Mysterious Fog World: Eldritch Nexus

The next day, Drake logged back into the game. He knew that the twins purchased the potions. As the system owner, he had full access to what others bought from the shop and could get a full report. Last night, when the twins bought the potions, Ivy notified him as it was an important purchase.

He was again notified that they consumed the potion and had become Extraordinary.

Name: Yumi Murasame

Loyalty: 100 (Zealot)

Level: 1

SAN: 7

Class: Ninja

Path: Shadow (Ninja, Sequence 9, Rank 1, 10%)

Mastery: Archery (Intermediate, Lv 2), Stealth (Intermediate, Lv 2), Pickpocketing (Beginner, Lv 5), Unarmed Combat (Intermediate, Lv 1), Perception (Intermediate, Lv 1), Acrobatics (Beginner, Lv 9), Throwing (Beginner, Lv 5)

Name: Ayame Murasame

Loyalty: 99 (Fanatic)

Level: 1

SAN: 7

Class: Ninja

Path: Shadow (Ninja, Sequence 9, Rank 1, 10%)

Mastery: Dagger (Intermediate, Lv 1), Stealth (Intermediate, Lv 2), Pickpocketing (Beginner, Lv 9), Unarmed Combat (Intermediate, Lv 1), Perception (Intermediate, Lv 1), Acrobatics (Beginner, Lv 5), Throwing (Beginner, Lv 5)

Whenever the potion was successfully consumed, it was by default digested at 10%. Since the twins had just consumed the potion, their digestion percentage was the default value. Hence, level 1.

The class showed the name of the sequence for the given path.

More than one path could be followed, but that increased the danger exponentially with each new path. When following more than one path, the level and title of the path with the highest level were shown.

He checked that their remaining peak Beginner masteries had reached the Intermediate stage. From their practice in the Training Room, he guessed.

Then he checked what they got from the Ninja class.

Sequence 9: Ninja

Rank 1

Abilities:

Major increase in strength and agility, and a minor increase in defense and magic.

If the Stealth Mastery is not learned or is in the Beginner stage, increase it to the Intermediate stage level 1; otherwise, increase it by one level up to the Advanced stage.

Easier to hide and difficult to detect in shadows.

Enhance the rate of proficiency growth in stealth, unarmed combat, and throwing masteries.

He was impressed with the Ninja class's abilities. He found from the system that abilities 1, 2, and 3 would be given at every rank, and ability 4 would be given at ranks 1, 4, 7, and 10. There were also rare abilities, but it was difficult to get them.

After checking the twins’ gains, he left for the town square. On the chat, he congratulated the twins for their promotion and told them that they were free to do whatever they wanted for that day and the next two days. After the previous day’s grand adventure, he wanted to take a break from going outside the territory.

He went inside the admin office after he reached the town square.

“How are you, Mr. Charles? Did you get a good sleep last night? You didn’t get nightmares, right?” asked Drake teasingly.

Charles looked up and replied with an ugly smile, "Yes, Mr. Drake. I had a good sleep.”

“That’s good. But, Mr. Charles, I heard that crime and gang activities are increasing. Even David died. I think he died in some turf war. You should take care of yourself and make sure to close your doors properly; who knows, someone may silently come and kill you in your sleep," advised Drake, but his intentions were anything but kind.

He heard about David from the twins, who informed him what happened after he logged off while he was chatting with them earlier.

“Thank you for your concern, Mr. Drake. I will make sure to close all the doors properly”, replied Charles, with a look that looked like he was both fearful and wanted to curse Drake at the same time.

Drake just smiled at that. He was having fun tormenting Charles. He could have ordered the twins to kill Charles the previous night but didn’t. He knew that Charles was just a small fish, and he wanted to use him to catch the bigger fish.

“Mr. Charles, can I submit my quest today?”

“Yes, Mr. Drake, you can. Please wait for some time as I inform the Thornwheel family and someone comes from there to confirm the completion of the quest,” said Charles, who secretly sighed in relief seeing Drake finally talking business and not threatening him secretly.

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Charles," said Drake with a smile, but Charles noticed the slight teasing in his voice, particularly the emphasis on the words 'hard work'.

“No problem, Mr. Drake. That’s my job," replied Charles, as if he didn’t understand the hidden meaning in Drake’s words.

Drake no longer said anything and went out of the admin office to look around the town square to pass the time until someone from the Thornwheel family arrived.

After an hour, a clerk from the admin office found Drake and informed him that representatives from the Thornwheel family had arrived. He told him that he would come in a few minutes as he was eating snacks. The clerk looked anxious hearing that, but Drake shooed him off.

Meanwhile, inside the admin office, in one of the meeting rooms:

“Elder brother, how dare he make us wait? Even if he is one of the chosen ones, he has no right to disrespect our family. Elder brother, please punish that imbecile who doesn’t know the difference in class," said a young man.

“Calm down, Michael. Don’t forget the reason we are here”, said another slightly older-looking man.

“But, elder brother-”

“No buts. This deal is very important for our family. Do not fuck this up. If you mess it up, father will not let you go”, interrupted the older brother and berated his younger brother.

Michael wanted to say more but stopped hearing about his father, whom he was very afraid of.

A few minutes later, the meeting room’s door was opened, and Charles and Drake stepped inside.

“Young Master Nathan, Young Master Michael, I am very sorry for the delay,” apologized Charles, then he pointed towards Drake and introduced him, “He is Drake who has completed the quest."

Drake gave them a nod and sat opposite them. Michael looked angry, and even Nathan furrowed his brows at Drake’s blatant disrespect but didn’t say anything.

Charles panicked watching Drake behaving like that, but because of his fear of Drake, he also didn’t say anything and left the meeting room.

“How many Purple-Spotted Ivy leaves do you have?” asked Nathan without wasting time in pleasantries with a commoner.

"Five," Drake also answered in the same tone as Nathan.

Michael looked like he was about to curse at him, but stopped from Nathan’s glare.

“Show me.”

Drake didn’t answer; he just put the five leaves on the table.

Drake saw intense greed in the brothers’ eyes when they saw the leaves. When Nathan wanted to take the leaves, Drake took the leaves back. Nathan looked angry but calmed down.

“Ok, those are real. But do you only have these many?" asked Nathan.

“Yes”

Nathan didn’t believe it but didn’t pursue it for the time being.

He took out a small bag and said, “This is your reward: 250 fog coins”. Charles had informed him of the leaves before, so he had prepared the appropriate amount beforehand.

“Fifty coins per leaf is too low”, refused Drake. He had confirmed beforehand that the average price of one leaf was one hundred fog coins.

“How much do you want?” asked Nathan with a slightly angry voice.

“Two hundred coins per leaf," said Drake with a smile.

“Are you out of your mind? You dare to ask such a ridiculous price from us," roared Michael. He could no longer tolerate the disrespect of the commoner in front of him.

Drake didn’t say anything; he just watched them with a smile.

"Deal," said Nathan, and he gave him a card. “It has one thousand fog coins.”

“But elder brother-”

“Shut up!”

Drake happily took the card, put the leaves on the table, and left.

Both brothers watched him with fire-spitting eyes till he left, and then Michael turned to Nathan.

Nathan understood his brother’s question and said, “Focus on the bigger picture for now; we can deal with that insolent bastard later. I promise.”

Michael only nodded in return.

Drake went inside his RV after leaving the admin office. He transferred all his fog coins to the card. That card was called the Fog Money Card or just the Fog Card. It was like a debit card that could store all the fog coins that could be deducted directly from the card during a transaction.

He wanted to get it earlier as he had too many fog coins and it was difficult to keep them, but forgot to buy it.

Drake initially only wanted to ask for one hundred fog coins per leaf, but later changed his decision for two reasons. One was their attitude. And the second, the main one, was what he read in their introduction.

Name: Nathan Thornwheel

Level: 0

Introduction: The eldest son of the patriarch of the Thornwheel family. He is looking for the Purple-Spotted Ivy, as its leaves are the main ingredient for the Rank 1 Trainee Rogue potion, whose potion formula was discovered by the Thornwheel family in some ruins inside a fog zone. However, on the surface, they are looking for it to treat a family member who has been poisoned by a monster. By chance, they found the Poison Valley Fog Zone, which had the Purple-Spotted Ivy plants growing. Due to the heavy losses they suffered at that time, they didn’t dare send any more family members, not even guests, to not decrease the family power any further. Hence, they put forth the quest for the same.

After reading that, he decided to slaughter them properly. But he didn’t know that Nathan would agree so quickly; otherwise, he would have asked for more. He didn’t dwell much on it and left the town square and left for the forest.

He found that Aria was waiting for him at their spot. They talked for some time. Aria behaved normally and talked like before as if the dialogue hadn’t occurred between them.

Drake checked again, and her loyalty didn’t budge. He told her his decision to stay in the territory for three days and only adventure in the forest. Aria was excited to hear that, and she offered to start their adventure.

Drake and Aria had adventures inside the forest for three days. Both had too much fun during that time. Drake could feel they were coming even closer, but her loyalty stayed the same.

One day, she even introduced her mother, Maria, to Drake. Maria already had a positive opinion of Drake from all the stories her daughter told her of the adventures she had with him. But seeing him in person, she also developed a liking for him.

After meeting him, she realized that Drake was the perfect lord for her daughter. She desperately wanted to tell her about how to pass Drake’s test, but she held herself back. Her daughter needed to overcome that obstacle on her own; only then would Drake appreciate her.

After Drake had relaxed for three days, he was ready for another adventure. With the twins’ promotion to the Extraordinary, he was ready to raid the goblin tribe.