Chapter 13: 13. Recruitment

Rhys stood before the door leading into the crystal room. He casually glanced over his clothes and made sure they were clean as he drew his hood up to hide his face. Time to put on an act. He suppressed a chuckle as he calmly opened the door.

He had nothing to worry about. After all, he had already confirmed with Eldre that the crystal room would warp the perspective of anyone inside of it. Preventing them from seeing the door unless Eldre wanted them to. All they would see was even more of those red crystals.

Rhys’ eyes casually scanned the room until he found a group of four players sitting in a semi-circle with their backs to Eldre’s statue. This made Rhys smile, as it meant he had appeared in their blind spot. Which would only increase his mysteriousness in the eyes of the players.

He was careful not to make a sound as he moved directly behind them, which was an easy feat considering his advanced body. Rhys noticed the players were eyeing the only entrance they could see with nervous expressions. They’re probably worried they’ll get ambushed like the others. An evil smile crossed his face as he cleared his throat to grab their attention.

The players squealed and cursed as they leapt to their feet, eyeing the newcomer with some fear.

“Where’d he come from?” One player said while glancing at his companions.

“I didn’t see anything!”

“Same here!”

“This should be the NPC we came to see!” the player called Long Day said as he studied Rhys. “If he attacks, then Old Turtle should block him since he’s an Enhancer. That’ll buy us enough time to prepare our spells!”

The others nodded at his words, while Rhys had an amused expression on his face. If it were any other NPC, they wouldn’t understand what they were saying in the player chat channel. But now I know what to expect if things don’t go the way I plan.

"Are you lost?” Rhys said as he moved his gaze from one player to the next.

“What the hell! I thought this NPC was supposed to attack any player in the cult!” Old Turtle blurted out as his eyes went wide.

Long Day stepped forward with some excitement as he wrung his hands together. He licked his lips as he inspected Rhys, but his eyes went wide in horror when the game system returned the information that was available to him.

“This guy is Rhys, that slave that Tolke’s group has been hunting!” Long Day said as his breathing became faster. “His danger level is red!”

The others gasped as they involuntarily took a step back. They stared at Rhys with horror in their eyes as they abandoned any thoughts of fighting him.

Rhys cocked an eyebrow as he listened to him. What the hell is danger level? He made a mental note to check for that information amongst the things he had learned when he had glitched. Rhys cleared his throat again to remind the players that he was awaiting their reply.

Long Day had an embarrassed expression on his face as he focused on Rhys. “We’re not lost. We were hoping to speak with you.”

Rhys rubbed his chin to appear as if he were thinking about Long Day’s response. I already know what this is about, but I can’t let them know that. Surprisingly, a new box appeared in Rhys’ vision that he could manipulate with his mind. Well, things just got more interesting!

The box allowed him to give or take reputation points to the players! Oh! It seems I can set up a shop as well. After some messing about with it, he discovered he could set up to teach spells to players in exchange for money or reputation points.

The nervous shuffling of Long Day brought him back to reality. It was to be expected, since he appeared to be thinking deeply about whether he could trust them. Rhys let out a long sigh as he focused on Long Day.

“What do you want to know?”

The players immediately became excited when they realised the NPC was willing to talk to them! It seemed that Tolke’s theory had been correct. They wanted to know what else she may have been right about, but there were a few things they had to clear up first.

Long Day looked to his companions for their approval. To which they all nodded vigorously.

“Are you attacking the cult because they enslaved you? Or is there another reason?”

Rhys smiled at that question as he gave a cryptic response. “If my reasons were so shallow, then I would have attacked you guys.”

You are reading story The Source://Error at novel35.com

The players seemed to become more excited at his response. In their minds, he was hinting that there was a deeper storyline to be uncovered here. The players quickly spoke amongst themselves before Long Day approached him again.

“Why haven’t you attacked us?” Long Day asked as his companions held their breath.

“Hm, I can tell that although you wear their robes, your heart isn’t with them.” Rhys rubbed his chin again as he glanced at each of them in turn before nodding. “Would you be interested in helping me out?”

When they nodded with excitement, a window appeared in each of their views. Rhys had used his NPC box that appeared to offer them quests with reputation with him as a reward. However, he also snuck in a shop tab for each of them.

The players suddenly shouted in surprise when they discovered that feature. Each of them had received a spell, or skill in Old Turtle’s case, when they joined the cult. But since then, they had not found a way to gain any others! Rhys looked like an untapped treasure box to them at that moment!

“These quests though… They’re bound to get us in trouble.” Old Turtle said as he scanned through them. The shop had no interest to him as it only held spells useful for mages. Needless to say, that frustrated him to no end.

The others could only agree when they read them as well. They ranged from killing the players who were hunting Rhys to spreading rumours to other players about the cult being evil. However, the ones that gave out the highest reputation in rewards were the ones where they had to kill empowered NPC members of the cult.

“Don’t you have something for Enhancers like me?” Old Turtle asked as he shot a glance towards Rhys.

Rhys shook his head in response before answering. “I don’t right now. But if trusted you more, I might part with my enchanted sword in exchange for your help.”

The players gasped as Old Turtle’s eyes moved to the hilt of the sword strapped to Rhys’ back. A greedy light shone in his eyes at the thought of owning such a weapon. The few other enhancers within the cult maybe owned an ordinary weapon at best. Old Turtle suddenly accepted all the available quests, to the surprise of his companions.

After a brief moment, they all laughed as a crazy expression crossed their faces. Rhys was pleased with himself, as his mission seemed to be a success. He had managed to plant a hidden threat within the cult. Those players would serve to weaken the cult’s grip on those tunnels. Eventually paving the way for him to escape safely.

Well, at least they don’t have to worry about dying. Rhys chuckled to himself as he watched the players leave that room. From what they were saying, they appeared to think they were the ones who got the better end of that deal.

Long Day should spread this information on the forums. I’ll need to keep an eye on them to see how the situation progresses. Rhys nodded with satisfaction as he opened the door leading back into the inheritance. He still found it strange that the players were willing to do those things just to have the chance of gaining a few spells.

Well, it’s not like it’ll cost me anything. Even if he were to offer up enchanted weapons, they would all come from the inheritance anyway. It was not like he had to physically go out and buy those items. I’ll need to come up with a way to gather more items further down the line. They’re bound to keeping looking for where they can get the best advantages.

Rhys smiled as he thought about the last spell he had learned in the library before meeting with the players. It was the sell that would definitely make the players flock to him regardless of their class. The spell was called Pocket. It created a small pocket dimension that could hold ten items of any size or weight.

The best part was that he could enchant the spell onto the rings he had found in the enchanting workshop! Rhys quickly realised that enchantments like this were probably why the game did not have a built in inventory. It would force the players to work to gain items like the new ring on his right hand!

I’ll wait for a bit before I start offering enchanted items to them. Maybe I’ll use Old Turtle to set an example of what they can expect from these kinds of creations. Rhys nodded to himself as he started to plan out when he should reveal parts of the information surrounding Haeron. He could not just give it all out right away. Otherwise, the players would not feel like they were progressing. Instead, they would feel like it was just some kind of side story.

Rhys chuckled to himself as he headed back to the enchanting room. It was time to create an upgraded version of his sword now that his spell had grown in power with his rank! Earlier, he had just visited the workshop to test if he could enchant Pocket to anything. So he had not bothered to upgrade the sword yet.

I’ll need to run some tests, but at least now I should be able to store my kills and absorb their force in a safe place. Rhys did not want another situation like in the swamp to occur. If he could expect the body nourishment to become more painful each time, then he would become defenceless whenever it happened. He could not afford to get caught in such a weakened state.

A long sigh escaped his lips as he glanced around the inheritance. I’ve almost used up all the immediate benefits of this place. He thought as he looked at the comfortable couches with fondness. None of the other workshops opened when I ranked up. So I probably have to be a much higher rank to start unlocking them.

As far as he could tell, he could use the training area to keep increasing in rank. However, he was not willing to spend years in that place just to feel safe in stepping outside. I may need to escape these tunnels when I reach the E ranks. I can always come back from time to time to check on the progress of unlocking the other rooms.

Rhys made up his mind to leave that place if nothing substantial was unlocked upon reaching the E ranks. His power would only stagnate unless he gathered more spells useful to his level. I only have one spell that will keep growing alongside me. The rest I’ll have to cast aside at some point.

He already felt as if Creeping Lighting had become obsolete. Not only that, but he had to find a new way to gather force as well. As his rank increased, he need larger amounts of force to progress. Unfortunately, he felt as if Drain Force would not be able to keep up considering the small amount of force it could drain.

I wonder if there’s somewhere out there where I can get what I need without strict requirements. It was a wishful thought, but he could hope. Rhys suddenly focused as he picked a new sword from the racks that was an exact replica of the one he wielded. This’ll do.

You can find story with these keywords: The Source://Error, Read The Source://Error, The Source://Error novel, The Source://Error book, The Source://Error story, The Source://Error full, The Source://Error Latest Chapter