Luke studied the expressions of those that sat around him with glee, even Carter and the rest seemed to have believed his lies, well except for the Uncanny Seer, luke couldn’t decipher what her expression looked like under that mask, but it had to be nothing short of shock.
Avalon was the first to speak..
"Is that all?" He asked calmly, however luke could easily dissect the hint of worry written all over his face.
"Yes it is." Luke responded. "Alright then thank you for your time." Luke nodded, stood up and proceeded to leave the cottage.
Luke didn’t really know the exact things the undefeated one had done in the past, and how it affected mythos generally. However unless he conversed with random NPCs there was no way he was going to figure that out. But Luke would rather visit a library in a city, academy or citadel where he could get detailed information. Also from the various interactions he had with NPCs, Luke knew it was wiser to remain with his shapeshifter class for the time being.
And apart from that, he had just completed the first quest for his undefeated one’s class and even reached level 10, this meant that he we now elgible to participate in an hunter trial and get the opportunity to become an awakened hunter.
Where they would eventually go to a labyrinth the game system would send them to, in completion of the trial.
As those were the requirements.
Now that he had two classes, Luke knew that he would most likely have to get to level 10 in both of the classes. Luckily for him he had been given a quest in his shapeshifter class. Luke recalled that the reason he had been in level 13 was that he was never given one by the game’s system initially which made levelling up harder.
But now, now that was different. Luke stepped outside of the cottage, the snow had began piling up and the number of people Luke had seen walking beside the cottages have reduced too, he glanced at his wooden armour and shook his head.
’It even comes with wooden boots.’ Before taken any important step, luke decided to change to a random commoner outfit first. He walked close to the nearest cottage and stood under the shed of its roof.
"Codex." Luke muttered with expectations, and as expected a familiar dull screen appeared at his front.
Name: [Chris ]
Race: [Human]
Rank: Hunter
Forms: Chris, [???]...
Hunter Core: Dormant stage
Accessories-[Wooden Armor set.] [Random outfit.]
Core stats-
Strength-20
Stamina-18
Agility-28
Vitality-20
Class-[Shape shifter] [The Undefeated One.] Switch?
Class Description: These class grants the player the ability to take the form of any void creature or human, possessing their exact looks, attributes and a semblance of their character. It can also possess an exact copy of their abilities or accessories on random occasions.
Class Rank-[Seeker]
Level-0
Coins-100x bronze coins.
50x silver coins.
1x gold coin.
[True Form? ]
Luke studied the screen with curiosity, as earlier, he had rushed past it and didn’t even get to see some lines clearly or even correctly. What he could denote from the screen was that the codex looked like the one he had been used to while playing the game earlier on.
He could see his core stats and class rank as unlike in the undefeated one’s class, that had only an attribute.
Luke equipped the random outfit. A white tunic instantly appeared on his body with the wooden armor vanishing as it came.
Luke glanced at his outfit and nodded in satisfaction. This was way more convenient than wearing a tree, without hesitation he proceeded forward walking in the direction he had seen some of the packing villagers take.
***
When luke arrived at the gate of the uncanny village, he was met with the sight of various Griffins, with four wheeled wooden chariots behind them. They were about fifteen of them, most of them heavily loaded with passengers and belongings, some were already in the air, while a few were being loaded currently.
However Luke only focused on the magnificent white Griffins!
The frontal part of their body possessed the head, beak, forelegs, and wings of an eagle. The feathers were white, while the rest of the body had the hind legs, build and long tail of a powerful lion. Their eyes were also sharp, glowing and intimidating. Not to talk about how large they were.
Luke realizing that a majority of the Griffin chariots were already taking off, decided to approach one of the riders with less occupants..
A middle aged man sat comfortably at the front of the chariot, his hands holding unto the reigns with the laxity of precision, noticing Luke’s approach. He frowned slightly.
"Don’t bother, the chariot’s already.." Luke ignored the man’s words, he had obviously judged Luke based on the tunic he wore and the fact that he was not carrying any property. Coupled with that, the snow wasn’t really helping.
Luke tossed a silver coin to the rider, the rider paused mid sentence, catching the silver coin mid air. He studied the coin ascertaining it’s quality, glanced back at luke, then spoke in a cheerful tone.
"You can com.."
But Luke was already stepping into the chariot.
"Nice Griffin by the way, we are off to the Royal capital no?"
A while later, when the chariot was filled with all nineteen passengers, it took off. Outside of the chariot the snow fall was already becoming dense. Luke knew he had to leave now as he could not wait till the end of a winter season before he took the hunter trial.
There are a lot of thought s Luke had chosen to ignore, however they kept gnawing at him. Thoughts of Clara, Pippa and Selene’s location and the probability of them being safe, who were the developers and how did they change the earth?
Were void creatures real, Was death in a labyrinth real. Luke couldn’t dismiss the feeling that all of this answers were not going to be positive, but as for now there was nothing he could do to influence those matters or change them in any way and so till then, Luke decided to survive, grow stronger and maybe one day when he would think about it again, he would have a say.