Mage Of Shadows - Chapter 9 A New Ques

Favian was suddenly snapped out of his delirium when the usual DING sound that his game system would make when it was sending him a notification.

[Ding! User under influence of an unknown aura. It is suggested that user not look at the necklace being worn by the woman in front of you]

Unlike usual, the game system almost seemed like a person here worried for his safety. Or maybe this was all just in his mind or part of some illusion Favian thought. The game system was artificial intelligence; therefore, it would have no consciousness nor emotions.

Favian realised what sort of predicament he was currently in. He was trapped in a dungeon, alone, and was fully incapable of getting himself out of this ordeal. He hadn’t learnt enough magic to fair for himself, and even if he had, he doubted he would be able to escape from somebody who had been able to snatch himself away from the likes of Aria and Egast, who both oozed with the power he so craved.

‘The best I can hope for is that somebody has noticed my disappearance. I’ll have to stall for time here.’ This was what Favian was pinning all his hopes on. If he could stall for time and somehow find an opening would be the best-case scenario for him. The other choice was to submit and probably become some slave to this crazy individual, or worse.

Fear was gripping onto Favian, and his palms became sweaty; however, he was able to ask the person in front of him, “What do you want with me?”

The mysterious figure did not answer until almost ten minutes passed. What ensued was a cacophony of laughter which did not stop until almost another ten minutes. This person had clearly gone crazy already, Favian thought, his knees weakening as he realised that trying to stall for time might not even be lucrative.

Almost an hour had gone past and there were still no signs of rescue coming for him. Favian’s mood plummeted for the worst, and his face became dejected. He realised that whatever the case may be, he would probably rot to death here with this maniac of a person confining him.

“I’m not a maniac.” The female voice replied. She now looked at Favian and he could see her crystal blue eyes piercing through his soul. She slowly walked towards an altar, which was shaped to be a statue of a woman holding two moons in her hand. Chaotic energy undulated from within the statue, and the two moons were coloured black and red respectively, one a blood moon and the other a black moon.

“The goddess is furious that you stole a precious asset away from us. The gall of a mortal like you, to sin against the one and only true ruler of this world. You shall not be forgiven” her voice resounded throughout the cavern, and rage was evident on her face.

“You have two choices.” She stopped talking, contemplating for a moment. Her icy blue eyes were far from inviting.

“She has spoken. You will divulge all the information from the text you have stolen from her rightful ownership, or face imprisonment for eternity.” A crazed smile was visible from beneath the hood; yet her face had still not been revealed.

Favian was starting to feel completely helpless. It seemed that he had somehow managed to make enemies with a goddess within the first couple of days spent in this new life. Bad luck could not describe the predicament he was in right now.

[Ding! New quest available: ‘Escape time lock’. Your mind is currently being held hostage in a time-lock. Would user like to accept quest? 5000 experience reward]

The rays of hope which Favian had been looking for finally descended towards him in the form of a quest. He knew from his previous life that video games would usually only give out quests which the players were currently able to carry out, and that there were hard level caps to acquiring them. This meant that somehow, he should be able to leave here alive.

Favian tried to rack his brain as to how to allow his mind to escape this time locked zone. It seemed that his body was currently still falling from the cliff, however his mind was currently being held captive in a zone where time did not move forwards. Therefore, his body was fine for now, all he had to worry about was getting his mind back to his body.

‘Usually in games there would be some sort of object or person which would need to be destroyed so that I could leave. Thinking about how great of a disparity in power I currently am in, I bet it is the former, and that I have to find some object to release me from here. But what is it?’ Favian had his hopes reignited after receiving the quest, and tried to piece the limited pieces of information together. His information stemmed solely from the game system and how clich video games usually are.

‘System are there any hints or tips you can give me right now to complete the quest?’ he quickly asked. Only a few seconds had currently passed since his jailer had given him his ultimatum, yet he didn’t want to keep her waiting too long, lest he ignite her wrath. He needed to find some answers quickly.

[Ding! System can give a hint however this will cost 50% of the total experience yield from quest completion. Would host still wish to receive a hint?] it buzzed in his head. Before it even finished talking to Favian, the game system was interrupted by the loudest ‘YES’ that Favian had yet shouted in his mind.

[Ding! A sacred object of a goddess is currently trapping host in a time-lock. Find and destroy this object to complete quest ‘Escape time lock’ 2500 experience reward]

‘Of course’ Favian thought to himself, ‘it must be the altar that is keeping me trapped here.’ Favian quickly realised what he needed to destroy, but he didn’t yet know how to destroy it.

His only spells were bend light, net of shadows and necrotic touch. Bend light was an auxiliary spell that didn’t deal any direct damage, and net of shadows was a spell that only immobilized an object or entity. Necrotic touch was his best bet to destroy the altar, yet its range was only as far as his hand could touch. The altar was 5 metres away from his cell; thus, he had no means currently to destroy the object.

Out of desperation, a plan slowly started to unravel in Favian’s mind. He needed every part of it to work perfectly or else he would most likely be eternally damned to corroding in this cell. He would need to have a lot of patience for it to work, and as his only option he decided to follow through with is wholeheartedly. ‘I will definitely escape.’ he thought to himself with conviction.

“I will comply with the request of your holiness. Please do have mercy on me, I did not mean to sin against the greatness that is your master.” Favian spoke these words through gritted teeth and knelt on the floor in a kowtow motion. He knew that he needed to stay alive for as long as possible, and try to deceive this woman into thinking that he had already given up all hope of escaping.

The woman looked less crazed now as she stared at Favian, trying to ascertain the whether he was speaking the truth. Seeing that this young boy looked to have given up any hope of fleeing, she smiled and brought out an empty book and an ink pen.

“Write down everything you read in the book, and don’t even think about filling the pages with nonsense. There will be repercussions!” she exclaimed.

After she passed him the items to write on, the woman took a step back towards the altar, and knelt down. The woman then removed the hood from covering her face and began to pray fervently at the altar. Favian could finally see the image of his captor, however what he saw completely dumbfounded him.

‘Hadn’t I just met this person earlier today?’ he was utterly puzzle.

Long hair fell all the way to her waist, revealing obsidian curls from root to tip. A scar pierced across her face extending all the way towards her lips.

‘Isn’t that Evelynn?’ the shock in his mind was extreme, but after calming down he realised that the scar on this person’s face was on the opposite side to Evelynn’s. Hers had been on the left side of her face, whilst this woman’s was to the right side of her face.

After ascertaining that this wasn’t Evelynn, Favian went on with writing down in the book he had been given. For now, he had no other choice except wait until his plan finally came into fruition.

1 year later