Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

"Because they can't know what I'm about to do." Klank stated, looking down at the table.

Kaizen looked in astonishment at the green-haired boy and then looked around.

On the second floor of the tavern there were less than a dozen people and all of them were apparently drunk enough not to care about what was going on around them. So Kaizen realized that it would be okay for them to talk there.

"What do you mean by that? I don't want to become an enemy of the Crimson Soldiers." Kaizen said.

"That's not what you're thinking!" Klank exclaimed, realizing how wrong the words he said earlier sounded to the Psyker. "I'm not going to betray them or anything like that. I just want to surprise them."

"Surprise them? In what way?"

"I haven't told you yet, but my biggest goal since forever is to become an Evolved with the most Attribute Points one can get, that is, with 500 Attribute Points."

Inevitably, Kaizen's eyes widened.

"At first, I thought I would get that easily. I used to think that it was just by farming levels non-stop that I would be able to become stronger. However, exploring this vast world is not so easy and you must have realized that by now... It seems that in non-farming regions, the area senses your presence and shapes events to involve you in that, which distracts us easily."

"Yes, I've noticed that." Kaizen said seriously, propping his elbows on the table.

He hoped to reach level 100 or become an Evolved soon, but he knew that doing quests would delay that process.

"However, Klank, it's not a bad thing to take it easy either. Even if you reach 500 Attribute Points in a short time, using various attribute and level farming tactics, consequently ignoring all the quests, you wouldn't have Class Skills, Profession Skills and Title Skills, nor good equipment, like others who evolved more slowly."

"I know that, that's why I stopped farming levels like crazy. In Rise Online the amount of levels in your avatar is not everything, it's several aspects that make up the total strength of a player, and I realized that when I first saw Bleeding Lily fighting." Klank replied.

Kaizen frowned, interested in the subject. Therefore, Klank continued to tell.

"Three months ago, I was still at level 17. I would wake up in the morning and spend the rest of the day in farming areas. Soon, I realized that it was normal to spend an entire day to get up a single level or two in those areas. It was just too frustrating. So, I started visiting other non-farming areas, because I knew that facing creatures with higher levels than me might be what I needed to get more levels up, because I would gain more XP."

"That's what I do." Kaizen confessed.

Klank smiled, a little embarrassed. "I wish I had figured that out earlier, it just took me a while to realize it, but when I did I went up a lot of levels in a single day. Still, I felt like something was missing..."

He took one last sip of the mead in his mug, looked at Psyker and confessed:

"I realized that people with the same level as me wouldn't have as much trouble finishing off simple Wolves as I did, fighting only with willpower and a katana that I found cool enough to spend all my money without bothering to buy armor. At the end of the first day hunting monsters with levels above mine, I was exhausted and with zero stamina to return to the city. I would have to spend the night in the forest."

Klank remembered that night as if it were yesterday....

The forest was cold and the howling of wolves could be heard coming from all directions. The pine trees around him seemed to want to suffocate him, and when he looked back, he saw things moving in the darkness.  As he ran, desperate not to die and lose levels, he also heard growling in his wake.

"So that's when I saw her." Klank said, with an air of reverence in his voice.

"Did you see anyone?" Kaizen asked, curious.

"Yes, I saw the Blood Lily. She was dressed in crimson red armor that glowed despite the dim light of the cloud-covered moon."

In that forest, the Blood Lily was fighting three wolves at the same time, and even with the numerical disadvantage, it seemed that it was she who was dominating the battle. The wolves' red eyes, strengthened by nightfall, did not intimidate the brave warrior.

She dodged the wolves' advances with the grace of a dancer, as if her body moved according to the music she imagined. Even when a wolf managed to get past her guard, she dodged with ease and attacked with calculating precision.

Klank watched all this with eyes wide with admiration, because the wolves didn't stand a chance against the woman. In the end, they all died with a single blow each, precisely struck in the thorax.

As the wolves' bodies crumbled into black particles, the Bleeding Lily looked at Klank and inquired:

"Who are you? A player-killer or just some idiot?"

At the present time, Klank had to confess one more thing to Kaizen:

"At that time, I just didn't shit myself because I don't have an in-game ass. Her strength was on another level, and I came to that conclusion not because of the amount of her levels or the way she defeated the wolves, but because she had something extra, something I didn't have."

"I know what you are talking about.... She didn't hesitate, did she?"

"Exactly! However, at that time I didn't realize that and thought she knew some better way to evolve, so I came out of the thicket I was hiding in and introduced myself to her. Improvising, I did as I did when I met you in the Valley of the Goblins, I offered to buy the Black Wolf drops and offered her money to help me get out of that forest."

"I bet she didn't take it." Kaizen said, smiling. Now, he knew Emma well enough to tell how the Bleeding Lily would act in some situations.

"How do you know that?"

"The context. A man approaches you in a forest at night, asking for your help to get out of that dangerous forest.... The natural reaction of someone cautious would be not to help. At least, I wouldn't help."

"You are right, and initially she did not help me. She only became convinced that I was telling the truth when I opened my Stat Window in front of her to prove that I was not a threat. In the end, she left me safely on the road and still refused payment. I gladly accepted the favor, promising that I would owe her a favor. We came back to help each other many more times, until she invited me into her Guild."

"Easy like that?"

"We were very early in Rise Online and membership was something essential to get raids shared with other guilds. Obviously, I accepted without blinking because I knew it would be very beneficial for me. Today, I still follow the Crimson Soldiers' Guild, but since I joined, I also feel that I am indebted to them. I've obtained good equipment and learned how to level up efficiently, it's just that the feeling that I need to repay them is something I feel every time we get together."

"And what does that have to do with me?" Kaizen was blunt and asked once and for all.

"It won't if you don't want it to. I am currently on a mission to escort an important character, a noble of the Mibothen Human Kingdom. One of the rewards for this mission is an item that Bloody Lily has failed to get a few times, but this time the mission is just to escort this NPC, so it seems to be very simple. However, the mission difficulty is definitely at Rank A or even above."

"Mission difficulty? How do you know that?"

"Ah! I forget that you are not from the Crimson Soldiers! HAHA! I have an ability from my class called <Wild Instinct> that allows me to check the level of the missions I get."

"Um... Got it, go ahead." Kaizen said, crossing his arms. 'So, <Analyzing Eye> is not the only analytical skill. There are skills like Klank's that allow you to see something that even my skill can't. Interesting...'

"Since this mission will probably have a complicated unfolding, I need someone's help and since I want to repay for the help of my guildmates, I certainly can't ask for their help for this mission, so I thought you might consider helping me."

"Sure, I'll help with that escort."

"Really!?" Klank was surprised at how easily Kaizen was convinced.

"However, I have two conditions for that." Psyker raised two fingers of his right hand. "The first condition is that the payment be at least a thousand gold coins. That is possible, isn't it? You strike me as someone who spares no effort and no money. Besides the payment, I also want you to tell everyone you know about my store and how special the items I make are."

"The payment for me is alright, but wait a second, since when do you have a store? What do you produce?"

"I have a forge in the Commercial District. I didn't do a special opening or anything like that."

"A forge? Hahaha! That's really surprising."

Kaizen frowned. "What's funny about that?"

"N-nothing, absolutely nothing! I was just surprised because you don't seem to be the kind of person who has the patience to stay all day forging. Many of the blacksmiths I know usually say it's tedious."

"Then you've only met lousy blacksmiths. Now, share the mission in question with me, I want to check the description before we leave."

"Right!"

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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