Chapter 46: The Fallen Territory
–Chapter 46–
Title>> The Fallen Territory
The two male guards hadn’t said a word to Xavier since they arrived but their eyes had remained on him since.
That was perfectly fine with Xavier, it wasn’t like he had anything to say to them either.
They could probably mock him for the rejection from the chief which might end with them losing their heads.
Xavier didn’t want that.
Instead, he sat cross-legged inside the open alcove, quietly listening to the bustling village.
Somewhere to his left, the smell of cooked food drifted alongside the evening breeze.
Children laughed from one of the elevated walkways overhead before an older voice called them back.
Not too far away, two fairies seemed deeply invested in an argument that had probably started long before Xavier arrived and, judging by their tones, wasn’t ending anytime soon.
It was perculiar to see, that even with a dragon sitting under guard in their very own backyard.
They lived free from the probable dangers.
This made Xavier actually wonder how much they trusted their chief. Most NPC villages would have became a panic zone but most of the time, it was players that instigated them.
Without any players here, the Fairy Village was free from that plague.
Xavier slowly exhaled before calling up the System menu, reaching for character profile.
His familiar interface appeared almost immediately.
[PROFILE]
[Name] Xavier Hunt
[Player Name] Hunter X
[Race] Human
[Status] Irregular (Partial Integration)
[Level] 11
[Experience] N/A
[Titles]
The First Tale
[Title Fragments]
Hollow Bane [1/3]
[Sacred Name]
N/A
[Class]
N/A
[Bloodline Class]
Dragon Sovereign [Locked]
[Condition]
Claim your First Territory.
[Aspect]
Faith
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attributes]
Strength: 11 (+7)
Agility: 13 (+14)
Constitution: 14 (+8)
Spirit: 21 (+3)
Intelligence: 16 (+7)
Luck: ???
HP: 280/280
Mana: 210/210
Reputation: 100 (Remembered)
Currency: Silver Coins ×25 | Copper Coins ×40
Free Attribute Points: 6
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Bloodlines]
Slot I
Dragon [Faith]
Purity: 15% | Drakeling | Active
Slot II
Demon [Cruelty]
Purity: 10% | Demon-Touched | Dormant
Slot III
Empty
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Traits]
Dragon’s Resilience
• +3 to All Attributes
• minor fire Resistance
Dragon Hide
• An insignificant layer of skin that protects against attacks.
Pain Suppression (Demon)
• Pain does not hinder combat performance.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Skills]
Bloodline Skills
• Restore | Mastery: 5%
Class Skills
None
General Skills
• Mana Bullet | Rank: D |
• Chains of the Bounded | Rank: B
• Alchemy | Level: 2 Mastery: 2%
Passive Skills
• Survival Instinct | Scales with Intelligence
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Talents]
Absolute Drop Authority (EX)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Equipment]
Flayer’s Vest (Common), Strider Greaves (Uncommon), Dread Cloak (Rare — Damaged), Warden’s Medallion (Token), Wolf-Kin Amulet (Uncommon)
[Inventory]
Minor Healing Pill ×1, Bog Tendons ×10, Luminiera’s Shard (Unclassified), Final Order (Unique — Summon Token)
---
Xavier read through every line carefully. Nothing jumped out at him immediately. Except maybe Restore.
His eyes settled there first. The mastery had increased by five percent. Something that Xavier wasn’t informed about but it made sense.
It wasn’t much...but it was progress.
That meant every genuine use of Restore was being recorded by the System. Timothy’s injuries, the damaged equipment he’d repaired, every successful restoration had quietly contributed toward improving the skill.
’All according to plan .’
His gaze drifted lower to the newest and unexpected member of his build.
"Survival Instinct."
A brief warning before a lethal attack connected. The skill was good but what elevated it was it’s passive nature.
If only I had this when...
His thoughts almost subconsciously returned to Vagabond.
Specifically... That first bullet.
Would this skill had activated? If he had it then. Or had the distance simply been too great or the bullet too fast for him to detect.
Xavier honestly couldn’t tell. Which further pushed him to want to test it out.
After all, this wasn’t like gaming from the outside where vibrations and red cursors would have been the "Tells" for such abilities.
One way or the other though, he was going to find out.
Hopefully...
It would be under far less suicidal circumstances.
Hopefully...
His attention continued moving down the interface until another detail caught his eye.
His only wielded weapon was gone. And gift from "V", the stainless dagger was no longer in his grasp after losing it to Vaguis.
Thinking about how naked he was, weapon wise, it was obvious he’d made a mistake not to get another weapon.
Hopefully, he could find something in the village to replace or better still, upgrade what he lost.
"...Right."
The rest of his inventory wasn’t looking much better either.
There was only one minor healing pill remaining. Just one.
After everything that had happened since leaving Stockholm Village... That was a frighteningly small number.
’If only my own skill would allow me Heal myself ’
Xavier silently cursed at Restore’s single flaw. The inability for him to heal himself
Xavier quietly leaned back against the wooden support behind him. And even with all the compounded issues.
One thing was always at the fore-front.
"I seriously need better finances..."
***
Xavier’s fingers still hovered over the interface before another familiar notification caught his attention.
It had been sitting there all along. Quietly counting down.
<< WORLD EVENT UPCOMING >>
[The Sufferer’s Rage]
[Time Remaining: 04D: 20H:30M: 17S]
"..."
His gaze rested on the timer for several silent seconds.
’How the fuck did the time move so damn fast.’
"No..No..No.." he murmured in dissatisfaction. Drawing more attention from the guards who didn’t budge in their stance or attention, only their expressions became sterner.
Xavier could care less about them.
’Should the... Not should..’ he thought.
When the Sufferer’s Rage event would arrive, no one would be spared from the madness. Not even them.
Unless he leaves.
And that was one more problem Xavier had to handle. Even if he managed to unlock his class before the World event.
It was no guarantee for survival, especially for an event which would change Arillion and its inhabitants forever.
Thousands of players would probably die simply because they believed staying inside a city or just mastering a few skills would mean safety.
The countdown continued ticking in Xavier’s face. Causing another sigh.
Slowly his attention shifted to a different part of the interface.
[Attribute Points Available to share: 6]
There was very little to think about when it came to this stats.
Survival Instincts, his new skill scaled with Intelligence. Alchemy would also require intelligence.
So Xavier killed two birds with one stone, by assigning two points.
[+2 Intelligence]
Next was spirit, its use didn’t need words to explain it.
It’s basically the reason skills like Restore and Mana bullet were effective in the first place.
He assigned another two stats to the attribute.
[+2 Spirit]
The remaining two stats, he shared them eventually between strength and constitution.
After a bullet to the chest, Xavier didn’t need a prophet to tell him how important constitution was right now.
The remaining points disappeared.
[+1 Strength]
[+1 Constitution]
The moment he was done, a familiar warmth spread through his body before gradually fading away.
His muscles tightened ever so slightly. Even as his thoughts felt a little clearer.
It was as if he took a few steps upwards in the evolution ladder. And it felt very good if anything.
***
After his attributes settled, Xavier closed the status window and opened the map instead.
The familiar terrain spread across his vision almost immediately. His eyes instinctively searched for one thing first.
The Wanderer’s Compass.
The strange item remained fused to the map just like before, acting as the guide he didn’t ask for but needed.
And just like before, the restless needle had begun rotating again and its direction?
’Of course... West’
Xavier rubbed his temples to soothe himself. He couldn’t understand what relationship wanderers had with the west.
It simply rested there, as though it had already fulfilled the purpose it had brought him here for. And the rest was up to him.
Xavier studied it for another second before shifting his attention elsewhere.
Near the centre of the map, the new marker had appeared.
[Fairy Village I]
[Status: Hidden Settlement]
The village now occupied a place that had been nothing but empty space before. His gaze lingered on the marker only briefly before naturally drifting farther west.
Where the compass directed, just st beyond the village...
The area was completely different from the other points in the map.
The detailed terrain like the fairy village, abruptly gave way to a greyed-out region that refused to reveal anything beyond its foggy border.
There were no roads or landmarks to see, no information that made you really understand what’s there.
Only two simple lines floated over the unknown expanse.
[Fallen Zone]
[Status: Unclaimed Territory]
"..."
Xavier quietly stared at it. This two lines were enough to get his blood pumping.
The grove was yet another zone slapped with the stamp "Fallen" and to top it off. Unclaimed Territory.
Xavier also had the feeling, it had something to do with Fiona’s injury as well.
One after another, the scattered pieces slowly began settling into place.
"So that’s where it is..." The words escaped him almost unconsciously.
An unclaimed territory that tied back to the injury to the one person that could give him access.
’If that stubborn Little..’ Xavier leaned back and dismissed the map before his thoughts wandered any further.
There wasn’t much point making plans for a place he couldn’t reach yet.
Besides... He could hear fluttering wings approaching.
Someone was Approaching.
"Fiona?"
--End of Chapter--