Rumble
A downpour of rain fell, drenching the three tied-up figures as they kept their eyes closed, not having said a word since their last conversation. Rael didn't care. As for the rain, they were Aether users— a little cold shouldn't bother them. Instead, he sat up after recovering his reserves, not just that, but also feeling his body brimming with newfound strength.
He summoned up his interface:
[Host Interface]
[Name: Rael Drakul]
[Age: 22]
[Gender: Male]
[Race: Human]
[Rank: (Tier 2) Iron Fighter]
[Aether Capacity: 13%]
[Aether Limit: 15%]
[Strength: 11 > 12.5]
[Agility: 9 > 11]
[Endurance: 14 > 16]
[Will: 17 > 19]
[Intelligence: 9.3 > 10.6]
[Aether Reserves: 13%]
[Aether Manuscript: Warmaster Scripture I (Phase: Iron Path Initiated)]
[Aether Techniques: Blood Rend Technique]
[Aether Spells: Eye of Critic]
[Reward Allocated]
[Quest Logs]
Though not much of an increase, he was slowly getting there. After all, little droplets of water make a mighty ocean. Now he shifted his attention to his reward.
[Congratulations to the host on surviving an attack on his territory of dominion and suppressing the invaders.]
[For this victory, a fitting reward has been earned.]
[Reward allocated.]
[Would host like to claim the reward?]
[Yes] [No]
Yes.
[The host has been granted the Ashen Claws blueprint.
A weapon forged with steel and Aether, created to pierce through flesh and armor with ease, and even the protective veil of spells and power armor, granted the host has Aether to spare.]
[Weapon Grade]
[A bronze-ranked weapon]
Rael narrowed his eyes. How the hell was he supposed to forge such a weapon? Though the blueprint stated all that was required, he had no idea how to forge a weapon—much less an Aether weapon.
Still, he was pleased with the reward. A good prize for the trouble those she-devils caused him. He looked outside at the drenched, shiny figures of the elves, then quickly averted his gaze before something sinister took root. He wasn't that kind of person.
Now all he had to do was figure out how to create the weapon. He needed all he could get to survive the Withered Nights. That was also one of the reasons he hadn't killed the elves.
Summoning his quest logs, he was astonished to find two new quests:
[Quest Logs]
—
Tier 1: Locate Four Resource Points
Objective: Discover four resources that could benefit the growth of the host's territory.
Reward: Furnace of Hephaestus Blueprint
—
Tier 2: ????? (Unavailable)
—
Tier 3: Recruit Three Aether Users to the Host Territory
Objective: The recruits must willingly serve or align with the host's territorial motives.
Reward: ?????
—
Tier 4: Survive the Withered Nights
Status: Dormant
Trigger: In 16 days
Objective: Endure the Withered Nights — a time when corrupted essence floods the land and sanity rots.
Reward: ???
Rael frowned, mostly at the Tier 3 quest. First, he was certain it wasn't a coincidence that it popped up the same time he was attacked by three witches. Did that mean he was being watched by some kind of entity? The thought made him uneasy. Secondly, looking at the tied-up she-devils and seeing how close that quest was to the Tier 4 one made it clear how difficult everything would be.
"Ugh," Rael groaned. This was going to be troublesome and stressful. He was sure that as soon as he released the women, they'd take every chance to kill him—especially the spellcaster who seemed to hate him like one would hate the devil.
He took a deep breath. He had things to do. Now that the rain had stopped, he had to fix the damages and probably fortify the place more. Also start drawing the inscriptions necessary for the boundary ward sigil. Besides, he was already forming a plan to rope the she-devils in.
Iyvre opened her pale green eyes upon hearing the human step out of the door, now fully healed.
Healing potion? she wondered, watching him closely as he walked past them as if they weren't there, before entering another building, pulling out some logs, then heading to the broken fences they had damaged during their battle.
She was certain now—this human lived here. But how come? At first she thought it was a reconnaissance camp or something, but after observing everything—the crude constructions and almost empty compound—she was sure. Yet she was surprised. A human, one human, a Tier 1 Iron Fighter at that, chose to live all by himself in the Zodiac Woods.
Daring or foolish? She didn't know which, but she leaned toward the latter.
Shifting her head, she whispered to Ayobe and Yasmin:
"Are you two okay?"
"We're coping. Still haven't recovered an ounce of Aether though," Ayobe answered.
"Me neither… but we have to find a way to get out of here," Yasmin replied.
"I know. But he doesn't seem to have intentions of killing us. At least not yet."
"Are we going to just wait for him to decide our fate?"
"No. But we have to play along. It was clearly a misunderstanding from the start."
Rael could see the elves conversing from the corner of his eye, though he had no idea what they were saying. Probably a way to escape or kill him. But he wasn't bothered—his territory assured him. He even wondered: if he set them free and they tried to kill him again and he subdued them, would he gain another blueprint? Tempting… but he knew his limits.
The only reasons he won were because they underestimated him and had no way to stop their Aether from being drained.
Focusing back, he started fixing the walls using hemp ropes in place of nails—since he didn't have any.
Roughly forty minutes later, Rael finished repairing the damaged wall. Taking a step back, he gazed at it.
"Not perfect, but should do."
"Maybe spiked barrels too…" He tilted his head.
"Hmm… can't be too much for a swarm."
He was going to place wooden spikes inside and outside the compound, but for that, he'd need new logs—trees. He turned to the tied-up women.
"This will be difficult." He definitely couldn't leave them on their own. The only reason they hadn't struggled or tried breaking the chains was probably because they felt his gaze on them. If he left, he might come back only to get stabbed the moment he stepped in—though unlikely, since he'd sense it via Dominion Sense. Still, he wasn't taking chances.
"Probably drag them along… after all, one can't be too careful," Rael muttered with a grin.