Chapter 16. Celebrity (3)
There were screams all around me. I was dizzy from the sudden impact, but I quickly got up.
I dashed aggressively and struck the teen who then crashed into the exterior of the fountain. He’s probably not getting up any time soon.
“Mister, are you okay?”
I quickly supported the chauffeur to his feet.
He had a swollen face, making bubbles of blood every time he breathed.
After noticing his health was slowly recovering, I let him down. It was only then I realized the gravity of the people surrounding me.
“He did that to the heir of the Valley faction…”
“Is he an adventurer?”
“He doesn’t know about this town…”
In the midst of their mumbling, a well-built man slowly walked over towards me.
“How dare you hurt the young master…”
The man with a chain vest over black leather armor stared me down.
“In honor of the knight of Silver Valley, I will cut you down.”
He then pulled out a pale blade from his waist. The crowd all took a step backward.
“Unlucky for him…”
“Hopefully his armor could at least preserve his life…”
There was a red text above the head of the knight.
<Lv. 28 Knight Python>
Although his level was lower than Gilutin with Sharma, I shouldn’t be lax.
He was not under a special effect such as a curse, and he was the first person to fight in this game. Even if it was an NPC.
In the midst of our staredown, Python gave a little smirk.
“Are you a mercenary hired by that poor merchant? Your armor is as frivolous as a broad!”
Subsequently,
“Meradu! Bring me a sword!”
He yelled. From the back, lightly armored soldiers carefully handed Python a sword.
“Seeing as how you don’t have a sword, I shall bestow you one!”
He tossed me the sword, and I accepted it by accident.
“Adventurer! I shall now carry the punishment for hurting my young master!”
In an instance, unexpectedly from his large stature, he leaped with swiftness towards me.
Chang!
The sound of the clashing metals hushed the crowd, to which I also couldn’t utter a noise of my own.
Python’s sword was heavy. If not for my abnormal stats allowing me to see his blade, I would’ve been split in half right there and then.
“You’re pretty durable!”
He spun around in an imposing gesture with his sword.
He blitzed his attacks like an angry hornet. In the relentlessness of his flurry of attacks, I could only focus on defending.
“Is this your limit!”
Following his shout, his strikes became even more fierce.
At this moment, I felt the difference between me and him.
His swordsmanship was well refined to be acknowledged as a knight.
Even if I had higher stats or better items, there was no chance I could’ve beaten his swordsmanship.
The method I swung my blade came just from pure speed and strength from my stats, it still looked like I was swinging a baseball bat.
It was unimaginable for my childish swings to reach that of an NPC that has a knight class.
Soon Python laid me flat with marvelous swordsmanship.
“Kuhaak…!”
After being tossed around, my body started to ache.
“You’re tougher than I thought. I shall end it now.”
Due to accidentally dropping my sword when I tumbled, I was in a predicament.
I could feel my heartbeat.
Soon, my ears blocked out all noise from the outside and I could only hear my huffs and thumps.
Python’s blade lunged at my neck and I focused on the tip of his blade.
Instinctively, I yelled.
“Sharma!”
Barely managing to dodge Python’s sword, I grasped Sharma that appeared in thin air, and struck at his back.
Python sensed something was wrong and turned his waist to block my strike.
Shing!
Like that, the swords clashing let out a screeching noise.
Next,
Ping-
There was a noise that came right after.
It was the sound of Python’s broken sword hitting the ground.
Furthermore, Python was knocked away from the force of our swords clashing.
Despite the difference in our swordsmanship, he couldn’t overcome the difference in the grade of our items!
“Huff…Huff…”
The breath I held in came out at once. The crowd surrounding me all looked stunned.
“Mister!”
I quickly moved over to the chauffeur. He, who recovered long ago, too had a perplexed look on his face.
“As I thought… You’re very strong…”
“What happened here?”
The middle-aged man shivered.
“That young master didn’t like me wearing these tattered clothes in his town, so I said I would change right away, but he just started assaulting me…”
It was an unreasonable assault. It angered me to think that was all it took for this man to be assaulted to the point of unconsciousness.
In <Circuit>, NPCs are also capable of wrongdoings. They make a fuss all over the game, making it more realistic.
I walked over to the youngster that got flown away by me.
He, who recovered by now, went pale.
“You…! What do you think you’re doing! I’m the only heir to the Silver Valley faction…”
Thud!
As he was ranting, I swung my fist at his face. The loud noise from the impact shocked the crowd.
He still tried to talk with a bloody mouth.
“You! Python! Where’s Python! Kill him at once…!!”
He looked around frantically. Upon realizing what had occurred, his voice trembled.
Python was already defeated by me.
“You! You hurt my precious body! A wound! On my face! Once the paladin from the Holy Twelve Division gets here you’re dead meat…!”
“What happened here!”
Before he finished his sentence, another voice filled the town square. The crowd all bowed towards the source of the voice.
“How dare you harm my son! The only heir to this Valley Morris!”
A text appeared on top of his head.
<Lv. 17 Valley Morris>
“Python! What are you doing! Kill this bas…”
He also paused upon seeing the knight brutally beaten next to him.
The crowd started to buzz louder.
“He defeated the best knight in the Valley faction…”
“Wait! Looking at his frivolous armor…”
“Is it! With armor like that and his extraordinary skills…! It has to be!”
“He’s from the Holy Twelve Division…!
“At long last, he came here for an inspection!”
The falsified rumor started to spread across the crowd. Morris, who’s been listening to the crowd, started to sweat.
Soon after, the young man I’ve just beaten made a bewildered face.
“I-It can’t be… I-I’m terribly sorry…! I didn’t mean for this to happen…”
The situation took quite a turn. But, this was the perfect opportunity to turn the tides. I’ve gotten hold of my nervous self, and let go of the young man.
Just from standing up, the crowd all praised me.
“Ohh… The paladin from the Holy Twelve Division…!”
“In the name of the Valley…”
“Please look after us…”
Morris, who’s been dumbfounded, quickly bowed down with the crowd.
“Tell me what happened to this town!”
I let out the best intimidating voice I could to mimic that of the paladin. I even trembled a little at the end from the anxiety, but thankfully no one pointed it out.
Shortly after, the crowd started to lament.
“Sir paladin! Morris is a devil!”
“He takes half of all of our income as tax!”
“My wife left this town because of his sexual harassment!”
“He set fire to my grange…”
Their cries for help fueled my anger.
I was still more or less an average user in <Circuit>, and an adventurer without a specialized class, but I knew I had to take action in this situation.
“Is what I heard all true? Morris!”
It was the first time I spoke unmannerly towards an adult. I felt a little guilty, but my hatred overwhelmed my consciousness.
“T-That is…”
“Shall I investigate thoroughly at your mansion!”
“It’s all my fault! I’ve done wrong…! Please… not my life…!”
He started wailing.
At that moment, a golden glow appeared on top of his head. It was a golden text I’ve never seen before.
< Hidden Quest Clear >
<Tyranny of the Valley Faction>
Rewards: Clue to a rare class (Incidental), Increase in Fame
It was the first type of quest I’ve ever seen. The splendid golden text indicated that it must’ve been a high-grade quest.
“Morris, since you’ve acknowledged your crimes, you must repent your sins and payback to the people in Silver Valley!”
“Yes…! I’ll follow your orders!”
Trying to hide my excitement, I yelled out to the crowd.
The feeling of being looked up to by this many people was exhilarating.
At the same time, I felt a little guilty. I wasn’t even a knight let alone a paladin.
I quickly led the chauffeur out of the town square.
“Thanks a lot. By the way, I haven’t even heard your name. My name’s HanMyeong, named after my son.”
The middle-aged man thanked me with a gentle smile. It seemed to me he was more worried about the gold in his inventory than what happened just now.
Probably because that money will be used to feed his family. It was a resolve that boosted his fortitude.
“My name’s Mose.”
HanMyeong, Who’s made a confused face, looked at me with a sudden realization.
“I wasn’t really interested, but it’s hard to ignore your name! Mose! You’re the infamous user from the rumors!”
“Am I that famous?”
“Why of course! Well, this is an honor…! Huh…?”
“What’s wrong?”
HanMyeong, who just made a surprised face, went silent. Then,
“This is amazing…”
“Excuse me?”
“An in-game notification just popped up in front of me. It seems by meeting you my fame has risen.”
“What does that…”
Immediately after, a blue notification appeared in front of me.
< Others are talking about you. Fame increased by 17. >
< Others are talking about you. Fame increased by 37. >
< Others are talking about you. Fame increased by 24. >
The continuous strand of blue notifications hurt my head.
Soon, the notifications were replaced by a small ring tone. Still, it kept ringing for quite a long time.
But, I was more interested in the “Clue to a rare class” I obtained as a reward from the hidden quest.
What I’ve realized from the battle between Python was the weakness from a lack of class. I was only able to beat Python using Sharma.
I had a feeling that the effectiveness of my luck would now be able to last without a good class.
Therefore, this reward from the hidden quest was a lifesaver at the time I needed it the most.
However, it was written that I can get a ‘clue to a rare class’ solely by chance. So I didn’t know where and how I could even get to that clue. So I decided to move on as soon as possible.
“Engraved sword, hm. I feel like I haven’t seen that in a long while.”
“By the way, Sir ‘Hire’. Shouldn’t we punish that bastard who dared to impersonate ‘us’?”
They were each riding white horses side by side with subtle silver light covering over their bodies, looking down at the Silver Velia from a high hill.
They were NPCs,no matter how someone looked at it.
“Punish the adventurers? Don’t even think about it. Do you not remember that God has given us a prophecy saying that those adventurers will make our world a better place to live in?”
“Yes, but…“
“And look at this, now. Thanks to that explorer, our inspection tasks for Silver Velia have gotten easier, isn’t that right?
That means, at least for you and I, the world has become a better place to live in, thanks to that explorer, don’t you think?”
“I… I guess so.”
“So try not to hate that explorer too much, ‘Seer’. Do you understand? “
“Yes, Sir Hire. “
The two in gorgeous armors turned the silver white horses around to leave.
They were the knights from the Order of the 14 Holy Knights which is considered one of the strongest in the entire continent.
“By the way, Sir Hire. Who even was that man? “
“Do you not know of him? I’ve heard from the other adventurers talking about him that his name is ‘Mose’.”
“ Mose… Huh…”
They disappeared quickly like the wind leaving the silver lighted trails behind them.
Hire of level 186, and
Seer of level 155.
They were considered some of the strongest people on the Asparagan continent which Mose was currently standing on.
* * *
“Huh…?”
I stopped walking for a moment. I was busy walking after a sad goodbye with the mister.
The words that came to my mind this time were unusual, just by the looks of it.
“What is this now…”
< Others are talking about you. Fame increased by 2,874. >
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