Chapter 5: Values

Most of the dungeon had been empty; it seemed the cultists had cleared it long ago and were using it as a base of operations. Alice would eventually run into more cultists. These ones were levelled at 18-21, though they weren't as difficult as the ones outside, aside from the fact that these dudes used magic. As much as she didn't want to kill, she had no choice; it was either them or her. After running some more, she unintentionally found the boss's room, which remained untouched. This meant that the main room of activity is nearby; her plan was to hopefully find the people and let them go first before she confronted the leader behind this whole thing. She crouched down on the ground and laid out a piece of paper. Before continuing, she had to draw the path she had taken. Open stats, she thought as she carefully traversed the corridors; her stats were decent. Attack was 100+, along with mostly everything else, aside from one called " Blessed," which remained at zero, but since she had no idea what it could be, it didn't matter. After the Perpetual dungeon, she's been saving her points for emergencies. After running around for what felt like hours, Alice stumbled into the room with the people, who were knocked out. Carefully, she makes her way over to the locked door, where she would slide her blade in between the chains before applying a bit of pressure. The lock hit the stone floor as she pulled the door open. Fortunately for her, the people weren't knocked out good; she was able to wake up some of them, slowly, and they all got up confused and grogy. " I'll explain everything later, but for now, use this and make your way back to the village." Alice handed one of them the paper with the route she had taken. "They took two people with them, a stranger we hadn't seen before and Lias' kid," the guy she handed the paper to told her. She thanked him and let him go with the others. With that taken care of, all she had to do was find Cleo and Sua, and bring in the main culprit. The main room where the cult was doing whatever was not far from the boss's room. Alice crouched low near the entrance, making sure to stay out of sight. There were three of them, all level 28. They had some machine hooked to a magic circle on the ground. Off to the side were Cleo and the kid, and standing in front of the circle was Ren. She had her suspicions for a while now, since they first met, actually. When they first met back in the town hall, his level was one thing that seemed odd, but at the same time, maybe it wasn't; he could've been an adventurer. And then there was the odd color of his level tag; unlike anyone else, his was the same purple as the Crystal of Entropy. She needed to approach this carefully; at the moment, she had no real plan. When Alice hit level 5, she had gained three skills. At the moment, hunters surge was the only one she paid attention to, so perhaps the other two would prove to be useful. One of them was a passive that could only be triggered when her health dropped really low, so that was automatically useless. The other one was a power, which meant it had its own set of skills. Ice-based, she could create and manipulate ice. This power came with its own skill tree and skill points, so to use it, she needed to spend a single point on awakening it. After she did so, a wave of cold overtook her, and it felt nice. She used the rest of her points on enhancing the ice's strength. Alice carefully placed her hand on the ground in a specific spot. Then she concentrated on the cold feeling in her chest before willing a wall of ice to form between Cleo and the cultist. The wall wouldn't hold, so she moved quick, freeing Cleo and the Sua. They were partially awake. They barely made it across the room when the wall exploded into small fragments of ice, forcing Alice to put Cleo and Sua down against the wall and face down the cultists. She had to hold on until Cleo fully woke; she really needed those buffs. 

                                                              -SIDE QUEST- 

                                           CLEAR THE CULTISTS AND CAPTURE REN(CULTISTS KILLED 0/2)                                                                           (REN CAPTURED 0/1)

Alice was getting whopped. It wasn't a three-on-one; they decided that only one of them was enough, which was true. The dude she was fighting seemingly had the power to cause explosions; his hand would charge before he made contact, but it wasn't a direct explosion. When it did explode, she would get sent backward. She tried her best to avoid his touch, but he also wielded a really odd weapon; it was a garden hoe, but the neck was able to move like a whip and extend its reach, so he would grab Alice using the head and land a hit using his power. Alice managed to nick his arm, but this time she caught his palm with her own, and as the explosion hit, she left a trail of ice stemming from his palm, and it was slowly engulfing his hand. She couldn't let this opportunity go. Pushing herself to her feet, she closed the distance just as the ice fully encased itself around the cultist's hand, and using the butt of her sword, she shattered the hand. The dude was so stunned, all he could do was stumble back in shock; the wound had frozen over, preventing any blood loss. 

Alice let the blade sink into his chest before pulling it out, moving on to the next cultist before the other's body dropped to the floor. She sent a trail of ice across the floor to freeze his feet, but only managed one. She had to back up as Ren had decided to make it a two-on-one. The weight of his sword was slightly heavier than the hobgoblins, but she would manage for now. Alice tried to avoid Ren to get rid of the other guy; she needed Ren alive as definitive proof that he was the one who had done it. The other guy had summoned a ball of magic that shot out as a laser. Alice was just barely able to dodge it as it grazed her arm. She stumbled forward, forcing up an ice wall behind her so that Ren can't get to her. This dude, despite his level, was weak. From that one attack alone, he seemed exhausted. She was able to cut deep across his chest before kicking him down. Just as the ice wall broke, Ren stepped over the broken wall. She put her sword away and tried forming Ice around her knuckles. It just barely worked. Each time Rens' sword hit the ice on Alice's hands, they shattered, forcing her to continuously repair them. She wasn't much of a hand-to-hand fighter, but she'd seen some stuff on TV when she was younger. After numerous attempts at forming ice around her hands, she was finally able to make a full gauntlet, although it was just for one arm. Her plan had shifted to using the gauntlet to defend while attacking whenever she found the opening. Alice was somewhat exhausted, after having fought against five others before Ren; she'd have to hurry. Ren jabbed his sword toward Alice. Which she was able to grab using her gauntlet, allowing her to land a solid hit against Ren. The only good thing about this prolonged fight was that enough time had passed for Hunter Surge to be reactivated, giving Alice a much-needed boost. Through this, she also learned that surge affected not just her stats, but her powers as well. Her control over the ice had increased as she formed a second gauntlet. With the boost in her stats, she pushed in, slamming her fist into the flat of Rens' sword, snapping the metal in two, and in the same motion, she slammed her fist into his stomach. Alice gave him no time to gather himself. She continued beating him until she felt it was enough. For someone who was level 28, he sure was weak. She put his hands together before shifting the ice gauntlets over his. Now he won't be able to do anything. Alice lets out a deep sigh. All she had to do now was close the dungeon and get out.

Turns out, the cultists had extracted the heart of the boss monster and planned on using it in some ritual. With the help of Ren(after a little persuasion), Alice was able to stop the heart, killing the boss and clearing the dungeon. She had gotten an item from clearing it, but that was the least of her concerns. It was fortunate for this planet that Alice was a 12th-level intellect. She took the hook weapon dropped by one of the cultists and froze one end to Ren. She got Cleo onto her back and carried the kid in her free hand. This way she could carry her friend out while dragging Ren behind her. She had also frozen the other end of the weapon to her hand so she wouldn't drop it. By the time she had reached the village, Alice was properly exhausted. Hunters' surge ended as she reached the edge of the forest, and the sudden weight of her friend hit her suddenly. Fen was waiting for her and took Cleo off her back as another person dragged Ren. She let the ice melt off. Leinan knew a little bit of healing magic, so she had taken care of everyone when they came back. " Thank you for this. For now, we'll lock my brother up somewhere before we can decide what to do." Fen reached out to grab Sua, who Alice had been holding, but she unintentionally stepped back. "I'm sorry, but we promised Lia that we would bring her back." Fen nodded and let her go. She readjusted the way she was carrying Sua. Despite her exhaustion, she had to see this through. Alice knocked on the door. Lia opened it with the same sunken eyes as before, but when she saw her child, life sparked again. Lia hugged Sua tightly as tears streamed down her cheeks. Alice felt good. Lia pulled her into a hug as well, startling her a bit, but she accepted it, and, unknowingly, in the warm embrace of Lia, Alice let herself rest.

When Alice came too, she was lying on a blanket. She carefully pushes herself up, leaning on her elbows as she looks around her surroundings. It all came back to her now. She had returned Lias' kid before getting pulled into a hug, where she passed out. Alice glanced over next to her. Sua was seated cross-legged, staring intently at her. Lia stood over a counter cooking. Alice sat up properly as Sua dragged a low table closer to Alice before sitting down beside her. Sua asked Alice all kinds of questions with a burning joy. Alice did her best to answer them. As Lia came over with three plates filled with rice and curry, it looked and smelled good. Before they ate, Lia and Sua clasped their hands in prayer, which Alice mimicked. Lia recited a small prayer to a god named Vacthius, giving thanks before eating. As they ate, Alice told Sua about the things she had done before coming here, about her battle in the Perpetual dungeon, about Clair, Cleo, and Arthur. After they finished eating, Alice helped with the dishes before setting up smaller plates for dessert. Lia opened the fridge and pulled out a cake box, but Alice was able to catch a glimpse of a frost blue magic circle embedded into the bottom. That must be how the stove works as well. Checking on Sua, who had pulled out a couple of toys from a wooden box set aside against the far wall. She was playing around with dolls and small figures. She offered one of them to Alice, inviting her to play, so she joined her.

Alice had spent the night, but headed to the town hall early in the morning. Lia and a sleeping Sua accompanied her. She could've left her at home, but after what happened, Lia wasn't going to be leaving Sua's side anytime soon. Everyone had been called to meet outside so they could bear witness to Rens' judgement. A little platform had been set up where Ren knelt, chained down. Fen stood behind a podium. When everyone got here, Fen started.

"I'm ashamed to call myself your mayor when I was blind to see what my own brother had been doing to my people. I should've noticed sooner, and for that I apologize." Fen says, regret filled his voice, " And to Lia, I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you came to me when your child was taken. It was wrong of me to disregard what you had said without putting much effort into looking into it." Lia nods, accepting his apology. She didn't look too upset over this, but she held Sua closer to her.

" As for Rens' punishment, once the proper documentation is complete, I'll have him taken away to Yvrial where he will face proper judgment at the hands of the Adventurers Council." With that, Fen finished giving out Ren's judgment. Ren struggled against his chains as he laughed manically,

"PRAISE BE TO THE VALUED ONE, FOR HIS DESCENT IS IMMENIENT!" and he erupted in a blinding light. When it subsided, he was no more; all that was left were burn marks and empty shackles. Fen had a look of horror and disappointment, but there was nothing to be done now. He dismissed everyone, but he waved over to Alice, gesturing for her to meet him inside. She sat down as Leinan set up teacups, Fen was seated across from her but bowed slightly, " I'd like to thank you again for solving and saving my people...and thank you for not telling me about my brother being the main culprit before, I would've lashed out in anger if you had said anything about it," Fen says smiling, laughing a bit. Alice explained how she knew but left out the crystal aura. She also told Fen not to beat himself up for not having noticed, as Ren had hidden it really well. Fen tried giving her the gold reward, but she declined(which honestly was a little stupid 100 gold would've been great in the long run) she asked that the money be put towards the village and its people instead, she also asked if they could stay a couple days until they were fully ok to leave, this way they could take the report back with them. Fen let out a sigh but agreed. With that having wrapped up, she went to check on Cleo. Alice sat next to her friend, who was still asleep. A couple of minutes later, Cleo's eyes opened, and when she saw Alice, she embraced her in a tight hug, bawling her eyes out. Once she calmed down, Alice explained everything that had happened. The two returned to Lias' house, where Cleo and Sua became best of friends. With that, the case of Disappearing Peoples Commission had come to an end.

                                                                -MAIN OBJECTIVE-

Reach Level 900

REACH DIAMOND RANK IN 5 MONTHS AND HAVE ARTHUR JOIN YOUR TEAM

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                                                               -SIDE OBJECTIVES-

INVESTIGATE AND SOLVE THE DISSAPERANCES

CLEAR THE CULTISTS AND CAPTURE REN(CULTISTS KILLED 2/2) (REN CAPTURED 1/1)

PROFILE: ALICE

LEVEL: 20

ATK:138

SPD:122

DEF:150

STAM:140

MANA:120

INT:124

BLESSED:0