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.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
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."
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