Chapter 191: Act 124 – The Observer Behind (First Update, Thank You for Your Praise, It Warms My Heart)
A clear, crisp laugh seemed to pierce through the hollow silence of the forest.
But where did this third presence come from amid the trees? Both Mister Brendel and the Earth God Envoy looked up in unison—only to notice a small girl about fourteen or fifteen years old sitting on a branch, with slightly curly golden pigtails. She rested her chin on her hand, gazing down at him with keen interest; mischief sparkled in her bright, lake-green eyes, and she wore the traditional leather gear most adventurers donned, idly shaking her leather boots.
“Mister Brendel, do you need help?” the girl asked with a smile, cupping her cheeks with one hand.
“Who are you?” Brendel was taken aback; there was something familiar about this girl that made him squint.
“Alorze,” the girl responded.
“Alorze?”
A low growl interrupted their conversation from the Earth God Envoy, clearly displeased by the intrusion of this unexpected guest. Yet, it hesitated—detecting a hidden aura of danger around the girl made it wary. It raised its head, its numerous compound eyes taking in the girl’s presence, while its body sank slightly, adopting a defensive posture.
This action caught Brendel’s attention.
“Really annoying, interrupting our conversation—” the girl huffed lightly—then, with a quick jump, she produced a massive sword seemingly out of nowhere; without a word, she swung it down with both hands. The Eckmen howled as it leaped backward, its rocky forelimbs clashing together to meet the attack. However, with a loud crunch, the three layers of rock shields shattered like glass beneath the sword’s edge, and then, as it struck down further, the rock surface of its forelimbs crumbled apart, bronze blood spraying from the cracks.
Yet, the sword’s momentum didn’t wane, crashing through the Eckmen’s forelimbs and striking its chest. With a thunderous crash, the massive sword sent the Eckmen flying.
At that moment, Brendel was left stunned.
The entire sequence of actions unfolded in the blink of an eye, and yet the girl had only just landed. In that instant, the previously menacing Eckmen was reduced to nothing more than a defeated dog; but wait, could that truly be the Earth God Envoy? How could it seem weaker than a low-level gray wolf outside of Buche…
“You are…” Brendel’s trailing words were left unspoken as he gaped in disbelief at the sight of the girl nonchalantly tossing the massive sword as if it were a mere toothpick toward the direction of the Earth God Envoy, and after a tremendous crash, the forest sank back into silence.
“……”
“What a disobedient little kitten, it needs proper discipline to learn how to behave.” The girl clapped her hands and turned back, having to look up at the ‘tall person’ due to her small stature: “Do you want to ask something, Mister Brendel?” Her golden brows raised playfully as she asked.
“Well… never mind, I have something to do, I’ll take my leave.”
Brendel wasn’t foolish; although it seemed he was ‘robbed’ of the conversation, he knew very well that he was incapable of defeating the Earth God Envoy Eckmen. However, it was possible that he could reverse the order of events. Furthermore, this little girl was clearly a violent individual; Brendel was aware that there were many bizarre NPCs in the past games, most of whom carried legendary hidden quests, and it was best to avoid provoking those that could not be trifled with.
After all, there was always a chance to restart in the game, but not here. So he hastened to leave to avoid inviting trouble.
Unfortunately, this trouble appeared to come knocking—
“Wait,” the girl reached out to grab his clothing as he tried to depart—only to hear a ripping sound—she looked surprised at the piece of leather armor she had pulled, sticking out her tongue: “Sorry, I think I overdid it…”
Brendel could only helplessly drop the remaining piece of leather armor as well. Sighing, he turned back and asked, “Do I know you, Miss Alorze?”
“Of course, you accepted such a precious gift of mine.”
“Wait, I don’t understand—what gift?”
Alorze pointed at his backpack.
“You mean…”
The girl nodded.
Brendel’s expression darkened. The Golden Apple had not just randomly appeared in his backpack; he had long suspected something and simply lacked a target for his suspicions. He had even suspected Romaine’s aunt, especially after meeting the scholar Turiman, which only amplified his doubts towards the former. He never expected it would turn out to be this… little girl?
He looked at the playful girl who resembled a doll, hardly believing it.
“Do you know what that is?”
“A fairy’s apple, is that surprising?”
Indeed.
“So that means you were also there at that time?”
“Oh dear, Mister Brendel, you’re making me sad with your doubts! I certainly know that place, the Valley of Saints—humans call it the Heirs of Kings, right?”
“You humans,” Brendel caught onto that term. Still, he was mostly convinced of the girl’s words; during the time in the Valley of Saints, even he hadn’t known what was inside his backpack. Therefore, Alorze’s words were trustworthy, at least by ninety percent.
“Then why give this to me?” Brendel thought for a moment, pulled out the shiny apple from his backpack, holding it by the stem and voicing his long-held question. The Golden Apple was no ordinary object; in folklore, Golden Apples were said to grow on the Golden Tree, bearing the waters of destiny and possessing the power to alter one’s fate: “I don’t think I know you, Miss Alorze?”
The short girl chuckled softly; her eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled and said, “Of course, it’s for a reason—it’s a thank-you gift for you.”
“A thank-you gift?”
Alorze nodded.
Brendel felt a pang of anxiety: “Why do I feel like this is a huge trouble?”
“Precisely for that reason, I want to thank you, Mister Brendel.”
“So this time saving me was also to thank me?” Brendel was contemplating what this so-called huge trouble could be, yet it seemed he hadn’t done anything heinous. After thinking for a while, he couldn’t come up with anything, but Alorze didn’t seem to be lying to him—or rather, there was no need to tease him with a Golden Apple.
A thank-you gift of a Golden Apple, how big could that trouble be? The young man couldn’t help but feel a cloud of foreboding gathering.
“Well, that’s not the case.” Alorze shook her head, her golden pigtails playfully swaying.
Brendel looked at her.
“There’s a question I want to ask you, but I haven’t decided yet whether to ask or not. Because if I ask, I gain the joy of getting an answer; if I don’t, I get the joy of guessing. So annoying, such a contradiction. But if that disobedient little kitten were to kill you, wouldn’t I lose a source of joy?” The short girl said to herself, “No way!”
“So, what does that mean?”
“No, I’ve changed my mind. I’ve just decided—the question I want to ask you is—”
Damn it, Eckmen, how unjustly you have died! Brendel couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the Earth God Envoy, how did this sound so much like, ‘I’m in a bad mood today, so I’ll pick on you—’ The tone reminded him much of the unreasonable dragon kin of the Vaunte continent, who were unwelcome everywhere.
Yet, he couldn’t resist asking: “In that case, as you said, haven’t you lost the joy of guessing?”
“I already said, I changed my mind.”
“Alright then, what do you want to ask—”
Alorze pointed at the apple in his hand.
“Is it related to this?” Brendel was taken aback.
“Mister Brendel should understand its value—fairy’s apple—don’t you want to eat it?”
Brendel shook his head; he had a clear plan for himself. However, the girl’s attitude raised his suspicion, and he couldn’t help but glance at the apple in his hand—was it possible this was a fake? Or was there some ulterior motive? Brendel had never believed that food would just fall from the sky.
“Are you worried I’m lying to you? Rest assured, I didn’t poison it this time; I just added some interesting things—” the short girl replied.
Brendel broke into a cold sweat, grateful he was cautious: “What interesting things?” He asked, but Alorze seemed unwilling to answer. He saw her parting the bushes to run over to the Eckmen’s corpse and proceeded to drag it out—using just one hand to pull the beast’s hind legs, like dragging a dead dog. After fiddling with the carcass for a moment, she pulled out a longbow and murmured, “Strange, why has the magic power drained so much.”
“Oh damn, don’t touch the corpse!”
Brendel couldn’t help but shout inside as he heard her words. ‘Magic power drain’ was a setting from past games. When the owner of a magical item died, the item would lose its magic power as the connection dissolved, possibly leading to the damage of the magical equipment. Thus, when you killed a monster, you might not be able to claim all of its equipment. How much you could retrieve depended entirely on luck.
Or in gaming terms—entirely dependent on how unlucky you were.
Brendel had once been the king of bad luck in his party, though there were ones worse than him, namely his senior. Brendel’s own misfortune fell within the system’s bounds, while he believed his senior’s bad luck surpassed any system classes—a multitude of times, her forcible attempts to open corpses resulted in the complete loss of any magical items. But the issue lay in the fact that while Brendel recognized his misfortune, his senior was drawn to the ‘open corpse’ venture—as if her life’s goal was to defeat her preordained misfortune.
But as the saying goes, fate is insurmountable; she had ultimately faced a disgraceful defeat.
Yet today, Brendel witnessed the emergence of another being nearly as unlucky as himself. A perfectly scripted level 55 BOSS, effectively a perfect evaluation state after skipping 30 levels, and the first item she extracted was a bow. In fact, the drop list for the Earth God Envoy Eckmen included only a bow.
A bronze-level shale longbow.
“Don’t do that… where’s the blessing of the mountains and rivers?” Brendel couldn’t help but cry tears of blood.
……
(PS. Thank you, thank you all. Seeing everyone’s praise and support really makes me very, very happy. Thank you all! I’ll work hard to write more to repay you all.) (To be continued. For information on future events, please log in, with more chapters available. Support the author, support legitimate reading!)
