Chapter 101: [Strategy Meeting!]
“Can I get sometime to think about it?” Nvida spoke as she began thinking about my request.
From the looks of it, negotiations seem possible.
“Sure,” I said as I let Nvida give it a thought. Meanwhile, I turned to Trisha and asked her about the Curse object she took from the sisters.
Trisha nodded as she then chanted once again, and the tree started shaking wildly before a necklace appeared out of the trunk.
The necklace flew towards Trisha before it stopped right in front of her, levitating as it stayed there.
It was in the shape of an Octahedron, shining red on one side and dark on the other. From the looks of it, the necklace seemed to be red at the beginning and was slowly getting darker by absorbing dark energy.
[Necklace of Chaos (Unique)!]
[Description: This necklace was created by the Ancient Demon Laplace. Part of the Chaos set. This was meant as a gift for his son. Though when the news of his son’s death came across his ears, he lost himself in anger, cursing the entire set.
Effects: Absorbs 50% of the incoming damage
Set Effects:
2-Piece Set: +25 All Stats! (Curse: Your health Reduces by 50%)
3-Piece Set: [Skill: Chaos’ Wish!] (Curse: Your health decreases by 1% per second you use this skill)
5-Piece Set: For every enemy killed, your power increases by 0.5%. If the user kills nothing for 10 minutes, this effect will decrease by 1% for every 3 seconds. (Curse: The more enemies you kill, the more ghouls will be summoned that will try to kill you.)
Remarks: Too deep of a love is a curse as much as it is a blessing.]
‘A Set piece, huh? Not the one that I know of,’ I thought as I looked at it before observing Trisha for a few moments.
“The evil within this is mixed with hatred and agony. It’s almost sad… While I don’t think you can do much about it, I will still ask. Can you remove the curse from this object?” She asked as she stared at me.
‘Hmmm….. A way to remove the curse, huh? Would [Chalice of Equilibrium] work here?’ I questioned as I wondered what could I… Ah!! There was that!!!
My expression lit up as I thought of a certain idea, which made Trisha look at me with a narrowed look.
“You… can?” She asked, and I gave her a rough idea as I spoke.” I think I can, but it’s gonna take some effort. I will also require your help with this.”
Her eyes were genuinely surprised with this as she nodded saying,” there would be nothing better for me than to get rid of such a curse. If I can help in any way possible, then I will do so.”
“You really can?” Leena, who was hearing our conversation, looked at me with an expected look.
“Please. Remove curse,” Anna too moved closer to me, looking at me with puppy eyes.
I smile while patting her head and saying,” I will, but I have a few conditions from you guys as well.”
“??” She tilted her head in confusion before I spoke.
“I actually was searching for a receptionist and a guard for my shop. You think you can work?”
“UMU!!!” Her eyes lit up as she spoke that.
Nvida, who collected her thoughts, appeared in front of me as well. She looked at me, still half thinking as she spoke,
“I can’t exactly give you the authority to manage the Forest. I mean, it’s something that all dryads, fairies and a few other races need to agree together. But there is one thing we can do.”
I pondered over her words, and it was true as well. It was not like the forest was her’s to own. She was just managing it.
“Go on,” I nodded at her.
“If it is not a problem, you can ask me to make changes and I can do what’s within my authority?” She proposed her idea. For a few moments, I pondered over her words.
The reason I needed the forest was simply the players, the monsters and the challenges I can bring to them. I can even create some quests for them to make it entertaining.
‘I honestly don’t need much there,’ I thought, as it was just a means of attracting more players there. I can even put some monsters and chests there as rewards?
The quest and rewards would be as such that they won’t have any options but to come to my shop to buy arrays. That would be nice.
“All right. I guess that is fine with me.” I accepted her request before taking out a [Contract] paper out of my ring, making Trisha and Nvida look at me again. This time with an even more surprise.
But this time nobody asked me any questions as they simply waited for me to complete the contract. Once done, we finally finished signing the contract and Nvida waited for me to speak.
“All right. So here is the thing,” I then began explaining to them about the Reverse Arrays, and the exact situation we were in.
The more I explained, the more devastated they felt. Especially Nvida, who did not know how such a thing was happening without her knowledge. Took my time, but I explained everything in great detail.
“So. How do we solve this?” Trisha asked as she seemed to place all her hope on me.
“It’s tricky, but first we need to remove all the mana from the forest at once. Then we need to destroy the array. And then restore the mana of the forest before the forest dies,” I spoke, making them look at me with a blank expression.
Understanding their concern, I then began explaining the plan in detail. How the first step was going to happen, and why it was really possible to do it.
From how many people we will need to do it, to how much time it was going to take, I told them everything. While they still seemed skeptical about it, they didn’t totally reject the idea.
Trisha looked at me as her eyes turned green and she asked me,
“Wesker. How sure are you that this idea would work?”
I pondered the best answer, considering this was my first run.
” If we start tomorrow morning, I am 100% sure we can solve all the problems with no mistakes.”
Though satisfied with my answer, she got confused a little as she asked,” why tomorrow?”
“A couple of things that I need to settle today,” I spoke with a mysterious smile, making her interested a bit.
“I’ll let you in after all this is over… but it’s gonna cost you a little,” I smiled, making her chuckle a little before speaking,” sure.”
I then recalled what happened during the night in the last turn and decided to at least warn them about it before leaving from here.
“There is something going on with the Dark Magicians around the forest. Be careful with that… I will leave back to the city now. Anna. Leena. Come with me.”
Nvida considered my words carefully, and Trisha too began preparing herself for tomorrow. For her part, she needed to spread her energy throughout the forest and take control of the forest.
Bidding farewell, we immediately left back to the Town, where I saw Mrs. Thompson, the duke’s wife, standing outside my shop.
I greeted her, before passing the items just like last time, and then continued with the day like the previous run with the Shop.
If there was anything different, then it was the extra arrays that I prepared for tomorrow. And not taking Anna and Leena into the Underworld today.
I just let them rest before placing specific arrays at the places here those assassins would step on. Once done with the basics, I saw that the dusk was almost upon us and so was the time of the ritual.
And just like usual, I went to a nearby alley and changed into Morpheus.
“Let’s see if night would be as fruitful as the day,” I mumbled in excitement, as I then vanished from there before running towards the camp again.
Reaching there, I saw the elves were still normal. And the area was still as pure as before.
Taking a breath in relief, I then used [Mana Zone] to check the forest around to find the traces of dark magicians. But surprisingly or unsurprisingly, I didn’t find any of them around.
“Searching for the Dark Mages? I killed them all. A total of 147 of them,” I heard a familiar voice from behind. Turning around, I saw Nvida sitting on a tree branch above.
“Hmmm… seems like I was not needed here,” I spoke in relief, making her smirk a little. She jumped down from the tree as she looked at me with a lusty look.
“That might not be true… I actually need a lot of mana tomorrow. Since your brother can’t give me any, I think we can help each other out,” she spoke as she reached closer to me.
‘Don’t exactly know how I should feel about it… well, since I have been tested quite a lot today, I guess I can let out a bit of heat,’ I thought as I too moved closer to her.
