Rise of the Apex Predator: A LitRPG Adventure

Chapter 24 – Jade Fall

Aenon woke up in bed back at his appointed house in Jadefall, and immediately gagged. He was lying in a messy black sludge that completely covered his bed and the surrounding floor. The only upside was that his armor was stored in his inventory, and he wouldn’t have to try washing it. He gingerly extricated himself out of the muck and ran for the bathroom. It took him hours to scrape the substance off his skin, and another hour to finally rid himself of the smell. When he finally stepped out of the shower, he saw that the entire house reeked and so he immediately ran for the exit.

He hurriedly put on his armor, except the mask and shroud, and stumbled out in a rush. But what he saw surprised him. It looked as though he had stepped into a warzone, the remains of one at least. Gone was the bustling village along with its citizens. In its place was a ghost town, with signs of a bloody struggle everywhere. Many of the torn down houses had scorch marks, and deep cracks from a variety of weapons. He even found random weapons and armor strewn about. It was noon by his estimate, but not a single soul was in sight.

He quickly put on the rest of his armor and slinked off into the shadows of an alley nearby. He released his soul sense to detect any threats and came up empty. Not even a dog was within his sensing range, which had grown much further out than he remembered. Before the debacle with the scanning crystal, he could sense about 50 meters around him, but now that range had grown to 100 meters. He had about a quarter of the town in range now, and his sense was more sensitive too. He could pick up individual blades of grass dancing in the wind if he decided to focus on it.

He remained in the shadows as he navigated the abandoned village. Everywhere was the same, signs of a struggle, or hurried packing. He even found a house with a table set for dinner, with the food still untouched and rotting. He made a wide circle around the village, but pretty much everywhere was the same. As he was just about to give up, he finally detected two individuals. They were in the mayor’s mansion. He went straight for it, while keeping to shadows as best as he could. Through one of the windows, he found the mayor and the guild leader sitting by the fireplace. Neither man was the way he remembered them. Both looked haggard and their clothes/armor were in a terrible mess. He slinked closer and thankfully the window was open so he could hear the argument they were having. The guild leader was very loud and animated, so overhearing was not a problem.

………………..

Blake

“It’s all that damned noble’s fault. He marches in, like he owns the place, and gets himself blown into oblivion, and who is blamed? Hardworking men like you and I”, Blake screamed for the millionth time by his count.

“That’s enough Blake”, his friend Vincent replied in a tired voice. It had been days since they ran out of food, now subsisting on System rations. And it was taking its toll on their mood. Usually, his friend was the positive one, but even he was showing signs of mental exhaustion.

“I mean, how is it our fault? We did everything by the book. So why are we the ones being punished for it?”, he vented.

His friend stayed silent at that. It had been 2 months since the brat had disappeared to who knows where. And their entire world had come crumbling down soon after. The Arbiter had basically forced them all to give up all their quests and duties in favor of finding the boy. Which meant, no one was clearing dungeons or leveling up as usual. After a full month of coming up empty, a few had tried protesting, saying they needed levels. The madwoman had sarcastically used her authority to assign them a mandatory System quest to clear a high-level dungeon. None returned from it.

And so, the status quo continued until finally a dungeon break happened about two weeks ago. It was a treant type dungeon which had been leaking mobs for weeks, but since they were tree types, and good at camouflage, no one had detected it in the forest. When the horde hit in the dead of the night, it was pure pandemonium. The mobs were level 45-50, which should have been defendable, had it not been for the under leveled citizenry.

At least the woman had some common decency and had used a rare token to evacuate the non-combatants and severely under leveled people to a nearby town. Nearby being a relatively loose term. Any neighboring towns would take a month to reach on foot, if they were going in a straight line and knew where they were going. The token had a limit though. Thus, the remaining combatants had to fight their way out. Only a handful managed to break the encirclement and escape, their fates unknown. But the vindictive woman had refused to let him and Vincent leave.

Luckily, with the village cleared of its inhabitants, the horde had stopped the assault. But they were still in the forest that was now encircling the entire village. And with just the two of them left, there was no hope of escape. They had collected what meager resources they could find from the abandoned place and hunkered down in the mansion. They either had to somehow find the damned boy or die of old age in this giant prison. The latter option seemed more likely.

He was about to continue his tirade when he heard a loud knocking sound. Both him and Vincent froze at that. The only one who ever visited the place was the damned witch to enquire if the boy was found. And the last time she was here last week, she had left a communication crystal and left them to their fates. The chances of her returning were slim, and even if she did, she wouldn’t have knocked.

“Do you think it is a wandering party of adventurers? Maybe they are trying to establish contact with our village? We may be able to setup a teleportation array to link to wherever they are from”, his friend asked with a glimmer of hope in his sunken eyes.

Blake wasn’t that hopeful though. It was probably wind or some wandering treant that had managed to sneak into the village. Even so, they both hurried to the main door of the mansion. They quickly dusted and straightened their clothes the best they could and opened the door carefully. Their very souls froze the next moment.

Standing in the door was a hooded figure in a cloak so dark, it might as well be the void itself. Even standing in the midday sun, no light reflected off it, making it impossible to detect what was hidden beneath it. But that wasn’t what paralyzed them. They were locked in place by the face of the … thing. It was obviously a mask, but it was like a blackhole. Only a set of eyes was visible, and it looked like a pair of eyes floating in the void.

“I am not an enemy”, a male voice came from the creature. “I am going to deactivate my ability, so don’t make the mistake of attacking.”

Afte a few seconds, he could feel his body again and immediately collapsed on the ground next to Vincent. He checked his notification log and was horrified to see that his WIL stat had reduced by half during the time the man’s skill was active. Even now, his WIL went down by a quarter whenever he made the mistake of looking at the monster. Afte that demonstration, the thought of attacking never even crossed his mind.

“Can we go somewhere more comfortable to talk?”, the stranger said in a flat but polite tone.

“Ah…ye… yes of course sir. This way”, Vincent stammered as he was the first to recover. He hurriedly bowed and led the way to his office. Blake just sat there on the ground, his knees refusing to work, as the other two marched past him.

It was only after they got out of sight that he managed to stumble to his feet. WIL was his weakest stat, and having it reduced by half had done a number on him. He carefully crept towards the office, determined to just peep or spy from the outside. There was no way in hell he was sharing a room with that monster.

……………….

Vincent

Vincent barely managed to control his trembling knees as he led the unknown man to his office. He used to keep his mansion in pristine condition, but with no servants to cater to it, it had fallen into disrepair surprisingly quickly. He hoped the man didn’t take offense to it. Although he didn’t know who the man was, he had a hunch that maybe he was sent by the Arbiter. And if so, he couldn’t afford to mess this. He had barely escaped with his life before, but one more screw up might mean his end.

As they entered the room, he was glad that Blake had not followed. This situation would take all his experience and cunning to handle. He pointed to the couches in the center of the room and went to fetch the wine glasses but found them all empty. He realized where Blake used to go during his nightly escapades. He failed to find any decent drinks, or even tea, and went back with dread.

“I am sorry, your excellency. It seems I am unable to host you in a suitable way”, he said nervously. Try as he might, he couldn’t lay eyes on the man. He kept his gaze firmly fixed on the ground. The WIL penalty to just look at him was uncomfortable to say the least, not to mention that active skill. He couldn’t even imagine what Blake must have experienced with half his WIL reduced. His friend had barely managed a D grade evolution, and being a dual physical class, had dumped all his points into STR, CON, and DEX.

“No need to stand on ceremony. I am more interested in knowing what happened here”, the man said while crossing one leg over another. In normal circumstances Vincent would have taken offense to the callous disregard for his station. But since he couldn’t even identify the person sitting in front of him, he had to ignore it. All his identify skill gave was a bunch of nothing.

Not question marks, like usual. But the words unknown, meaning the man had a very high levelled obscuring item. At least the voice sounded humanoid, and the person had not attacked, which was a blessing he would gladly accept.

And so, he diplomatically explained what had happened over the last two months, careful to leave out any wrongdoings of the Arbiter. Instead, he made her sound like someone who was concerned about the disappearance of a hapless adventurer. He even justified her actions by claiming she did it to protect the other adventurers from an unknown threat and regaled her heroic sacrifice of an exceedingly rare treasure to allow the non-combatants to escape. Vincent wasn’t sure if the man was buying any of it, since he sat still like a statue, and his facial expressions were hidden under that eerie mask.

“Then why are you two still here?”, after a period of silent contemplation, the man finally asked.

“Uh… you see, the Arbiter left us with a quest to find this missing adventurer. As the village head of Jadefall, I am duty bound to solve this mystery and help the poor soul”, Vincent replied politely. The man went silent again, probably thinking some things over.

“Very well then. I shall help you in this endeavor. So, tell me how you are supposed to contact this Arbiter when you do finally find this boy?”, he asked firmly.

“Uh… using this communication crystal, sir”, Vincent said while retrieving it from his inventory. Before Vincent could react, the crystal flew from his hands towards the man who caught it effortlessly.

“Hmmm. And is this the only one?”, the man asked.

“Huh? Oh… yes”, Vincent responded, not knowing where the conversation was headed.

“Well, in that case I will hold onto it. I’ll contact the Arbiter when I have located the missing boy”, he said while depositing the crystal into his inventory.

Vincent wanted to scream to have the crystal returned. It was his last chance to save his and Blake’s life. But then he caught himself as he realized this might be better. The man before him was obviously a powerhouse. If he managed to find the kid, and dealt with the Arbiter himself, he and Blake wouldn’t have to face that she-demon again.

“Of… of course sir. Ummm… could you please also put in a good word for me and the guild master when you do accomplish the task? Of course you will have our utmost support in dealing with this. Any resources, as scarce as they maybe, will be at your disposal”, he replied in a flattering tone with a bow.

“Does that involve village quests in and around here? This task may take me a while, and I do not intend to spend what may potentially be weeks just looking around. I do need to gain levels in the meantime”, the man asked after thinking it over.

“Why, of course. You can even make this mansion your base of operations. There are guest rooms on the top floor that you are free to use. Food might be an issue, but I will start working on it. Here, let me send you the quest invites”, he hurriedly sent out all the pending problems that had been plaguing the village for the last two weeks.

Most of them were mob clearing quests, with very few resource gathering ones. He had been stuck at level 99, since the Arbiter had refused to allow anyone to complete those. Being an administrator, his class experience was closely linked to how well the village did, which was another way of saying it was in dire need of help. If this guy managed to do even a few of these, he might be able to kill two birds with one stone.

“These are…”, the man paused mid-sentence.

“Oh, if any are not to your liking, please abandon them. These are all the ones I currently have available. Given the lack of personnel, and the recent treant dungeon break, the surrounding forest is infested with high level monsters”, he said.

“Very well. I will accept all of them for now and will clear them as and when I can. The penalties for abandoning though…”

“Oh. Forgive my insolence. I will remove any penalties for failure to complete, or abandonment”, he quickly added to appease the man.

“Sounds good. I will head out once I am done checking out my accommodation and taking a brief rest”, the man said as he stood up.

Vincent took a deep breath of relief, as the man walked out towards the stairs for the guest room. Moments later, Blake burst in.

“What did that monster want?”, he asked half in fear, and half with contempt.

Vincent sighed before hitting his friend’s head with all his meager strength. The damage was laughable, but the message went across.

“When will you stop trying to get us killed, you big oaf?”, he scolded the burly man.

“Ahem. Sorry. So? How did it go?”

“This man is either our ticket out of here, or our doom. So just shut up and follow my lead. Send him all the pending assignable quests you have as a guild leader. And help me clear out the kitchen. We need to prepare a decent meal before nightfall”, Vincent said while heading towards the door.

“Wh… What? I am a guild leader. Not some low level trash…”

Vincent hit his head again which shut his friend up and they both headed for the kitchen in silence. For the first time in weeks, he had hope, and he decided to cling to it no matter what.

………………..

Aenon

Aenon walked around the maze with no direction in mind. He randomly picked a room at the end of hall and locked the door behind him. The room was far bigger than he anticipated, easily bigger than his entire assigned house. There was a huge bed in the middle that could easily accommodate five people with curtains that were neatly tucked into the huge wooden posts on the four corners. There was a massive fireplace on the side and a work desk on the other end. The entire room reeked of efficiency, as even the pens on the desk were neatly aligned parallel to each other. Unlike the rest of the mansion, this room was meticulously maintained. There was a side door that he was unable to access, while a third door led to the biggest bathroom he had ever seen.

The bathtub, if you could call it that, had a bunch of different faucets coming in, whose function he didn’t know. It would be considered a mini swimming pool back on Earth. He took a tentative look around before removing his mask and looking in the full body length mirror. He had not had time to check it back in his house, since he was in a hurry to get out as fast as possible from the smell.

The face staring back at him looked familiar yet foreign. His skin was flawless, with not even a blemish, while his eyes had turned a very light shade of grey. He quickly stripped completely to see what other changes there were and was pleasantly surprised. Every single scar or imperfection was gone. He used to look like a half-starved street urchin before, but now he looked healthy. He gave a nod and put on his armor as he went and lay down on the bed.

He had a lot of things to consider going forward. Despite what the village head said, the state of the village and the two men in the mansion spoke volumes. He had a good estimate of what must have happened since his disappearance. Obviously, the Arbiter and the Overseer were desperately looking for him, for different reasons. The Overseer probably must have sensed the removal of his soul chains and wanted to either find him to eliminate him or recast those. The Arbiter on the other hand, as gullible as she was, was probably being strung along by her grandfather, hoping to live out her fantasy love story.

Which meant Aenon had to do his best to maintain a low profile. Thankfully, he had snatched the communication crystal, and he would have some breathing room while he figured out his next steps. The first of which was to start leveling up in earnest, to catch up and surpass the girl at the very least. He also needed to weave a web of lies to pacify them when they eventually caught up to him. Thankfully, he had a forest full of high-level mobs to grind in the short term and a bunch of untouched dungeons that he could clear on his own. He just needed to be wary that the two other men didn’t catch him in his deceit.

He genuinely felt bad for the two, since it was obvious what happened to them. They were victims the same way he was. And if he could, he would try to compensate them at some point. But for now, he had to maintain this charade for his own safety as well as theirs. He pulled up his quest log, and the long list of high-level quests brought a smile to his face, which grew wider when a second avalanche of quests came his way.

He decided to start his grind right away and unceremoniously emptied his inventory on the bed and walked out. He found the two men in the kitchen on the lower floors using his soul sense and went right for them. They both jumped back at his entry, with the guild leader being worse off.

“So, I am heading out to look for clues around the village. Will also complete a few low-level quests along the way. I should be back by nightfall. I have left some stuff in my room, so please don’t touch that. Although I need someone to investigate one of the side rooms. The door seemed stuck”, he said and turned away before either could respond.

He paused at the door though, and without looking back said something that made both men skip a heartbeat.

“And oh, just wanted to let you know. Monsters have an acute sense of hearing.”

He chuckled while exiting the mansion as he sensed both men collapse to the floor in a panic.