[Quest: A town's plea]
[Description: It all started with a wish. The wish of a mortal reduced the town to a fragment. The wish of a fragment shall reduce the mortal to ash. Fulfill the town's desire.]
[Duration: 01:02:43]
[Rewards: A wish]
'An hour remaining,' SV thought as he picked up the pill bottle he had left in the office.
He popped one.
[You have gained Exp. Exp +9788]
[You have leveled up. Lv0 -> 1. Attributes +1]
[You have leveled up. Lv1 -> 2. Attributes +1]
...
[You have leveled up. Lv9 -> 10. Attributes +1]
[You have reached the first threshold.]
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[Name: Bandit Emperor]
[Race: Human(?)]
[Sex: Male(?)]
[Lv: 10 (Exp: 1000/1000)]
[Class: None]
[Attributes: STR 20, DEX 17, CON 19, INT 17, WLL 18, SPR 15]
[Talents: Possession Lv1]
[Skills: None]
======
He nodded slightly before opening the leaderboard. Surprisingly, he ranked ninth. A pretty good result, he thought, considering that he started the game a week before the others. Of course, this also showed that a rank S talent was very powerful and that the rank of a talent weighed heavily in calculating someone's foundation.
He closed the profile and marched out of the manor. With less than an hour to go, the NPCs were probably ready to start their attack. He had to see if his plan was feasible, but he had to use their aid for that.
He dropped the pill bottle near the gate and headed back to the graveyard. Even from afar, he could see an iridescent light, like a faint mirage in the night; the sight was very disorienting.
As he approached, Yun Jierou and her group were discussing something in their alien language. She saw him approaching and gave him a nod.
From cupping hands to directly nodding, their relationship was progressing rapidly... SV nodded back and sat down a few meters away from the formation, not intending to interfere.
Yun Jierou and her group ignored him, and each went to a corner of the formation. They started chanting and making hand seals.
The massive formation covered something close to a circle 100 meters in radius, and it also included the graveyard.
It already shone with a dreamy iridescent light, but when the group started their work, the light was becoming solid, and patterns and lines were beginning to carve a bright white path on the ground and in the air above.
By SV's estimate, lighting up all the patterns took nearly ten minutes, and when all the patterns lit up, the area between them was quickly colored in white. The whole area turned into a pure white canvas. Just then, Yun Jierou turned to him and covered her eyes with a hand.
SV was stunned for a moment before he felt the light of the formation getting brighter.
'Oh, fuck,' he quickly covered his eyes as a pillar of light shot towards the sky alongside a sonorous boom that left his ears ringing slightly. The light was so intense that SV felt he was staring directly at the sun even though he had his eyes covered. He immediately turned around and lowered his head, trying to encompass his eyes in his body's shadow.
It wasn't until several moments later, when he felt the sound receding, that he dared to hesitantly remove his hands from his eyes.
His vision was murky for a second and he couldn't see anything in the darkness of the night. The transition from light to dark had left his eyes unaccustomed for the moment. At least his ears had stopped ringing.
He blinked a few times, but seeing no change, he sighed and simply gave up, waiting for his eyes to recover before proceeding.
Just then, the sound of a huge crash echoed from below, the earth starting to shake under him.
"Not again," SV said as he braced himself, hoping that no ill befalls him in his moment of vulnerability.
A piercing shriek followed right after, and then a whole concert of wails and howls. In his murky vision, he could see bright red light rushing upwards from below.
SV was confused, not understanding what the bright light had done or what happened after. But it seemed to have worked?
No matter.
SV simply listened and tried to capture what he could with his murky vision.
The shouts of the cultivator group and the hysteric howls of the BOSS. The clashes of bright light. Some glowing figures leaving bright lines in his vision.
Honestly, the battle looked like fireworks were exploding across his vision, but it wasn't all that bad. At least the view was pretty.
His vision gradually improved; the lines were becoming narrower and the figures were becoming more defined. The scene turned out to be five flies trying to impinge on a giant floating translucent red orb. Oh, the orb had tentacles.
Well, that was doing the scene a disservice. But that was how SV felt the scene should be described.
Yun Jierou and her gang avoided the tentacles as they launched attacks on the orb, to no avail. SV blinked, frowning slightly, not understanding how this strategy was any different from their clash in the cavern.
Then, he lowered his gaze and was stunned.
There was no ground below. Or rather, the ground where the formation was had disappeared.
SV approached the sinkhole cautiously and looked down, only to see the lake below, illuminated by the formation at its bottom. Around it lay huge rock debris, crushed into varying sizes.
Ah! SV realized they wanted to bury the BOSS alive. Unfortunate.
He then thought of something and looked at his quest.
[Duration: 00:23:43]
The timer hadn't stopped. SV frowned; was it not related to the BOSS's chanting? Or the final stage didn't need him to chant at all?
He looked at the BOSS and felt that he wasn't actually serious with the group. It seemed like he was stalling for time. Or did he know that he couldn't catch the group so he was being perfunctory?
No matter.
SV shouted, "Yun Jierou."
Yun Jkerou dodged the tentacle and glanced at him.
SV frantically pointed downwards, "he's stalling for time! Destroy the formation! The formation!" He drew the shape of a circle in the air and pointed down.
Yun Jierou shook her head gently, and her voice appeared in his head, "Bandit Emperor."
SV looked at her and covered his face, "the fuck you mean? I should be the one going down?"
He looked at her, then pointed to himself and then at the sinkhole and saw her nod.
He frowned and then sighed. "Fine, I had something to test anyway."
He took one last look at the group and saw that the BOSS seemed to have discovered something and was making attempts to approach him. The group was trying their best to stall for time.
'Oh shit,' he quickly looked below, estimated the distance to the lake, and went for a headfirst dive.
He could hear the roar of the BOSS behind him, but he couldn't care so much.
The wind whistled in his ears as his speed increased. He had to keep his eyes shut and mouth closed. He didn't know how far he was from the lake or if he would actually land in it; he simply reached out his hands forward and pressed his ring and middle fingers of his hands against his palms and hoped for the best.
The roar of the BOSS seemed to intensify behind him, the sound of barriers breaking following right after. He felt a force enveloping, guiding, and shielding him from the wind.
He opened his eyes and looked behind him to see that it was Yun Jierou. She seemed focused, her veil crooked, and her bun had come loose, her hair falling straight down.
He could see blood at the corner of her mouth under the veil, and her disheveled dress was torn at various corners, showcasing the intensity of the previous struggle.
Then, they tilted slightly left, narrowly avoiding a red tentacle that passed by.
Only then did SV realize that the BOSS was right behind them, several tentacles lunging at them.
SV felt his body being guided left and right like a swallow meandering through the forest, threading the trees. The excitement and the adrenaline rush nearly made him forget that he was in the middle of a BOSS battle.
As they were rapidly getting closer to the lake, the BOSS suddenly gave up all defense and transformed his orb into a dozen more tentacles, leaving only red armor on his frame.
Yun Jieoru frowned and had to turn away from the lake to avoid the tentacles. The BOSS stood above the lake menacingly, simply staring at the two.
Two of Yun Jierou's gang gathered behind them, each bearing varying degrees of injury. One man was missing a hand, while another woman looked as though several bones had been broken. The other two were missing, their fate unknown.
"Bandit Emperor," SV heard her call.
"What's up?" He turned to her, seeing her gazing at him with hope in her pellucid black eyes.
SV was stunned for a moment before he understood her thoughts. A grin plastered itself on his face, and he started to laugh. "Fine! Fine!" He said after calming down.
He patted his chest to assure her.
Yun Jierou's eyes crinkled for a moment before she took a deep breath, her gaze turning firm.
She shouted something at her two companions. They seemed to hesitate a bit before gritting their teeth and agreeing.
The BOSS frowned and sent several tentacles towards their direction.
The three went in separate directions, dodging the incoming tentacles, buzzing around the BOSS like flies.
The BOSS frowned and kept his guard up, mainly looking to prevent Yun Jierou from passing through him.
Suddenly, with Yun Jierou's shout, the other two let themselves be pierced with tentacles as they rushed directly towards the BOSS and blasted him to the side.
Taking advantage of the gap, YunJierou immediately dived down and approached the lake; just then, SV felt a strange dizziness hit him. Yun Jierou didn't seem any better.
Immediately after, a tentacle pierced her heart from behind, going towards SV. With the last bit of her strength, she summoned a force that pushed SV away and towards the lake.
'Fuck,' SV thought as he fell towards a lake, the dizziness consuming his consciousness.
Before he lost consciousness, he could see a tentacle rapidly approaching him.
He then felt himself hitting the lake.
During all this, he had kept his ring and middle fingers tightly pressed against his palm.
—
SV had a guess about his possession talent. He knew that he could possess soulless husks, but he couldn't possess rocks or inanimate objects.
He thought that maybe the criterion was that the body could house a spirit. Only if the object could house a spirit would it be qualified as a target for possession.
But then came a question: Would the lake be qualified?
SV didn't know. But he felt that a lake that could speak of desires should be able to house spirits. The lake, after all, couldn't be ordinary since the BOSS attached such importance to it.
And desire was bred from wills; wills were bred from spirits.
[Possession has been initiated.]
[SPR check has been initiated. Special event detected. Check waived. Possession successful.]