it was pretty dishevelled and also a little dirty.
"Oh! You have come back!"
Ashton nodded, "Yes, I have. Albert, was it? I'm here about the problem someone here posted about."
While Albert, the manager of the grocery store, furiously nodded his head, the other police officer just scoffed. "What are you, some kind of apocalyptic problem-solver?"
Ashton stared at him for a moment, but before he could figure out what to say, the sergeant practically barked at him, "Constable Flynn! Please, he's the one that helped us by taking down all those goblins!"
The constable rolled his eyes slightly, "Yeah, yeah. I've just got to wonder how someone could possibly take out all of those things on their own. How they could stomach killing so much."
With a raised brow, Ashton replied, "You're such a little man."
Confused and startled, the constable stared over at his superior, who was just holding back a laugh. Before he could reply, Ashton turned back to Albert, "As I was saying. I'm here about the people someone posted about on the community. The ones walking alongside monsters?"
Albert's eyes widened, and then he let out a slight laugh, "Oh, no, no, you don't have to worry about those. Some of the people we had on outlook were just confused, and thought they saw people," he explained, "But logically, we know that wouldn't be possible. You see, we have figured out a few rules of the 'Update'."
Silently, Ashton nodded his head, waiting for the older man to explain.
"First of all, those monsters will always attack people. Even if they're doing something else beforehand, and even if they are scared or there is no chance for them, they will always attack us. Two, the monsters get stronger as time goes on, and the stronger something is, the more 'coins' they give when they are slain."
Albert continued on, mentioning a few basic 'rules'. For the most part, he had done a good job. He hadn't said anything directly wrong, but... he was missing a few things. After a few minutes of letting Albert speak, and when everyone else in the room looked pretty smug over having figured out these things, thinking that the big 'hero' that had rescued them didn't know this, Ashton let out a sigh.
"Creatures." He started, looking out of the window of the office that oversaw part of the shop. Everyone seemed confused, when Ashton continued. "The quest said 'creatures'. Living things. Not plants, though, but anything else that is living. Animals, monsters..." Ashton turned around, looking back at them. "People. Things work different depending on which you choose. If you kill animals, you get a more limited reward selection. If you kill monsters, that's the expected baseline. The vast majority of people will have done this, at least here in the city. And when someone kills people to clear that quest..."
The constable scoffed, shaking his head. But this time, it wasn't in that smug way from before. Rather, he was clearly startled and confused, "But... we're not 'creatures', we're people."
"What, you think goblins aren't people? Orcs aren't people? I mean, the system makes the distinction right now, but they have their own civilizations. They form towns, they have families, they fall in love. Probably, I don't know. But anyway, fact is, it's possible."
The constable placed his hand onto his holster. Though, it was probably just a stun gun. He doubted someone like him would be carrying a firearm. "How do you know it's possible?"
Ashton rolled his eyes. It wasn't like he could come up with some kind of lie at this point either. At least not if he wanted Poppy to stay happy.
"I just do. I have experience with folk like them. But don't worry, I have not killed any human being," Ashton replied. He wasn't lying, but, well... he wasn't exactly queasy about killing people if he had to.
The fact that 'Marked' even existed in the first place was a sign that there were people that didn't deserve to take up space in this world to come.
Ashton looked back at Albert, "These people are called 'Marked'. I'll tell you more about them later, but what you need to know for now is that those that cleared the first quest by killing people now count as 'Monsters'. Or well, like a step between people and monsters, as far as the system is concerned. They're going to change, physically and mentally. The biggest change they'll have experienced at this point is that they have that same bloodlust that other monsters have, and they're mostly ignored by actual monsters. Or well, they're not specifically sought out by monsters, I guess."
Albert looked around the room, trying to gauge what everyone else was thinking. Frankly, if Ashton was saying it so confidently, then there was no reason not to believe him right now. After all, why would he lie to them? Being extra safe didn't sound like a bad idea, at least.
"So what are we supposed to do?"
"Just watch out for people that act erratically. The ones that you need to be especially careful of right now are those that are basically... feral. They won't speak, they'll just attack. And soon, they're going to change physically and gain traits of certain monsters."
"Traits of monsters? Like what? Will they grow larger? Will they start looking like goblins?" Albert asked, almost not wanting to hear the answer. But Ashton just shrugged.
"Honestly? No clue. It depends on a lot of factors. Their personality, their behaviour, or even their skills, abilities, or class," he started, "But there is one thing for certain. Especially right now, the Marked are more dangerous than any monster out there."
Okay, I'll be resting by the fountain for a little while," Ashton said as he walked back out of the grocery store. Albert, with his hands behind his back, slowly nodded. He was extremely pale from what he had just been told. The others back in that room weren't exactly doing any better than him, either.
But Ashton had to tell them, there was no way around it.
"I see. How long do you think you will stay this time?" Albert wondered, and Ashton shrugged.
"I've got a few things to sort through. I would like to wait out the start of the next quest as well."
"The next... I see. So it will happen soon?"
With a shrug, Ashton turned around, "It should within the next few hours. The last quest ended at 10 in the morning, so I would say by... 6 o'clock?"
He looked down at his watch. That was actually less than an hour. More time had passed than Ashton thought. But still, it was enough time to rest a little, help Poppy heal up fully, check out some rewards, and maybe even open one, or both, random boxes that he grabbed before leaving the school.
"Oh, and I met these guys yesterday, one of them was paralysed. I told them where they'd find this place. Did they...?" Ashton asked, and Albert widened his eyes in surprise.
"That was you? Yes! Yes, they arrived well. We managed to help them complete the quest in time as well." Albert was clearly taken aback to hear that Ashton was the 'mysterious stranger' that had told them about Market Street, but it also didn't seem like a real surprise.
Ashton smiled a bit, "Perfect."
He turned around and went on his way, heading over to the fountain. Though a large area here was covered in soil, there was a small path that did lead directly to the fountain. Ashton walked over there and sat down on it cross-legged.
The people trying to plant things here were a bit confused why someone just walked straight past them, but Ashton was so confident in his stride that they didn't know what to say, and just awkwardly continued on with their work. The first thing Ashton did was ask the Backpacker for a few items.
First, the Red Punch potion, one of the random boxes, an empty plastic bottle, and an item that Ashton hadn't forgotten about, but simply didn't have the opportunity to properly look through yet. It was the reward box that he got from killing the hobgoblin in this very spot.
People were already confused by the Backpacker, but Ashton just waved them away when they were staring too long. But what they saw next seemed even more startling to them.
"Poppy, you can come out if you want," Ashton said, and the small pixie stepped out of Ashton's vessel. She looked around, and quickly hid behind the random box when people started staring at her.
"Is that... a fairy? A real life fairy?" one of them asked, and Ashton nodded, not even looking over at them.
"Mhm, she is. But she's hurt right now, so if you don't mind, I'd like to concentrate on her, thanks."
From this point on, Ashton just ignored what anyone else was saying. He grabbed the potion can and cracked it open, pouring a little into the empty bottle's bottlecap to give to Poppy, "Here, have some. It tastes pretty good, like berries."
The pixie grabbed the bottlecap and started sipping the potion. She seemed to perk up almost immediately, though maybe that was just because the potion was pretty sweet.
Of course, Ashton had a healing potion he made himself as well, but covering a tiny fairy like Poppy in bandages to keep that potion on her skin and wings wasn't the best idea. But even so, he still did some first-aid, using some plasters to cover the rips on her wings and stop them from getting worse, while also guiding the healing along a bit. With some water, these were easy enough to remove later on.
"Are you doing alright?" Ashton asked, giving the fairy a one-over. She nodded her head, smiling happily.
"Alright. Keep drinking that, and tell me when you're done so I can refill it. It would be best if you drink two or three bottlecaps worth."
Poppy nodded happily, sitting down on the wide edge of the fountain together with Ashton.
Next, he grabbed some pieces of paper, starting to draw onto them with the Pen of Insight. It was a very similar to the pattern that he drew in the gymnasium to fill the first random box with magic, but this one was specifically made to draw mana from the air. Since Ashton was sitting literally in the middle of a mana well, this was the cheapest way to fill this thing up.
He just placed the box onto the paper, activated the magic circle, and then let that do the rest. It was fairly slow when automatized like this, but within an hour, it should fill right up.
And now, it was time to check out the other box. The 'Common Settlement Selection Box'. Last time, there were fairly 'medieval' things in there. Older things that seemed to exist in most worlds. 'Common' items were usually mundane, non-magical objects. Cooking setups with campfire, pot and all. Forges, woodworking stations, or tanning racks were there as well last time.
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And now that the system integrated with the world a little more, Ashton could see much, much more useful things.
The stations from before were also still there, just a bit upgraded and modern, with equipment that you could actually see today. There were also a few new things.
Like mechanics stations to work on cars, and even a desk with a desktop computer on it. Frankly, it seemed very possible that computers might have something special about them now as well. Maybe they could connect to the community as well, though Ashton did not have the means to just drop a computer somewhere.
The issue that Ashton had right now was that most of these weren't movable. Since he wasn't planning on staying too stationary for a while, it wasn't worth it to keep for himself. He might be able to redeem one of th em and take it apart for some useful materials, but that felt like a waste, too.
If Ashton found something good, he might just decide to donate whatever came out of it to either this place or Sam's camp. It probably wouldn't update any more after this, either. Well, maybe in the second phase, but that wasn't something Ashton wanted to wait for, exactly.
There had to be something useful for Ashton in here. And then, he saw it. Something that was just perfect for him.
+[Furnished Bell Tent]
Ashton didn't even hesitate and quickly unfolded the option. This was perfect. It wasn't furnished with much, just a small camping bed, a storage box, and a weak lamp. It was five metres across, and seemed to be made for people currently starting out their new settlement to live in while they got everything else going. But it was basically the perfect thing for a summon Ashton wanted to control long-term.
He did have a tent right now, but it was pretty small and not exactly the perfect fit for the construct that he was thinking of. This tent, however, was a perfect starting-size, it had actually solid, durable materials so the soul that would inhabit the construct should be pretty happy, and it frankly just looked a lot better than that dingy small single-person tent that he grabbed for himslef.
"But for this, I'm going to need a bit more... space. And better materials," Ashton whispered to himself. All the summons that he had right now were 'Lowest' grade. Of course, they could advance to higher grades, but the 'Living Abode' that he wanted to summon with the tent started out as 'Low' grade.
It might not sound like a huge difference, but it could be like... if a bicycle was 'lowest' grade, then a high-powered motor bike was 'low' grade. It was really a world of difference, and everything surrounding it showed that fact.
The materials needed, the mana that had to be supplied during the summoning, and the contract capacity that a low grade summon took up were at a much different grade.
If he summoned the Living Abode right now, it would take up all of Ashton's remaining capacity, if he even had enough left for it.
But... if Ashton reached level 10, that should give him the boost that he needed. Not just because of the class itself, but also the quests that he would be clearing in the process. If he raided the boss at the botanical gardens, he should be able to get a lot of the materials as well. Plus, there was another mana well there, so even if it took a while to gather all the mana, that should be a good place for him to do this at.
For now, Ashton put the box aside, and looked over at the window still floating next to him.
[You have completed the [Bonus Quest - Save Drakewood Primary School]! You have been awarded 2000 Coins! Choose your reward item]
"Let's see..." Ashton started looking through the list and, well, he wasn't really sure what else he was expecting.
They seemed useful, sure, and they wouldn't be just mundane items but also ones with special effects, but...
...
[Dreamdoll Dress Wardrobe]
[Recharging PEZ Dispenser]
[Automatic Tin Soldier]
...
They weren't exactly useful. Ashton let out a long sigh. He should have known that there wouldn't be anything super useful here. When a constellation offered you an item as a quest reward, it was usually geared toward their own domains. And since the Guardian of the Innocent was hyper-focused on the well-being of children, everything here was just toys or things that children might like.
[[Guardian of the Innocent] explains that they did not expect to give out a quest yet]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] points out that their Uncommon Items are simply like this]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] promises they gave you as much as they could]
"Calm down, man, it's all good," Ashton laughed a bit. It wasn't often that you could see a constellation get flustered. "I'm surprised you're even still sticking around me right now. Just head back to the school."
[[Guardian of the Innocent] advises you to look at the options closely]
Ashton raised a brow confused. It seemed like the Guardian stopped watching him for now. The rest of the constellations were still there though, just making random comments about what they were seeing around here.
It was a bit annoying, but Ashton had a pretty good idea why they were buzzing around so much.
But that was going to happen later. For now, Ashton just kept looking through the list. It felt like the Guardian had given him some kind of hint. Like maybe there was something hidden in that list that was more useful to Ashton than the rest.
He continued to look through the list. Seriously, this guy was supposed to be a 'guardian', why were there only useless toys in here?
"I guess all the good stuff comes starting at the rare tier," Ashton whispered. Uncommon items were usually things with weak magical effects. If stats were boosted, it was by one or two at best, and if there was a special effect, it was really just gimmicky and small. Like a toy starting to move or a few grams of sugar being replenished into a PEZ dispenser after an hour or so. He didn't know if that was how that one worked, but it seemed about right.
So, what was the most useful item here? And then, Ashton saw it.
...
[All-Natural Watercolour Set]
...
A smile appeared on Ashton's face as he tapped the system screen. Small wisps of magic flowed out from it and came together on his palm, turning into a wooden box.
Ashton folded it open. It was a massive kit of around 120 different colours. At first glance, these looked like a pretty mundane thing, which it usually probably would be, but since this is an 'uncommon' item, these paints had magic in them.
It was useless for most people, since it didn't have a gimmick on its own. Rather, it felt like it didn't even belong in here. But for Ashton, it was perfect. 'All-Natural' was a good hint that these were pigments taken from magic-infused plants or minerals, so they were great additional ingredients for ink-making if Ashton could figure out what each one was.
Luckily, he was here in Market Street and could get himself some more base ink to ask the Pen of Insight to write him a small list.
This already brought him a step closer to his next summon.
Ashton did a round through Market Street and picked up a few more things that he was owed. Right now, this was a big bag of mixed candies, a shirt with decent fabric and colour, a sewing kit, some more pots of ink, and a bit of new tobacco, rolling papers, and filters. One of the stores was even selling this sleek cigarette holder the size of a regular pack, so he could fit about twenty self-rolled cigarettes in there.
He grabbed a couple of them while he was at it, so that he could sort his cigarettes a little.
To start out with, Ashton poured all the ink into an empty bottle and crushed up some magic stones to put in there with it, reaching the minimum threshold for it to count as an offering for the Pen of Insight. And then, he linked the pen with the ink and some paper, and then described what he wanted the pen to write down.
"I'm going to individually 'tag' all of the colours. I want you to write down the overall grade and extra information at the top, and then for each individual colour, write down the name and what the pigment has been gathered from."
The pen seemed to be happy to do just that. Of course, it couldn't talk or make any sort of expressions, but from the way that it was moving, Ashton figured it was pretty excited.
Immediately, the pen dipped its own crystal nib into the ink, and then quickly started writing. This was a process that would probably take a while for all 120 colours, so Ashton would check in later.
For now, he grabbed the shirt that he took. It was one that had gotten damaged, presumably because of a goblin swinging around its weapon. So, Ashton picked it out to re-use it as something else. A dress for Poppy.
Usually, they fashioned their own clothes out of flowers or leaves, but the dress made of red Poppy petals wasn't looking all too hot anymore. And even if it hadn't been damaged, these things had to be either kept up with magic, or remade once the petals wilted too much.
It was actually something that fairies were pretty annoyed about, so once Ashton learned how to sew, he started making clothes for some fairies whenever they asked. They were so happy whenever they got a new dress, shirt, suit, or skirt, so he just couldn't say 'no' anymore at some point.
It was pretty easy. At this point, Ashton had been doing this regularly for about seventy years. He cut into the thin, red fabric, basically just eyeing what pieces he needed. With a matching red thread, Ashton then quickly stitched those pieces together into a small, wavy summer dress. He tried to make it match as closely to what the petal-dress used to look like as he could, and soon presented the small dress to Poppy.
She had been sitting there, watching the Pen of Insight scribble away with a big smile on her face, and hadn't even noticed what Ashton was doing. And when he got her attention, she turned around and looked at the dress confused.
Poppy tilted her head to the side, looking at the dress before pointing at herself.
"Yeah, I made it for you," Ashton said with a smile, carefully handing the dress to her. She stared at it and held it in her hands, tearing up slightly.
Ashton smiled and quickly made a small hut for her with some of his notebooks so that she could get changed. Poppy excitedly ran inside, and Ashton looked over at the people staring at him from beside the fountain.
"What?" he asked, not sure why they were looking at him like that
"Are you... playing dress-up with a fairy right now?"
Ashton raised a brow, "I made clothes for a friend whose dress was literally wilting off her body. Also, what's wrong with wanting to at least look nice when the world is ending?"
A moment later, while the people were awkwardly glancing away, clearly not sure how to deal with Ashton's bluntness in a situation like this, Poppy stepped back out, now wearing her new dress. She twirled around a bit and happily grinned up at Ashton, "Do you like it?"
The pixie nodded her head without hesitation, hugging the side of Ashton's leg, "I'm very happy."
At that point, the Pen of Insight stopped writing, and Ashton looked over at the notification that popped up, which he had ignored a bit.
[Contract | Pen of Insight - Level 3 -> Pen of Insight - Level 4]
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Thank you very much," Ashton said, holding his hand out to the pen. It floated on top of his palm and spun in place. It already looked a lot more solid than it did before. Every summon changed a little as they levelled up. In the case of the Pen of Insight, it became a bit more 'ornate'. It could hold more ink, its writing became nicer, the pen nib changed more to fit what it needed... those sorts of things. By now, the crystal nib that Ashton so roughly attached was fully a part of it and there was no threat of it falling off anymore.
Now, Ashton quickly took a look at the list. The order of the list was based on the order of the colours in the kit. The pen quickly showed Ashton which one belonged to which so that he could make sure he was right about the way that the pen ordered the list.
"This orange one is made from... Hallow's Eye, good addition for mimicry ink... the blue one would be made from hedgehog quill, has a pretty high energy-alignment... Oh, crap, this brown one is made from Bat-Wyvern Eggs? Wow," Ashton looked through the list and looked at the colours. He knew most of these materials already. A bunch of them were actually from Lumia, others were only introduced with the system.
Though, the Summoner had used their magic in ways that Ashton still couldn't quite grasp. They kept placing chunks of other 'worlds' into their own so that they could gather new materials and expand their collections more and more. They were absolutely ecstatic when the second phase started and did that automatically.
Ashton kept going through the list, trying to see which ones he could remember and which ones he wasn't quite sure of. There were only three or four of the 120 colours whose source he couldn't quite place.
Even so, he had a rough idea of how he could use them, especially since the pen managed to describe the pigments' affinities pretty well.
With that, for now, Ashton had the Backpacker put the paints away. He would get them back out when it was time to actually make some new ink.
And then, since he had nothing else to do, Ashton decided to work out a bit. He couldn't quite sit still, and there wasn't a lot else that he could do right now, so he positioned himself on the edge of the fountain, so that he could stay near the random box that was still being filled up with mana, took off his jacket, and started doing some push-ups.
Levelling up wasn't the only way to increase your stats. You could increase it through training as well, though it took quite a lot to do. For now, Ashton just had to get started and get used to working out in this body.
While he had already shed a good bit of bodyfat with his stats increasing so much, and with all the physical activity that he was doing, he had really just been fighting and running around. His muscles needed some more... guided growth.
Since his 'power' stat was already at 14, he moved on to one-handed push-ups pretty fast, moving up and down slowly and stopping mid-motion sometimes to hold in place for a few seconds.
It was painful and his muscles were screaming after just a few minutes of this, but that was fine. It meant that it was working!
Maybe he should get himself some weights to work out. The backpacker's storage ability wasn't defined by weight, but just by volume, so he could put basically anything in there without issue as long as the backpacker could lift it. So if he just packed a lot of individual metal plates, he might be able to get some good workouts going.
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] approves of your physical training]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] cheers you on!]
That was a bit surprising. The Daughter did seem more interested whenever Ashton showed physical feats, rather than the magical feats that the Observer raved on and on about. Though, it was still a bit unclear what exactly the Executor found interesting about him.
Either way, this continued on for another while, even beyond Ashton's guess of 6 o'clock for the second quest. However, at exactly 7, to the second, a few new messages appeared.
[You have a New Quest! [Main Quest 2 - Class Selection]]
[Main Quest 2 - Class Selection]
[With the baseline dedication now proven, you are ready to truly adjust to the new world. But the way most of you currently are, you will not survive any further. You wouldn't give up now, would you? So - Live.]
[Goal - Attain a Class within 7 Days]
[Reward - Beginner Gear]
[Failure - Death]
Ashton smiled as he looked at the message. It took a few moments for it to process, however, almost immediately...
[You have completed [Main Quest 2 - Class Selection]!]
[Constellations may now offer Sponsorships to you!]
[You have a New Quest! [Sub Quest - Path of Power]]
[Sub Quest - Path of Power]
[You have done well in choosing your class. Now, show how well you can master your new abilities.]
[Goal - Reach Level 10 by the end of Quest 2's Period (7/10)]
[Reward - Scales with level of completion]
Ashton stretched lightly, and sat down on the edge of the fountain. Everyone was nervously looking at the quest information in front of them. They had basically abandoned everything that they were doing, and just focused on that as they moved over to the grocery store to talk to the people in charge.
Once they were all gone, Ashton smiled a bit and leaned back a bit, putting weight onto his hands.
"What are you guys waiting for? I know you've been anxious about this part."
[[Observer of the Veil] has offered to become your Sponsoring Constellation]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] has offered to become your Sponsoring Constellation]
[[Executor of the End] has offered to become your Sponsoring Constellation]
Ashton stared at the notifications in front of his eyes. All three of them had offered to sponsor him. He had expected it, but actually having to deal with it was a whole other matter.
"Alright, let's go through it, then. What are you actually offering me? And what do you want me to do in return?"
[[Observer in the Veil] says that...]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] explains...]
[[Executor of the End] promises to...]
"One after the other, please. Just send over the whole thing, I know that you have your own separate display for this stuff. Observer? You've been around the longest, so go ahead, please," Ashton crossed his arms.
This part was genuinely annoying to deal with. Frankly, he wasn't planning on getting sponsored. Of course, it was useful, but it also was pretty binding. The more power a constellation gave you, the more they were able to restrain you.
They could forbid you from taking certain classes. They could seal up skills they didn't like. Hell, if they wanted to, they could even put filters on what you were able to say or not.
[Sponsorship Agreement]
[The Constellation [Observer in the Veil] has made an official offer to be your sole and exclusive Sponsor.]
[Receives]
[Full Knowledge of the World formerly inhabited by Ashton Garling]
[Ashton Garling promises to exclusively use abilities of magical nature]
[Ashton Garling promises to consult with the Sponsoring Constellation before forming further contracts]
[Bestows]
[Skill - Spell Construction]
[Financial Subsidy - 10.000 Weekly Coins - Increase by 5.000 Coins every subsequent Main Quest]
[Stat Bonus - Increased Contract Capacity]
He let out a loud laugh, "There's no way you're fucking serious, mate. So you want to know my biggest secrets and to decide my future in this fucking world? Yeah, sorry, not gonna happen."
Obviously, the things being bestowed on him weren't too bad either. A personal skill of all things? The money was pretty good as well, though frankly, wasn't close to enough long-term. The increased contract capacity was neat, but if the Observer could decide what he could form these contracts with, that felt like a bit of a trap.
[[Observer in the Veil] asks what the problem with their offer is]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] laughs at the Observer and tells them to step aside]
[Sponsorship Agreement]
[The Constellation [Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] has made an official offer to be your sole and exclusive Sponsor.]
[Receives]
[Ashton Garling chooses to attain a class of the Sponsoring Constellation's choosing]
[Ashton Garling makes regular sacrifices to the Sponsoring Constellation in the form of slain monsters]
[Ashton Garling promises to not tarnish the Sponsoring Constellation's honour]
[Bestows]
[Skill - Physical Strengthening]
[Financial Subsidy - +10% bonus to coins from slain monsters]
[Stat Bonus - +1 growth to physical statistics]
That was... shockingly not that bad. Physical strengthening was a decent skill. A guaranteed growth to each physical stat was pretty neat too, and the subsidy surprisingly scaled better than the Observer's.
This agreement did confirm some of the rumours that Ashton had heard. The Daughter was a battle maniac. And the 'sacrifices' also told him a bit about her nature. She was probably some sort of demonic entity. As for the last thing that she asked for, it was so vague that it could really mean anything. It was probably just made to force Ashton not to embarrass himself, but honour was such a stupid concept that Ashton couldn't give a single shit about it.
Either way, not that any of it mattered too much.
"Again, I don't exactly like being told how to act and what to do. And there's a reason why I don't want to get an additional class right now. So, no, sorry. Executor, what about you?"
Stolen novel; please report.
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] scoffs and claims that it is your loss]
[[Observer in the Veil] tells the Daughter to not be such a sore loser]
[[Executor of the End] ignores the other two and faces you again]
[Sponsorship Agreement]
[The Constellation [Executor of the End] has made an official offer to be your sole and exclusive Sponsor.]
[Receives]
[Ashton Garling pledges to stay focused on combat and growth through to the end of the Questline]
[Ashton Garling swears to seek the Death of all that stand in his way]
[Ashton Garling will devote himself to take the life of any who are designated by the Sponsoring Constellation]
[Bestows]
[Skill - Aura of Death]
[Additional Bonus - One-Time Complete Resurrection]
Ashton tried to respond. He tried to show his disbelief at what was offered to him. A resurrection. A. Resurrection.
The Executor of the End was a constellation that ruled over the domain of death. And a powerful one at that. A complete resurrection was not something that anyone could give. Most constellations could give something like 'instant death protection', but a resurrection?
By far... the Executor of the End was the most powerful of the constellations following him around. Maybe even more powerful than the Guardian of the Innocent.
"... No."
[[Executor of the End] shrugs and claims it was worth a try anyway]
[[Observer in the Veil] stares at the Executor with confusion]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] is flustered at the Executor's domain]
Hold on, even constellations didn't know who the others were? That was almost as surprising as learning what kind of being the Executor was.
Ashton looked at the notifications. "Alright, calm down, you lot. I'm not going to take on any sponsor. Frankly, you could've promised to bring me right to the end of the quests, and I wouldn't have agreed. For a very simple reason." He stood up as the smile disappeared from his face. "Accepting a sponsor is the same as becoming someone's fucking toy. And I refuse to let that happen. Got that?"
[[Observer in the Veil] hesitantly agrees]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] is glad to hear the bluntness in your voice]
[[Executor of the End] smiles]
Ashton knew that this wasn't going to be the end. Constellations weren't as easy get off your ass. However, the system restricted the constellations here and there as well. They had to wait a couple days before making new offers. The exact period did depend on the strength of the constellation, of course. He figured he would hear the next offer from the first of these three in two or three days.
That was, if they decided to stick around. Though, these three seemed particularly stubborn, so Ashton doubted it was easy to get rid of them. However, there was something that interested Ashton about these 'sponsorship agreements', now that he had them right in front of his eyes.
Obviously, they were just contracts between two individuals, that was something that was clear even before Ashton saw them. But as he looked at them, he knew that there was a way for him to twist things in his favour.
He might soon be the first person to have a contract with multiple constellations.
But for now, Ashton had absolutely no idea how he would even do that. He knew how contracts with gods or other higher divine beings worked. Even the Summoner couldn't force them into submission, so Ashton was able to see them form some other sorts of shrewd contracts with them. Same with higher devils, the Summoner was always annoyed whenever they had to deal with either of these sides, so they didn't do so often.
However, it was enough for Ashton to learn that every single one of these higher beings had their own unique summoning circle. They followed similar patterns in what they asked for, sure, and certain shapes appeared commonly in these circles, but they didn't have the same level of similarities as the summoning circles from other systems.
Or at least, they weren't similarities that Ashton could exactly grasp. The good part was that Ashton didn't actually need to summon or reach out to the constellations. They were right here in front of him.
He just had to find the right format for the contract circles, and then the summoning circles to actually call on the constellations' 'representative', if those contracts worked similarly to other higher beings'.
Now, it might be a bit hard to convince the constellations. Plus, Ashton had other priorities. Sure, his contract capacity went up a bit after instantly completing the second main quest, and it would go up again once he reached level 10 over the next couple days. But he still didn't have enough capacity for a lot of the really important contracts.
There were a few that he really needed. The Living Abode, for one. It was just a quality of life thing for now, since he could just sleep wherever he needed to, and could probably stash some things at Calibur when necessary. But at some point, he couldn't go without the Living Abode.
Then there was the Salesman. A hell of an important spirit contract that Ashton needed to form, but the lowest contract for a Salesman was 'Low' grade as well, so it would take up a lot of capacity and take a ton of ingredients. Plus, a shitton of money, more than Ashton had at the moment.
The Drunken Bear would be a great addition as well. At least that would be a lowest grade contract, but they were more of a pure utility summon that wasn't as directly useful for Ashton as the Backpacker. The Catsmith would be great, as well... then there were some other elementals that he would love. Sylph and Gnome contracts for sure, maybe even a Carbuncle.
"Oh man, there's so many contracts that I need..." Ashton rubbed the bridge of his nose. He wasn't even sure if he had the space for a contract with the constellations anytime soon. At the very least, higher beings were usually open to scaling contracts, so he should be able to convince them to the terms of a lowest grade contract.
With a long sigh, Ashton looked over at the window that was still hovering near him. It was about the quest reward for the second Main Quest. 'Beginner Gear'. Of course, it was all going to be gear for the class that people attained.
Ashton turned toward the edge of the fountain and tapped on the screen. The items were all quickly constructed out of wisps of light.
This was exactly what Ashton remembered being in the 'beginner gear' set when the Summoner opened it.
A quill-pen, a pot of ink, a stack of paper kept together by some string, a small leather material bag, and some extremely rough-looking robes.
Ashton grabbed the material bag. It was square, probably big enough to fit a phone, and around three fingers thick. Frankly, not even close to good enough for his purposes, but it was good enough to keep a few small things in. He quickly attached it to his belt by his hip. The ink actually had a fair amount of magic in it, so it would be pretty good for drawing magic circles. And then, looking at the quill... It had a fine nib, a good grip, and was balanced well.
He might as well keep this around. At some point, the Pen of Insight might be able to be conscious permanently and wouldn't like being handled while awake. So, this was basically a backup.
As for the robes. Dark brown, butt-ugly, an incredibly rough material, and not a single pocket. This was just a mundane item that the council gave with the rest of the items so that Ashton could 'look the part'.
He rolled his eyes, and walked over to the racks of clothes that people were sorting through, and threw the robes on top.
Now, Ashton picked up all the rest of the stuff that was on the edge of the fountain, including the now filled-up random box. He had the Backpacker put away most of it, and then helped Poppy up. With the bandage on her wing, she wasn't quite able to fly right now.
Ashton threw up the random box and smiled, starting to walk down Market Street.
"Then let's see if what we get now is useful against some Marked."
Remove
As he walked along Market Street, Ashton held the random box in his hand excitedly. He pressed onto the side to open it up, and the box slowly fell apart into wisps of mana.
They came together into the form of a ball. Just a regular-looking football, nothing special. It was round, had the right number of fields, it weighed roughly what a football should weigh.
"Huh. Pen, could you..?" Ashton asked, tucking the ball under his arm while holding a bottle of ink and a notebook. The Pen of Insight immediately started writing the information on the page.
He was pretty damn excited about this. What kind of magic would be on this ball? Would it always return to the user when kicked? Did it create a massive force impact whenever it hit something? Could it grow to unimaginable sizes?
Ashton excitedly waited for the pen to finish, and then looked at the paper with an excited smile... which quickly faded.
Football
Grade - Common
Weight - 431g | Diameter - 8.75in
A mundane soccer ball, as is sold in most common sports-goods shops.
He stared at the paper. And then at the ball. Ashton quietly gave the paper and ink to the backpacker again, and tightly held the ball between his hands.
Ashton took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and walked up to the crowd that had been forming in front of the grocery store.
There were some teen boys here, most likely too old to get the protection of the Guardian, probably ended up here by skipping school or something, so he just walked up to them, pushed the ball into one of their arms, and then went on his way to the nearest road-block.
Ashton had been told roughly where the presumed Marked had been seen earlier, so now that the second quest started, he figured it was about time for him to head out and take a look.
Ashton soon found himself back on the streets with the bike that he brought with him. Here, he would look for some Marked. Of course, they weren't exempt from main quests. Some of the quest they received were quite different to the mainstream line, but the first few were usually the same.
Survive in the tutorial. Kill 'creatures' in the first main quest. And in the second main quest, get your class. Marked, still being players at the end of the day, were also able to get a 'class', except that the class-pool wasn't quite the same as a non-Marked's class.
Depending on what they did, they could determine the path they walked down as monsters. They could always get their hands on regular classes as well, but at some point over the next week, based on their actions, they would received a cursed class that would turn them into monsters.
This class couldn't be turned down or removed either. Though, it also didn't count as much as a regular class toward the growth-scaling when you had multiple classes.
Ashton rode through the streets for a while, figuring he could just cycle around the streets for a while and see if he could find anything. Plus, it should be worth it to just get a good idea of what the area was like. He had barely found Calibur before after coincidentally meeting people that worked there. Frankly, he didn't remember shit about what the rest of this place was like.
So, he took a leisurely ride around these streets. Ashton came across some monsters on the way, and bashed them all in the head with his staff, or flicked his wrist and sent the wisp at them. When there wasn't an explicit reason to keep going, and especially when there was just one or two stragglers, Ashton got off his bike and harvested their magic stones.
One of the best ways to see the strength difference between monsters then and now was when you looked at goblins. Just accounting for the size of the magic stone — it was at least three times the size to before.
But as Ashton rode around, he could really tell how fast this world was changing.
It had just been a couple days, and weeds were breaking through the road. Patches of grass were already spread around where they shouldn't be. Ivy and moss was starting to grow up the facades of all the buildings.
And even the insides of those buildings looked like they had been abandoned for a while, though that was mostly because of monsters running completely wild inside of them.
There was barely a window left without at least some cracks, and the dark crevices had been infested with massive insects or rats, and Ashton had even spotted some bats now nesting inside the buildings.
In just a few weeks, this town would probably look like nobody had been here for years. It was somehow quite beautiful.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Before long, while Ashton was riding around, he heard yelling. Not exactly the smartest thing to do, but he figured he knew what it was. Ashton quickly rode through the streets to get closer to the yelling. It was in the direction of Calibur. Actually, it came directly from in front of that building.
It was a man, banging onto the wall built around the building's entrance, screaming his lungs out. He had clearly gone absolutely mad. Even from here, Ashton could see that he was covered in blood from head to toe.
Ashton rode up to the wall, placing down his bike. The mindless groaning of this guy was getting a bit annoying.
"Yeah, yeah, I can hear you," he let out a long sigh, spinning around his staff. The man was... mad. The way that you reacted to the system's forced insanity was different for everyone. Judging from the blood covering his face, centred around his mouth, this one got a particularly bad case. The system was much more punishing the more vile the way people completed the first quest was.
Ashton looked over at the wall, smiling at the people peeking down, "Don't worry, everyone! I'm going to lure this guy away!"
He said, hitting the 'man' in the shoulder with his staff. The man was pushed backward and Ashton just started jogging away. With a limp, he began to follow behind. This guy was almost acting like a...
"Oh, fuck no," Ashton shook his head annoyed, trying to build some distance between himself and Calibur Games. It didn't really have to be a long way, just... far enough away. In this world, nobody would bat an eye at one more body on the ground.
He turned around the corner into an alley, where he could be sure nobody was watching, and then stopped himself.
"Poppy, you can go into my vessel if you don't want to see this," Ashton warned, but Poppy seemed to just clutch onto his hair even more, basically preparing for what was about to happen. The man finally turned into the alley behind him. With his increased stats, Ashton was a lot faster than a limping guy like this. Someone must have fought back.
"... Sorry, mate. Nothing against you, just..." though that was how he started, Ashton stopped speaking after a moment, "Actually, no. It is something personal. Go fuck yourself."
Ashton stabbed his staff forward into the man's face, practically flattening his nose against his skull. While he stumbled backward, Ashton swept his staff over the ground and made him drop on his ass. While he was still trying to get up, Ashton based his face in.
He just had to slam the staff down three times before a message appeared before Ashton's eyes.
[You have killed a [Marked Human]. For your efforts, you are awarded 10 Coins]
Ashton's throat felt tight. His hands were shaking. He had killed... people before. Many, many people. Most of it was against his will, obviously, though after a few years, as much as he hated to admit it, Ashton got used to it.
But a human? He had never killed one of his own kind before. Humans weren't a thing in Lumia, after all.
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] is impressed by your ruthlessness]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] has gifted you 150 Coins]
[[Executor of the End] is surprised at how calm you are]
Ashton ignored the messages, just staring down at the body.
It felt... sickening. Disgusting. Not the killing itself, obviously. Because the Executor was right. Ashton was extremely calm. It was easy. He felt so little for the man whose blood was now splattered onto his shoes. The instincts forced into him almost made Ashton drop down to cut open the man's chest to look for magic stones. And hell, there might already be a few grains scattered in that man's heart, but nothing worth looking for.
Ashton took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and then walked out of the alley.
Of course, it wouldn't take long until people would get used to killing other people. It fucking sucked that it would become somewhat normal, but at least for now, that new 'normal' wasn't here yet. So, Ashton couldn't just go cracking open someone's skull in front of a tons of people. At least not if he wanted them to trust him at least to some degree.
He made his way back to Calibur, soon waving at the people nervously looking over toward him, "Don't worry, he's gone!"
The back of the van was quickly opened for Ashton from the inside, and he carried his bike into it and made his way to the other side.
"You lost him? What was going on with that guy?" the woman that let him inside asked. Ashton had met her briefly yesterday.
"... I'll explain it to you guys in a second. Anyway, where's Sam?" Ashton asked.
"Should be upstairs in his office. You remember the way, right?"
"I was there earlier in the morning. Yes, I remember the way," he laughed, "Oh, I'll leave the bike here, yeah?"
"... Sure?"
Ashton quickly stepped inside and made his way up to Calibur games. There were a lot more people here, now. People taking shelter from the world outside. Some were doing pretty well, others... not so much.
He made his way upstairs, simply walking past the asshats from the investment office trying to call out to him, and stepped into his friend's office.
"Alright, please tell me that you haven't accepted whatever shitty offer the 'Shadow behind the Throne' sent to you."
Sam sat at his desk, tapping away on a laptop. He looked up, a bit startled, but soon just let out a long sigh while placing a hand onto his chest.
"... Of course I haven't accepted it, you told me not to bother with them," Sam sighed as Ashton dropped down onto a chair on the other side of the desk.
"Okay, good. Keep rejecting it whenever you can. That guy's going to lose interest pretty soon when he notices that you're going to stay in the limelight," Ashton said, stretching a bit in the chair.
[[Shadow behind the Throne] glares at you with fury in their eyes]
[[Observer in the Veil] tells the Shadow to back off]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] warns the Shadow to not touch a hair on your body]
[[Executor of the End] scoffs at what the Shadow calls fury]
"Okay, can you guys fucking stop it already? Go fight off somewhere on your own if you want," Ashton sighed, turning around briefly to make sure that nobody was trying to listen in.
Sam looked at Ashton nervously, "Did things go well at the school?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, that's all dealt with perfectly fine, don't worry. There's some nice kids there. Made a new friend." Ashton pointed on top of his head, where Poppy slowly started waving at Sam. He pulled back, confused.
"Wait, what? How did I not see that, is that a fairy?"
"Yes, a pixie. And don't worry about not seeing her, fairies are sort of 'hidden in plain sight' type of beings. Most people don't notice them even when they're scurrying around," Ashton explained, "Anyway, let's talk about that in a bit. I need you to make another post. This time it's going to be less advice, and more... of a warning."
Sam looked away from Poppy confused, "Wait, what? A warning?"
"Yes. So, let's start at the important stuff. I just killed a man."
Sam closed his eyes. He didn't hear Ashton correctly just now, right? Ashton didn't just say that... right?
"Could you... could you say that again?"
"Oh, yeah, of course," Ashton nodded his head, smiling awkwardly, "I just killed a guy. The one that was screaming his lungs out outside? Yeah, him."
Sam got up from his seat, "What?! Ash, why the bloody fuck would you do that?!"
"Lower your voice, you're scaring Poppy," Ashton sighed, taking the fairy off his head, "Listen, that's just the start of it. That guy wasn't sane. Rather, he was actively insane, and would have only recovered that sanity by killing people."
"... What?"
"Yeah, so, that guy was a 'Marked'. Someone that, instead of killing monsters or animals during the first quest, killed people. Those individuals are designated as a step closer toward monsters, and they are made to lose their sanity in a similar fashion to regular monsters," Ashton explained, crossing his legs, "These people were given a bonus quest that allows them to regain their sanity, which they follow instinctually. That bonus quest is to kill people, just like any other monster. Oh, these people are also not attacked normally by monsters. Anyway, in the process of killing people, they will show certain habits, which will then give them a 'Monster Class'. Basically, a cursed class that will start turning them into monsters the more they level up."
Sam stared at the man sitting across from him, trying to follow what he was being told, "... And... And that guy was one of them?"
"Mhm. He was eatin' people, apparently. Was acting pretty wild," Ashton explained, "So... I killed him."
Confused, Sam sat down, "And... there was no other way?"
"No. He had already killed five people. The only way for him to regain his consciousness would be to kill even more."
"... How many is 'more'?"
"Hm, I don't know. Another four or five? Depends on the individual, how many people they actually killed during the first quest, and how they killed them. Just considering how insane the guy was looking, I guessed it was five that were killed brutally, or one that was... fully tortured to death. But we don't know," Ashton explained, standing up from the seat before walking around the desk, "So just make a post explaining what 'Marked' are, I'll tell you everything you need to know."
"... Can't you just do it yourself?"
"I haven't typed on a laptop in a century. No." Ashton put his hands onto his friend's shoulders, looking over his head at the laptop, "So other tech works like that, too?"
"Hm? Uh, yeah," Sam slowly nodded, clearing his throat. He didn't seem uncomfortable or anything, it was just clear that he still wasn't quite used to the way the new world worked, "Basically, every phone or computer or similar works to access the community somehow. Obviously, right now it's just battery-powered things, electricity doesn't seem to work that well right now, so the desktops aren't an option at the moment."
"Neat, okay. Is there anything else you can do on a laptop that you couldn't do on a phone?"
Sam shook his head, "No, not anything 'new', it's just a lot easier to do certain things. For one, I've explored all the functions now, and some people are seemingly trying to put some order into this place right now. You can make smaller sub-forums on here that other people can join and post on depending on the settings the creator chooses."
Seemingly remembering something, Sam started looking through the drawers on his desk, while Ashton looked through the posts currently on the laptop's screen. Soon, Sam found what he was looking for and held it toward Ashton. It was another phone.
"Managed to trade this off someone. You gave yours to that Backpacker guy, right?"
"Oh. Yeah, no thanks, I don't need it. The Backpacker promised to check in with the community for me. I seriously unlearned how to do most things on a phone, and I don't think right now is the best time to re-learn," Ashton explained, "The Backpacker is actually pretty good with that."
"... So why don't you just take a second phone just in case?"
"No, seriously, I don't-"
"Take the fucking phone, man, you have no idea what the fuck I traded for this, so just take it."
Sam pressed the phone into Ashton's hand. It was turned off, so it shouldn't be syncing with him right now, so the Backpacker's phone was still fully functional, "Uh, thanks."
He gave the second phone to the Backpacker to stash away.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Good. Just in case the first phone runs out of battery before we figure out how to recharge things," Sam explained, but Ashton shook his head.
"No, you can recharge batteries with magic stones."
"... What?"
"Just hold your phone and a magic stone at the same time, and you get the option to recharge. Oh, put that into the post about magic stones you're going to write," Ashton said, but Sam just looked at him with a blank expression.
"And why exactly am I making a post about magic stones?"
"Well, because you'll be making a ton of posts. Just start setting up a wiki on there. I'll tell you everything you need to know, and you make the posts so that people know about it."
Sam groaned, "Man, do you know how expensive it is to set up your own sub-forums? Frankly, I don't know how other people have done it already."
"How expensive?"
"A thousand coins."
Ashton quickly opened his status.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 2218 -> 3261]
[Stats]
[Power - 13 -> 14]
[Resilience - 10 -> 11]
[Speed - 14 -> 15]
[Spirit - 18 -> 20]
[Classes]
+[Summoner - Level 6 -> 7] (!)
Quickly, Ashton tapped his coin amount and pulled the slider to the right. He quickly popped out the large coin and gave it to his friend, "Just tap it against your status window."
Sam hesitantly did as told, and the large coin fell apart into wisps of magic. He blinked a few times.
"Of course. A thousand coins. Sure."
"Hah, if you heard how much money I spent today, you'd cry."
"... How much did you spend?"
Ashton stepped behind Sam's chair again and patted his friend's shoulders, "Don't worry about it. Anyway, I'm going to finance all of your posting, and I'm going to provide you with the information to post in the first place. At least, for the time being. Other people will find out some of this information as well, plus info that I'm not even privy to yet."
With a sigh, Sam agreed, "Fine. I mean, it's a good thing, anyway. However..." he turned around on his chair and looked up at his friend, "I'm not going to act like this info comes from me."
"Dude, come on, that's the whole point. If it's not coming from you, then you're not the one getting the attention."
"No, you're wrong about that," Sam got up from his seat, stretching a bit. It seems like he had been sitting for a while, "First. I don't know why you want me to get attention or why you're trying to turn me into a big leader."
"Because you'd be a good leader. You care about people, you actually like people, and you-"
"Ash, just... whatever, I get it. I'm going to play along, because all this shit's way too crazy for me to sit back and not do anything. Either way, you have no idea how fucking suspicious people are of you. I've been hearing them whisper and ask how you know what you know. If I act like that, then people aren't going to trust me, they're going to question how I know this."
Ashton slowly nodded, "Okay. That's fair, I guess. So what are you going to do about that, then?"
"I'm going to say that my information comes from an anonymous source. I don't know, we'll give you a nickname or something," Sam suggested, and Ashton crossed his arms.
"And you're sure that won't make people question you?"
"No. But this way, we can spread some rumours. Oh, this isn't actually just a crazy strong guy, it's a team of... fucking scientists that immediately started studying the system. It's easier to legitimize the source of the info when that source is unclear, weirdly enough."
Ashton carefully agreed, "Fine. So, I'll be the anonymous source, and you'll be the one spreading the info."
"Great," Sam smiled, sitting back down and looking at the laptop, "In that case, let me make a forum where only I can post... create some sub-pages so that I can actually categorise it... Speaking of, what sort of categories do we need?"
"Hm... That's a good question. Right now, the important parts are system functions, monsters... real-world changes? Like stores, dungeons, that sort of thing."
"Do you want me to only manage this fucking wiki or somethin'?"
"I don't know, man. Can't you just have someone else do it for you on your account?" Ashton yawned a bit, and Sam thought for a moment.
"I think there was actually an option to lock the account onto the device, so it wouldn't switch over... So it would be possible," Sam pointed out, quickly starting to look through his settings.
"Plus, you just need to make the big posts about the explanations and general types. Other people are going to make posts about specific instances in the overall regional section," Ashton figured. People were already making posts like that, and were collecting info in the comment sections of existing posts with similar themes.
While Ashton didn't have experience with this, he did believe in the unwavering human spirit. He believed that people were going to adjust shockingly fast and get used to this world. They would explain it, and learn its ways faster than Ashton could even comprehend.
That was already showing itself.
"Backpacker, could you show me the phone for a second? I want to scroll through the community to see what it's like now," Ashton said, and the backpacker hesitantly nodded their head. While Sam was busy setting up the basic framework of the new forum, Ashton looked through the general regional community to see what was going on.
Just like Ashton had thought, there were a ton of posts of people trying to ask for help, and almost all the comments were about people being nervous and scared.
It looked like one of the forums that had already been created was one that was specifically meant for people to ask for help. They had created sub-posts in that forum about the different areas of Drakewood, where people could comment their exact location within it to help easily narrow things down and sort it out.
There were also groups forming already. For example, there was one sub-forum called 'Drakewood Police Department', which seemed like it was going to be used to try and post public service announcements. Apparently, the police was trying to keep up order to at least some degree, though that wasn't going to work very well.
"By the way," Ashton started while looking through the posts, "Did you already grab your beginner equipment?"
"Hm? Oh, not yet. I've been working on some other things after that."
"Okay, fair. By the way, what's your level now?"
"I'm up to three, but I think I should get to level four soon."
"Alright, good. After you set up the basic stuff, come outside with me again. I could use someone to come with me to the botanical garden. Plus, it's going to get you to level 10 sooner." He gave the phone back to the Backpacker, "And trust me, the quest reward for reaching level 10 is worth it."