Now that Arthur had heard of the Night Slayer, he knew he needed to know the context of why the Village Head even knew about him.
"Who is this Night Slayer, Village Head?" Arthur inquired.
"Sigh! A Terrible, terrible man… It is said that he had been cursed a long time ago and now wanders the world. He curses others too and does not let them rest. Those lucky will be ignored by him, but those he takes an interest in will suffer.
Thus if you ever see a man in a long black garb, run away." Eneba answered.
"I shall keep that in mind," Arthur replied. 'If the Village Head is already mentioning it, there might be a chance the Night Slayer is somewhere in the region. He randomly wanders around the game but the chance of encountering him right at the start of the game is astoundingly low.' He thought.
But then a second later he realized something.
'No wait… Did the Night Slayer start from this region?' Arthur wondered.
He didn't know if it was the uniqueness of the village and the area, but there were a lot of link to the NPCs here.
'Whatever it might be, I'll just have to deal with it. At most, I'll be extra careful and run at the first sign of danger.' Arthur thought to himself.
He didn't even consider the thought of facing the Night Slayer as he knew it was simply impossible. Even in his past life, no Player had managed to go against him. The NPCs level couldn't even be seen.
'Maybe I should get a few teleportation scrolls once I'm in the town. They'll cost a bit extra, but it should be a good backup.' Arthur noted in his mind.
"You should go now, best not to make the Mage wait." Eneba said urging Arthur to leave.
"Ah, yes." Arthur nodded his head and left the building.
"Did it go well?" The guard who had brought Arthur here asked.
"It went well. Though the Village Head has asked me to go to the Resident Mage again." Arthur replied.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm "Hmm… you best change before going there though. I'm sure he'll nag you if he sees blood dripping on his floor." The guard reminded.
"Oh yeah… this is uncomfortable," Arthur replied and quickly went to the inn.
There he quickly washed up and changed into a new set of clothes. With that done, Arthur made his way to Resident Mage Bernard's house.
A few minutes later, he came to a stop in front of the mage's house. He didn't dare to take a step in until he was invited.
'He should have sensed me by now…' But when two minutes passed and Arthur received no response, he was confused. "Should I—"
"Come in!" The voice of the old mage was heard just as Arthur had intended to call for him.
"Phew… at least he's there." Arthur entered the man's house, finding the door open for him automatically.
"Mage Bernard?" Arthur saw the man busy with his work.
A few glass lenses were set up in a triangular formation, with a small crystal kept in the middle. Three different colored candles were burning behind each lens, casting their light onto the crystal in the middle.
"You came at the right time." Mage Bernard said, turning around.
His wrinkles looked more pronounced, with his eyes having sunk even more. It made one wonder if the man had not slept at all for a while.
"Did you finish your work?" Arthur recalled the mage had said he would call for him at a later time.
"I did… Just a few final things left, but it is mostly over." Mage Bernard said before taking a pause. "Though, what are you here for?" he inquired.
"The Village Head sent me. I'm afraid there are more things going on." Arthur said before starting to narrate everything that had happened.
He also showed the mage the letter he had found making his expression darken. And after Arthur was done speaking, the mage let out a long sigh.
"I feared this… So it really was them…" The Resident Mage sat down on his chair, rubbing his tired face.
"Is it something bad?" Arthur asked.
"Indeed… The cult they are talking about might be the one that is related to the statue you got as well." The Resident Mage replied.
"What?" Arthur said in surprise.
In response to this, the old mage turned around. He opened a strongbox that was kept on his desk and picked up the esoteric statue that was within it. Next, he placed it on the desk before picking up the crystal that had been set between the lenses.
"This should be charged enough…" The old man muttered a spell making the air thrum with power.
Arthur unconsciously took a step back before observing the change that was happening.
The crystal let off a sliver of twisting light. It was like a shimmering ribbon that flew out of it before wrapping around the esoteric statue.
And as soon as it did, the statue trembled.
~SCREECH~
An ear piercing scream was heard at that moment, making Arthur block his ears.
"Ugh… that's horrible." Arthur groaned.
But the old mage was unfazed. He kept on chanting without being affected by the scream. Magical runes appeared around the esoteric statute, making it float in the air. The runes transformed into a magic circle a few seconds later after which the scream stopped.
"This…" It was then that Arthur saw something.
A figure rose from the Esoteric Statue and was pulled into the Magic circle. The figure looked to be incorporeal and had a lifelike expression to it.
'Iltan…' Arthur gulped silently recognizing the figure.
"Just as I thought… A Sealed Fragment of Iltan." The old mage said a frown appearing on his face.
Vzzzt!~
~thud~
A second later, it was as if the Magic Circle had run out of energy and flickered out of existence. The same happened to the incorporeal figure while the state fell back to the table.
"What was… that?" Arthur muttered.
"That was a deity… An evil one by the name of Iltan!" Bernard spoke. "More accurately, this is a sealed fragment of it." He revealed.
"If it's a sealed fragment of an evil deity, then shouldn't we have left it in the Ruins?" Arthur wondered if this was a mistake.
"No… That would have been worse instead." Bernard shook his head. "Those insane animals you encountered, they became like that due to this statue here too." He revealed.
"How was it affecting them that far away?" Arthur inquired.
"The seal on this statue is weakening. It is hard to estimate when, but it will eventually break on its own. If we had left it alone, the chaos it would have caused would be a lot greater." The old mage said with a serious expression.
In Morpheus Online there were several gods, demons, deities and devils as well. Players could interact with these, either gaining power or punishment from them. What they got depended on what they did for those beings.
They were one of the main driving plots of the game and the players would get a lot of quests related to them.
Iltan was one such deity that players would interact with as well. Or more accurately, he was one of the biggest Antagonists that the players would face in the first year.
'The quests related to Iltan will start at least six months from now. And a year later, the deity would break free and wreak havoc. It was the biggest quest that the players had to do back then.' Arthur recalled the events.
But what was confusing to him was the fact that it was happening here.
'The reappearance of Iltan happened far from here… not even the same territory.' Arthur thought to himself. 'But since this statue was here, it means… The initial parts of the quest began right from here.'
"The bandits were asked by their chief to look for the insane animals. The chief was supposedly ordered by some cultists too." Arthur started to put it all together.
"Indeed… The cultists that probably asked those bandits belong to Iltan. If they are the cultists of Iltan, then they should be looking to free him. But to do that, they need to gather all sealed fragments of Iltan first." Bernard stated.
"So we have to keep this from them? Can you not seal it again?" Arthur asked just in case.
"I do not have the skill to seal this… it will need great magic or the power of another deity to do the same." The old mage said in a tired voice. "But… I do know some people who can do this."
As soon as Arthur heard this, he knew what the next quest was gonna be.
"I want you to take this to the Priests of Auria." Bernard requested.
>Quest Issued!<
The familiar chime of the quest notification was heard, confirming Arthur's guess.
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