CHAPTER 34: “PERSUADE”

This battle was much different from his first ever fight with the shadow beast and it was also different from his small battles with the mobs in the forest.

His first ever battle was a strictly one on one fight and he had an item that made it incredibly quick to finish. Though the battle was hard, the beast was just still an animalistic beast, its moves dealt substantial damage but there was no technique or thought put into the movements, only instinct and power. That was why it was quite easy to dodge those attacks, the issue only being that he didn’t have enough stamina to keep up for long. 

Meanwhile, the battles he had with the mobs in the forest was nothing to be proud of. The mobs he faced were low leveled enemies that died quick even with his little attack power, showing just how weak they were. The wolf was definitely a harder mob, but the shadow beast dealt with him more than Ai did.

The NPC guards were so much different than the shadow beast or the mobs. Since they were originally NPCs, their movements were much more calculated and thought out. They weren’t the rough movements of a mindless mob or animal, they were movements of a guard trained to protect and fight with the utmost of their abilities if needs be. And right now, they were fighting for the most important person in their lives, their priestess.

Everytime Ai made eye contact with one of the guards, he could see the fierce and fiery determination in them. It was almost scary, their devotion to their idol. He didn’t think that he’d ever seen guards in real life having that much devotion to their masters, and perhaps that was just due to the world he lived in.

Honestly speaking, if he hadn’t known about the sirens’ backstory, how they’ve lived and what happened to them, he would’ve been incredibly baffled about why such loyalty could be incurred from a mere singing voice. He knew better now, granted he himself couldn’t hear Nebule’s singing, he knew enough to understand why her singing voice meant so much to the sirens. He didn’t condone the unhealthy obsession, but at least he understood somewhat.

Ai didn’t charge into the midst of the fight. Instead, he mostly stayed back close to the door while occasionally using the dagger to fight off the one or two guards that managed to slip by Athen’s wide ranged swipes. Athen seemed to understand as well. When one managed to slip by it managed to find opportunities to run back and push the guard back to the center of the throne room. 

Naeya couldn’t fly but she was still incredibly nimble on her feet. She would swipe at the guards with her sharp talons and let out a swipe with her feet that would knock a few off their feet. Though it did make Ai slightly wince still it was her bare legs against armor, but no discomfort showed in her face, only focus.

Ai spammed his skills and threw some potions to help buff both Naeya and Athens. He especially kept a close eye on their HP since he didn’t pack enough health potions and he didn’t have any healing skills. He even used his [Biased Mediation] skill to help out a bit with damaging the guards, but not too much since it also drained his own HP. All the skills he could use apart from [Mediation Session] made its presence known. 

He buffed, debuffed, dealt damage and kept a close eye of his companions.

The guards proved to be tough opponents. They acted smart and hard. They would observe their opponent’s movements and act accordingly the next time. They picked up on Naeya’s and Athen’s patterns and adjusted their fighting. They were getting better at dodging and blocking. Even more even managed to slip and get even closer than before.

Getting quite scared about the close calls, Ai eyed one his skills that he didn’t manage to use. It was neither an offensive, supportive, nor defensive skill but it would surely have some use in this situation. Just...he was unsure. The skill worked based on percentage and chances.

Another guard managed to slip by, his trident ready and it was pointing right at his face. This one looked different, Ai hadn’t noticed him at all which was odd. He blamed the tension. This had a higher rank it appeared, their armor was much more polished and had different color definitions. Their weapon also looked slightly bigger and fancier as well. Maybe...just maybe...

Now or never.

Ai used the skill for the very first time.

[Persuade - Chance to convince NPCs to do something (50% chance of success) cooldown: 20 minutes

Other players in [Arenas] (10% chance)

When used on minor monsters, the chances are 75% and the cooldown is 1 minute.]

50% chance was quite high, a coin flip. He just hoped it worked. If he could get it to work then…

Ai reflexively closed his eyes as the guard was on the brink of stabbing him with his fancy golden trident. The edges stopped right before it reached his chest. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the guard standing there with a blank look in his eyes. He lowered the hand holding the trident and looked at him expectantly.

Quickly, Ai whispered as to not let the other guards hear. “Tell your men to stand down and leave the room. Do not return.”

The guard stayed silent for a moment, trying to process the order given to him. The silence made him nervous. He didn’t know the rules around the skill and it was possible that the order might’ve been to0 long to work. Or didn’t work at all in the first place.

He didn’t need to worry. The guard then turned around and walked stiffly towards his men. The others had been too busy fighting to see that their captain or general had been hypnotized. 

“Stand down.” The higher ranked guard uttered at his men, his voice melodic but firm.

The men stared at their general or captain confusedly. They glanced at him, their enemies and at their weapons with many questions in their eyes. Under the guard’s intense stare, the men hesitantly put down their weapons and slowly backed away towards the door.

“General...” One of them protested. Their voice meek and nervous.

The general looked at the guard sharply and the guard quickly sealed their lips. The meeker soldier looked at Ai, standing behind, and narrowed his eyes suspiciously but under the general’s authority, he couldn’t even voice his objections.

The siren general continued his march, heading outside the room. The men made way for him to pass before following suit while some of them occasionally looked back. Some whispered amongst each other. Ai could hear their worries about whether or not their mistress would be safe or not but in the end they followed regardless.

That was...much too easy and simple. He expected the other guards to put up a bit more fight. Even Naeya was giving him a look that told him that she couldn’t believe what just happened.

Ai took out the Book of Languages and opened it. He hadn’t opened all the pages since he knew that he wouldn’t be able to understand most of it yet, but had a suspicion that he needed to clear up.

He scrolled through the pages and landed on a section of the book that he didn’t know were there. The section was located at the end, but he could read the writing written on it as clear as he could read his mother language.

Skill Blessings

The Pathway Lantern has allowed some skills to manifest blessings!

• [Restore] blessing: Improves quality of restored objects.

• [Biased Mediation] blessing: Reduces HP drain.

• [Persuade] blessing: When successfully casts on NPCs or mobs, affects other NPCs and mobs to follow the same order.

For the first time since the beginning of the game, Ai took out the lantern hanging from his waist. Right now it was a rusty old oil lantern that didn’t look all that special. It looked incredibly decrepit and on the edge of being consumed by the rust. He didn’t even know if the light could even light up or not.

In any case, this was the object that allowed his skills to evolve in a way. Previously the Book of Language improved the [Restore] skill as well, and now the lantern did as well, yet none of the other more special skills remained untouched by the book. 

Was there anything special about the [Restore] skill?

Out of all the skills he had it wasn’t particularly unique or basic, nothing about it stood out.

“Ai...let’s hurry and go back.” Naeya had already ran back towards the door of the priestess room, her face anxious, wanting nothing more than to go back.

Ai put the lantern away for now. He had a lot of things to think about but not enough time. He didn’t like the amount of questions he had about state in the game. After this siren quest, he needed to take a break from these big story quests and explore a bit more.

When he turned back towards the door, it was already open and Naeya was no longer in sight. He felt pressure in his shoulder as Athen landed there as it usually did during these down times. Ai reached out to stroke its feathers and smiled a little bit when he saw the owl sitting comfortably.

A high pitched, blood curdling scream broke through the somewhat peaceful air that the player and pet had. It came from inside the priestess room. 

Ai broke into a run, dashing towards the open door. What had happened?

The sight inside the room shocked him.

Nerea stood there on the bed, a knife in her hand. Blue colored liquid stained her hands, the knife in her hand, and the bedsheets and floor. Ai’s eyes widened in terror as he looked at Nebule. Her neck had been slashed, and the blue liquid that he saw flowed freely from the gash on her neck.

Ai took a few steps back and held down his nausea as he realized what he just saw.

That blue liquid was blood. Siren blood. And Nerea just slashed her sister’s neck with a knife.