Chapter 71: Chapter 71 : A Good Deed

Exiting the branch, Ralf took a short walk and arrived before Drake’s trio. Eyeing them, he noted the subtle difference in the way they looked at him.

‘They must have heard Jeff’s tales,’ he thought.

“Here,” he said, floating over a vanta-coated pouch to them.

A sour-looking Drake pulled out a pouch of his own then widened its opening. Ralf followed up naturally; he had his black blob enter and deposit the coins before dematerializing.

With Ralf’s Psi gone, Drake moved to count the coins inside. Once he did, his eyes were made to flicker in shock. “Ten gol - how did you get this much,” he asked with an incredulous look on his face.

Ralf smiled in response. “I got lucky.”

“Lucky? So you gambled again?”

“Nope, this was no gamble,” Ralf corrected. “While I was adventuring, someone foolishly attacked me…so I killed him.”

The nonchalance on Ralf’s face as he said this caused the trio’s foreheads to become wrinkled; a mental retreat seemed to sound in their head in the presence of the young man before them.

Ralf continued. “It turns out he had a bounty on him. This ten gold is just that. Lucky right.”

Awkward nods followed from the trio, which Ralf smiled approvingly at.

“With this, only five more gold left to pay. And I can easily pay that off by doing adventures every day till the deadline. Make sure Boss Desmond knows that okay, and make sure that money gets to him safely,” Ralf’s tone lowered as he voiced his final word.

“Y-Yeah, will do.”

After getting the trio’ shaky word, Ralf moved to leave. Hopping on his Psi Bike, he throttled the handle and sped away.

He paid a visit to the Fountain of Luck and Joel’s stand where he made sure to be very generous with his coins. Then, he left Ganurg and entered the Monster Zone.

Ralf first moved to get the mission out of the way. Descending upon a group of orcs, he field-tested the techniques he and Rei had come up with last night. Running through them all, he slew the ten orcs required by his mission and then collected their crystals.

After doing so, he took to the heavens, leaving the surrounding monsters frothing at the mouth. In his Psi Plane, he drew various figures in the sky, all the while admiring the nature below.

With the objective of obtaining effective poison already complete, today’s adventure was more to unwind than anything.

‘Mmm.’

In the distance, Ralf spotted a group of Adventurers doing battle against a club-wielding ogre.

‘Are they having trouble,’ observing a second more, Ralf arrived at the answer, ‘they are.’

When he confirmed they were, he directed his Psi Plane towards them.

***

‘No, not like this.’

Gopi clutched his lame arm with a look of despair. Dread clouding his expression, his eyes moved to his companions, one of whom was out cold with blood seeping from his head, another was desperately trying to down a potion with shaky hands and the last one was Blinking from side to side, firing their pistol while avoiding the ogre’s club attacks.

‘Damn it, I can’t just sit here doing nothing!’ Seeing his companion giving it their all, Gopi gained a second wind. Gritting his teeth, he forced his body to stand.

But this was a mistake.

“Argh!”

His action caused his cracked ribs to drive further into his flesh, sending an immense wave of pain to his brain. The pain dropped him back down.

“Gopi! Stay still,” Hanish, the evading Telekinetic shouted. However, in doing so, her concentration dipped below where it needed to be. The ogre closed the distance and swung its club, displacing air in mass. Knowing that dodging wasn’t possible, Hanish poured all her Psi into defence.

*Shatter*

Her shield was unable to withstand the strike, but luckily for her, the potion had taken effect fast enough for Lanit, her Telekinetic companion, to regain his Psi control and beef up her shield.

Still, this only kept her in one piece. The ogre’s club managed to send her flying like a cleanly struck baseball. Moving at high speed, she crashed through several branches until she collided against a large tree. Sliding down, she cut a sorry figure, with red blotches being painted on her person in real-time.

“Hanish! Stay with us! Don’t fall asleep,” Gopi fought through the pain and cried out as he saw Hanish’s eyelids drooping close. His callout seemed to work as her eyes suddenly widened. As he was about to mentally celebrate this achievement, the absence of light dawned on him. He immediately understood what it meant. Head snapped rightward, he caught it. The ogre was before him, club raised high, ready to smash down with unstoppable might.

With only moments separating him from his inevitable death, Gopi felt time slow down drastically and his thoughts speed up to speeds that defied physics as he knew it.

Important memories, both distant and recent surfaced in his mind, bringing with it an array of emotions.

‘This is how I go out…’ A deep regret coloured this thought. He had been an active Adventurer for the last five years. There had never been any issues. Killing monsters was the simplest task in the world to him and his party. However, today, he had the unfortunate luck to run into this slightly more tricky ogre and end up getting hit. He was the leader and strongest fighter of his group, so after he was downed, they had a hard time.

Gopi felt terrible letting his team down. Worse yet, it was only due to their attempts to defend him that they continued to crumble. Knowing that he was their downfall weighted heavily on his consciousness in these final moments. His eyes watered as the despair of the situation overwhelmed him.

With blurry vision, he caught the ogre’s arm muscles flexing, and moved to shut his eyes.

‘Sorry, everyone.’

Just as Gopi’s eyelids were about to fully close, the sound of gunshots jolted him awake.

Bullets struck then bounced off the Rank 5 Ki barrier. The ogre didn’t pay the gunslinger any mind and gathered its Ki to fire off its club attack. But as it was only a moment away from executing the move, the ogre’s mind and body suddenly froze.

Then, with rapid motions, turned to the direction the bullets came from. Eyes finding the fast approaching Ralf, the holder of the juiciest soul it had ever come across, its monster soul revved up in unparalleled excitement.

“Raaarr!”

The grip around its club tightened, and then, with a quick windup, the ogre threw its club with a wicked propeller-like spin.

Ralf did a slight Air Flicker, avoiding the club. But this was a two-part attack. After throwing the club, the ogre launched forward, taking Ralf’s dodging motion into account, then fired off a powerful left straight.

This combo move had been successful many times before, and the ogre was looking for another success. However, where this worked on regularly Adventures, it couldn’t on Ralf.

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A quick Air Flicker later, and he effortlessly placed himself outside of the ogre’s punch’s trajectory. Then, while maintaining high momentum, he conjured his Psi Odachi and in passing, slashed at the monster’s neck. The densely made Psi blade sliced through the Ki barrier, flesh, and bone, no different than a hot knife through butter. Decapitated, the ogre’s life was ended in an instant.

Psi Parachute.

Deploying the technique, Ralf’s momentum fell drastically. Dismissing the Psi a second later, he did a loop with a Psi rope, making sure to anchor it in midair, then performed an Air Flicker. Moving swiftly, he landed before Gopi’s bloody figure.

“Ah…”

Gopi took in Ralf’s arrival with a look of awe, momentarily forgetting the pain he was feeling. But a second later, the pain made itself felt again.

“Aarr!”

Ralf didn’t delay. His Psi thrust into the other’s body and began operating on the injured Adventurer.

“Than..kyou.”

Ralf nodded. “Stay still, I’ll have you healed up in no time,” saying, he established the Mental Link and contacted Rei for assistance. His other self was quick on the uptake and after being assigned half the Psi, moved to save the flickering flame that was Hanish’s life. The two operated with equal parts speed and precision. At the same time, they had the two down regeneration and stamina potions.

Ralf turned to the other two Adventurers. “How are you doing over there, need some help,” he asked as Lalit smothered his unconscious companion with his Psi, wearing a concerned look on his face.

Only after Lalit confirmed that his companion wasn’t in any real danger, did he respond. “No, I’m good here. Thank you, young man, you really saved us,” he said, grateful.

Ralf shook his head. “We aren’t out the woods yet. Stay focused. My medical skill is patchwork at best, we need to get these two to actual medics.”

Ralf materialised a large Psi trolley with four massive wheels attached to it. Using his telekinesis, he carefully and quickly placed Gopi, Hanish, and the unconscious Adventurer on top of it.

“Let’s go. The Adventurer Road is around 800 metres off. Once we’re on it, everything should be good.”

Lalit didn’t question him. Nodding, he followed along silently, focusing on his own leg injury while also contributing to the contraption’s movement speed.

Ralf was beset with many sincere thanks from Gopi and the others for saving them. He liked attention but the unbridled gratitude they showered him with felt awkward to accept. Still, he bore with it, more for their sake than his own.

“Ralf…I see. You’re that Ralf,” Gopi’s eyes lit up at the discovery. “No wonder. The rumours are true then, you’re exceptional. Thank you for saving me and my crew. I swear I’ll return the favour in the future.”

Ralf shook his head at Gopi’s declaration. “No need. I did it purely for my own benefit, I needed the good karma.”

“Either way, I’ll…we’ll remember your actions today.”

Lalit and Hanish nodded in agreement at these words. Ralf just smiled awkwardly and directed his gaze to the surroundings in search of monsters.

“Raaa-”

“Krraa-

The entourage encountered a few monsters along the way, but Ralf’s guns were quick to put them down.

After arriving at the Adventurer Road, the group followed the path towards Ganurg. It hadn’t even taken a minute of traversing before they found who they were looking for, the Surveyors. Once the Surveyor group spotted them, they took a handle on the situation. The duo was relinquished of their duties and the Surveyor group’s medics did their thing. Ralf oversaw the entire process with a keen gaze. A minute later, the Surveyors wrapped things up. Frankly, there wasn’t much left to do on their part.

“You’ve done well young man. We’ll escort these four back to Ganurg safety. Will you be coming along?” An elderly Surveyor asked.

“No, I’ll leave them in your capable hands. I still have a few things to do here.”

“I see, we’ll be off then. Return safely as well.”

Ralf nodded. “Will do.”

The Psi carriage got moving and was soon out of sight.

[[Things to do?]] Rei inquired curiously.

[[Yeah, things. There’s a lot of time until the Adventurer test so I’ll pass the time by mingling with my fellow Adventurers.]]

[[I see, then have fun with that. I’m still working on something, see you.]]

The Mental Link disconnected and Ralf was again alone. He didn’t mind it. In a way, he could never truly be alone.

He turned around and headed into the forest. The next few hours would see him roam the Great Ocelot Forest and intervene in dozens of clashes. Swooping in with a flashy entrance, he dispatched monsters with sublime skill and speed. All who observed him in action were left awestruck, well, initially. Once this feeling passed, other feelings took their place.

Not everyone was appreciative of his intervention, in fact, many were annoyed and even angry about it and made their feelings known to him. Ralf rolled with the punches and kept it moving.

While most treated his appearance as a nuisance, some were very thankful for his arrival. He didn’t end up meeting a party in circumstances as bad as Gopi’s group, but he did save a number of people from a trip to the medical ward through his timely monster killing and healing techniques.

Now, Ralf was on his bike, following the Adventurer Road back to Ganurg.

He coasted along, having thoughts unknown while appreciating the nature around him.

Mental Link.

[[Yo.]]

[[Yo,]] Ralf returned the greeting.

[[Anything noteworthy to report?]]

[[Of course,]] Ralf nodded then went on to give an account of his heroic endeavours.

Hearing his other self out, a smile naturally appeared on Rei’s face. Ralf’s account was incredible…too incredible. There was no doubt in his mind that most of what he said was fictitious. Still, Rei didn’t request a memory transfer, for that would reveal the more lacklustre reality.

Ralf returned to Ganurg. Next on the menu, the C-Rank Adventurer test.

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