Awake? That fast?
Sharlock put away the mouse and keyboard, the computer screen on the core winked out of existence, and he stood up. Led by the player waiting outside, he headed in the pixie's direction.
Right now the little pixie was hugging her knees, curled up on a crude bed padded out with dirt and roots and such — a bed the players had built for her.
The ten-odd players still online who saw the pixie wake had all dropped their quests and come over to gawk — hard. Everyone was deeply curious about this new pixie, since she'd be growing herbs and brewing potions for the dungeon in the future. Of course, the news that the pixie refused to serve the dungeon had already gotten out, courtesy of xX_ShadowBlade_Xx.
An NPC with this much built-in conflict? Didn't take a genius to know she had to come with a special hidden quest! Just like the hidden quest xX_ShadowBlade_Xx and Arthur had gotten before.
"Want some water?"
"How about a flower? Freshly picked! Look, it's still got dirt on it!"
"Got any quests? I'm stupid strong!"
"My rep's already over five hundred — can I take a quest?"
"Teach me herb growing or potion making! I've got money!"
The players tried everything they could think of to get the little pixie's attention, but she just sat there hugging her knees, face full of fear, glancing left, glancing right — and never said a word.
When the players saw their charm offensives having zero effect — actually just scaring the pixie more and more — they started muttering among themselves again:
"Huh? Nothing's working!"
"The hidden quest can't be THIS easy!"
"Maybe the quest hasn't been patched in yet? Waiting on the next update?"
"That's totally possible!"
"It's Lord Sharlock! Make way, make way! Cutscene incoming!"
Everyone spotted Sharlock approaching from the distance and hurriedly cleared a path. The rowdy players went silent all at once, each one waiting quietly to see how the story would unfold next.
The little pixie saw Sharlock coming too. Watching his tall figure close in step by step, she scrunched herself down even tighter — by now she was nearly a full sphere.
"First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Sharlock, Dungeon Lord of the Eternal Kingdom — and your new master. Little pixie, just one question for you: do you want to go home?" Read the latest chapters at novelping . com.
Sharlock did his best to keep a warm, gentle smile, but the little pixie before him just kept trembling, without a single word.
"I see you're still quite wary of me, so let me be blunt. If you want to go home, I'm willing to make you a deal: agree to grow herbs for me and brew potions, and once that's brought me fifty thousand magic stones in profit, I'll set you free. We can sign a contract on it."
The moment Sharlock finished, the little pixie suddenly shrieked at the top of her tiny voice:
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"Demon! I will NEVER make a deal with a demon! Everyone who deals with demons ends up with even their soul devoured! I'd rather starve myself to death than ever help you!"
It was a spirited shout — and the instant it ended, the pixie scrunched herself right back into a ball.
"Well then. Come find me whenever you change your mind."
With that, Sharlock turned and walked off, apparently having zero plans to talk with the pixie any further. The players watching this scene started chatting again:
"What just happened? Talks fell through?"
"Now what? If the persuasion failed, doesn't that mean no herb farming?"
"How do you not get it?! This quest is obviously meant for US!"
While the players chatted away, the dungeon core "Bru" spoke up in Sharlock's mind:
"Not going to sweet-talk her a while longer? Or just grab her, give her a good thrashing, torture her a bit, that sort of thing?"
Walking back, Sharlock replied, a little speechless: "Your understanding of demons seems stuck several centuries in the past. Demons of the new era no longer take pleasure in tormenting people. We play with hearts and minds."
"Fine, then. I'll keep issuing the take-care-of-the-pixie quests."
So said the dungeon core "Bru."
Outside, the players kept crowding around the pixie trying to trigger some hidden quest or other, and Sharlock had no intention of stopping them. They'd be back to working their tails off for currency and rep in a bit anyway. Sharlock was gradually getting familiar with their tastes: they just loved having goals set for them, then knocking them down one by one — with little perks and rewards sprinkled along the way, they never got tired of it.
Sharlock left the pixie to her aggressive public gawking and headed back to the dungeon core hall to browse the forums some more — a major hobby of his now. As for the pixie, Sharlock was in no rush. Playing with someone's heart takes time, after all.
While Sharlock browsed the forums and let the pixie's heart marinate, the players quickly ran out of patience with her — whatever anyone said, the pixie just wouldn't respond. One player did try poking her with a finger, but the others around him shut that down immediately: this was a hard-won NPC who might carry a special quest! What if you poked her off and the quest got poked away?! But mostly, the players just didn't want to bully such an adorable little pixie. Even seeing her as "just an NPC," this "game world" was, after all, far too real. Get faster updates on novelping(.)com.
The little pixie stayed curled up, ignoring everything around her. She'd steeled herself for torture, but that towering Demon Lord had shown no interest in torturing her at all — he'd even offered a deal that could take her home and set her free. Still, the pixie wanted nothing to do with demon deals. She truly did ache to go home, and the offer genuinely tempted her, but her family had always warned her: never, EVER make a deal with a demon.
In the end, the little pixie fought down the stirrings in her heart and forced herself to ignore the demon's temptation. But then the goblins came crowding around again, and she braced herself for all manner of unhinged abuse at their hands — they WERE goblins, after all. Filthy, wicked, vile creatures!
What happened next, though, the little pixie could not begin to understand. The filthy goblins didn't abuse her. In fact, from the moment she'd woken, they'd stood around her chatting — chatting like maniacs — and the content made no sense to her at all. "Hidden quests," "NPC," what did any of it MEAN? Beyond that, the pixie could feel a wild enthusiasm radiating off these goblins toward her — and most of all... friendliness!
That's right — from these goblins, the little pixie detected a friendliness she hadn't felt once since being captured and brought to the Underworld! Their attitude toward her was nothing whatsoever like a master's attitude toward a slave. If anything, it was the exact reverse: they seemed to want something FROM her, treating her with the utmost deference. Forget abuse — not so much as a single insult. They fussed over her comfort, and someone had even built her a bed! The very bed of dirt and roots she was lying on now. Crude as it was, to a pixie who'd been locked in an iron cage all this time, that dirt and those plant roots were precious beyond words. At the very least, she could once more breathe in the fragrance of soil, the scent of sap from plant roots.
Ahh... such sweet nostalgia... I want to go home so badly...
The little pixie lay down and slowly drifted off to sleep on her bed of dirt and roots.
Over the next two days, the Eternal Kingdom's flowerbed was finally completed. The space the players had dug out got a thick layer of soil, and from the new well you could crank up bucket after bucket of sweet, fresh groundwater. The players didn't exactly have a big need for water, but they still lined up one by one, each for a taste of the freshly drawn stuff.
The flowerbed was finished, but with 【The Secret Garden】's seeds not yet arrived, the actual planting obviously couldn't start. More importantly, days had gone by and the pixie showed zero sign of caving. Sharlock wasn't worried, though. One day she'd come around — unless she didn't actually want to go home.
Over on the official forums, the pixie had basically taken over the charts these past two days — every thread on the front page had "pixie" somewhere in it. The otherworldly players had clearly poured every last ounce of energy into her: analyses, guides, even people digging up Tolkien's novels to study the plots and tell the pixie stories!
But no matter how hard the players tried, the pixie gave them nothing back. Still, day after day, they never tired of it, testing out every method imaginable to catch her attention.
Not every player had gone full pixie-brain, though. After a few failed attempts at getting her attention, xX_ShadowBlade_Xx and Arthur focused up and started organizing the latest push on the Spider Nest. The two of them seemed to be on pretty good terms these days — Arthur didn't talk much, but you'd usually find him tagging along with xX_ShadowBlade_Xx anyway.
And after several days of hard coin-grinding — plus spending actual US dollars on copper coins — some thirty players now had weapons and armor. A second push on the Spider Nest was imminent.
Early on the morning of the fifth day after CBT1 started, the players with weapons and armor — watched solemnly by all the others — held their so-called pep rally on the open ground before the dungeon core hall of Sharlock's dungeon. Then all thirty-odd of them marched off in grand procession toward the Spider Nest...
══════════════════════ DUNGEON LORD'S NOTE ═══════════════════════
Screaming 'I'd rather starve' at a Demon Lord, the pixie refused the deal — so Sharlock decided to let her heart 'marinate' while players read her Tolkien bedtime stories.
Would you take a demon's deal to go home?
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