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Luke frowned as he ended his call. “I apologize for the interruption, elder,” he said to the NPC standing in front of him. It was an old man with an elongated nose. The man’s skin was red, and feathers grew from his head instead of hair. “Everything you’ve asked for has been completed. The goblins and ogres have been exterminated. The burial grounds have been restored.”
The NPC beamed before dancing in a circle. “Thank you, Sir Lukroix Adveign Desrigard! Thank you so much.”
[Quest complete!]
[The tengu elder of Swift’s Peak can finally rest at ease now that the threat to his town is gone. He doesn’t mind if you decide to settle on the mountain; in fact, the tengu may help you fend off intruders.]
[Rewards: 500 Achievement Points, relationship with tengu has been raised to [Worshipped].]
Luke smiled at the tengu elder and dismissed the screen. It took him three days to complete every one of the elder’s demands, but it was worth it. Swift’s Peak was the perfect location to found a small guild. With a raging river to the south, a jagged valley to the east, a steep cliff to the north, Swift’s Peak was a natural fortress. Other guilds could afford to settle in less defensible, more resource-rich areas, but he couldn’t. Not with the pitiful amount of trustworthy members he was able to gather. Hell, one of them had even died within thirty minutes of starting the game.
A rectangle popped up in front of Luke accompanied by ringing sounds. He pressed the green button. “Hello?”
“I’m here,” a raspy voice said. “Swift’s Peak? Where are you?”
“That was quick,” Luke said. “Climb up the path from the west. You’ll see a village. I’ll meet you there.”
“Got it.”
The call ended. Luke placed his hands on his hips and addressed the elder. “I’d like to recruit some villagers for some construction work.”
A base was crucial for a guild. [Resolution] was a game without inventory slots and bank slots. Storages were limited and could be raided at any time. Transporting resources required wagons, which guards had to protect from bandits and players. The countries behind [Resolution] had wanted to create a game as similar to reality as possible—before the industrial era, that is.
Luke furrowed his brow as he requested the tengu villagers to chop down trees for lumber. Thankfully, there weren’t many valuable resources around Swift’s Peak, or the larger guilds funded by their respective countries would try to claim the territory. Simple wooden walls enchanted with some magic would be enough for defenses at the moment. If he could get his hands on a runestone quarry, he wouldn’t have to worry about defenses for a long time, but that was unlikely to happen. There were rumors that the Tribish had settled near a runestone quarry, and Khrx happened to be near the vicinity…. Should he call him? No, transporting blocks of runestone from that far away was nearly impossible. And quite frankly, his faith in Khrx was at an all-time low. He wondered why he bothered kidnapping Fufu.
“Luke,” the raspy voice from before said. A young man with a head full of brown hair waved his hand as he walked up the mountain. He was wearing a white robe, and an elegant staff with white runes decorating its shaft was in his hand. “Am I the first to arrive? Where’s Khrx?”
Luke stared at the young, priest-like man. His expression darkened at the white garments. “Aaz’Tala?”
The man beamed. “Who else?”
“What…, what are you supposed to be?”
“A priest,” Aaz’Tala said, raising his staff into the air. White light radiated out of the yellow gem embedded on its end. “Don’t I look the part?”
“You’re the lich emperor!”
Aaz’Tala clicked his tongue. “This is a roleplaying game, is it not? I want to experience the life of a priest. Besides, life and death are just two sides of the same coin. I’d be stupid not to play around with holy magic since I’ve been given the chance.”
“That’s…”
“And don’t worry,” Aaz’Tala said, rolling his eyes. He chuckled and rolled his eyes again. “I almost forgot how fun having eyeballs were.” He coughed as Luke glared at him. “As I was saying. Don’t worry; I’m still a master of unholy magic. It’s just that I receive no penalties for casting holy magic with this body. This game is really amazing.”
“Can you still raise the dead?”
“Do cows fart?”
“You haven’t changed at all in the past century,” Luke said with a sigh.
“A century is too little time for change to occur,” Aaz’Tala said with a small smile. He raised his hand in front of his face, white light dancing on his palm. “But it’s about time for something new, don’t you think?”
***
Khrx furrowed his brow, stopping his feet midstride.
“What’s wrong?” Lorin asked, nearly bumping into him from behind.
Khrx poked his stomach a few times. It gurgled in response. He raised his head and blinked at Lorin. “I think I’m hungry.”
Lorin raised an eyebrow. “You think?”
“I haven’t felt hunger in a very long time.” Khrx frowned and poked his stomach again. “Maybe I need to poop? Are those functions active in [Resolution]? I’m going to Bongle it.”
Lorin placed her hand on her forehead as Khrx sat down and opened up his interface. “As an angel, I don’t need to eat, and I—” Her stomach roared, interrupting her. She looked down with wide eyes. “Did, did I make that sound? Hey, Master. Can you check whether or not fallen angels need to eat as well?”
“It says you do,” Khrx said. “Why would they add hunger in a game? Seriously? Who wants to play a game that requires you to eat?”
“What do we do?” Lorin asked as she sat beside Khrx. They were sitting on the side of a dirt road. By Lorin’s waist, there were four rusty swords that she had taken from the bandits. Khrx had left behind everything else since it would’ve been a hassle to carry.
“Should we walk back to the temple and take the bandits’ food?”
Lorin sighed. “Another six hours of walking, huh?” She placed her hand on Khrx’s head and ruffled his hair, slipping her hand underneath the hood of his onesie. “You’re supposed to be really lucky, right? Maybe if I rub your head, something good will happen.”
“Don’t be an idiot!” Khrx said, pulling Lorin’s hand away. She pouted. “You’re supposed to rub my feet, not my head!” He reached forward and rubbed his toes. “Like this, see?”
“Hey! Travelers!”
Lorin’s head whipped around as she grasped one of her swords. Behind them, a group of wagons pulled by horses was traveling on the road from the direction they had come from. “…It worked?”
Khrx puffed his chest out. “See my power?” he asked as he stood up. The head wagon stopped beside him.
The driver smiled at Khrx. “What’s a child like you doing out here with”—his gaze landed on the black wings behind Lorin’s back—“uh, with…”
“Don’t talk to her,” a voice whispered from within the wagon. “Can’t you see she’s fallen?”
“But the child,” the driver whispered back.
“What child?” a woman popped her head out from behind the driver, peering over his shoulder. Her eyes widened at the sight of Khrx, and a murmur escaped from her lips, “So cute…”
Khrx’s eye twitched, but he swallowed his retorts. That AI-Helper did say his charm was maximized when he kept his mouth shut. Khrx chewed on the inside of his mouth, trying to figure out what to say, when his stomach let out an extended growl that could be heard from the furthest wagon.
“Are you hungry, child?” the woman asked with bright eyes. She smiled at him. “Why don’t you join this auntie here in the wagon? I have lots of sweets.”
“Stranger danger!” Lorin said, running up to Khrx and grabbing him from behind. She glared at the woman, slightly baring her teeth.
“Unhand me!” Khrx said, struggling out of Lorin’s grasp. He smacked her face with his tail and climbed up the wagon’s side.
Lorin followed behind him after a moment of pause. The two woman stared at each other, the temperature within the wagon dropping by a few degrees. “Who said you could come aboard?” the woman asked.
“I’m his guardian angel,” Lorin said, crossing her arms.
The driver let out an awkward laugh as he urged his horse forward. “Where are you two headed?”
Khrx ignored the man, having already stuffed his face with a slice of lemon pie. Lorin’s and the woman’s expressions softened upon seeing him eat, but once they noticed each other smiling at him, they turned frosty once more.
The driver let out another awkward laugh. “We’re heading to the new frontier village. Have you two heard anything about it? My colleagues tell me it’s run by a group of foreigners called the Tribish.”
“Dear,” the woman said, still glaring at Lorin. “We’re busy. Don’t bother the guests.”
The driver shut his mouth. “Yes, honey.”
Lorin reached for one of the pie slices by Khrx’s side, but the woman slapped away the fallen angel’s hand. The woman reached into a sack and pulled out a piece of stale bread, throwing it onto Lorin’s lap. “Since you’re hungry, it’d be rude if I didn’t offer you anything to eat.”
“Delicious!” Khrx said after devouring a whole pie. His eyes sparkled. “If food like this had existed back in the day, I’d have left my cave every day. This is much, much better than raw meat!”
The woman’s eyes widened before glowering at Lorin. “You feed him raw meat? You call yourself a guardian angel?”
“No, that’s not true,” Lorin said.
The woman scooted over to Khrx’s side. She whispered loud enough for Lorin to hear, “Is that fallen creature bullying you? This aunty might not look like it, but I’m a very powerful mage. Don’t be afraid to highlight all her misdeeds. I’ll seek justice for you.”
“Eh?” Khrx asked and raised his head. “She’s my servant. Why would she bully me?”
“Your servant?”
Khrx nodded. “That’s right. My servant.”
“Master,” Lorin said with a frown. “Aren’t we companions?”
“Yes, but you’re still my servant,” Khrx said. “Aren’t you?”
Lorin chewed on the inside of her lip. After meeting Khrx, wasn’t she always listening to his demands? What made her different from a servant anyway? Angels were servants of God, but her god threw her away. She had latched onto Khrx because he was the only one there; plus, he was too adorable to leave alone. But she still had her dignity. Wasn’t calling her his servant too much? She met his gaze, and in the next second, her heart melted. She sighed. “Then in front of other people, can you refer to me as your companion? It’s embarrassing to be called a servant.”
“I didn’t know you had pride,” Khrx said while blinking. “You always behaved like a hatchling seeing a shiny object for the first time.” He sighed. “You’re all grown up now, aren’t you? Fine. You can be my companion, but only in public.”
“There’s something wrong with this conversation,” the woman, who claimed to be a mage, said.
“There’s something wrong with your mind,” Lorin said, pulling Khrx over to her side. She glared at the woman while munching on the stale bread. “I feel like it’d be dangerous to leave you alone with Khrx.”
“Let’s not bicker, everyone,” the driver said with a wry smile, turning his head to face the inhabitants of the wagon. “It won’t be long before we reach the Tribish town. Can’t we get along peacefully until then?”