[New Shooting Objective Acquired: Eliminate the Beholder while under the effect of a dark curse!] [Note: Contracting multiple curses will provide a greater reward!] The throbbing red eye darkened as it glared at Ezra and the Beholder’s twisted black lips parted to reveal a slippery red tongue dripping with saliva. Ezra fired his weapon without a second thought, unleashing a volley of magic bullets at the enemy. But the Beholder’s psionic shield absorbed the flashy blue projectiles, rendering Ezra’s attack utterly ineffective. Without giving Ezra any chance to retaliate, the Beholder rushed at him. “Magic Burst!” Ezra shouted, pointing his right palm toward the Beholder. But his skill failed to activate. Thwack! A slimy green tentacle lashed out at Ezra, smacking him away and sending him flying into the marble pillar behind. The impact from the blow nearly broke his back, leaving him groaning in pain. Blood trickled from the corners of Ezra’s mouth as he tried to get back on
The fight with the Beholder had left Ezra bruised and battered, but he quickly put all that behind as the newly acquired skill piqued his interest. “Use skill: Shadow Gun!” Ezra exclaimed, raising his right hand, but a searing pain made him clench his fist and drop to his knees. “What the…hell is happening.” “I believe the curse is still active. You cannot use any skills before cleansing your body. The shackles will tighten their grip every time you try to use a skill,” Marlin explained. “You need to visit a shrine and seek the aid of a priest. Only they can dispel dark curses like these.” Ezra swiped to his Gunner profile and tapped on the ‘status effect’ panel. [Two curses contracted:] [1. Shackles of the Fallen.] [2. Trembling Trauma.] [Effects:] [1. All shooting skills are disabled.] [2. Accuracy reduced by 60%.] Ezra was surprised by the last line displayed on his system panel. “I remember my accuracy took a 50% hit. How did that number suddenly increase?” “That was qui
Never in his wildest dreams would Ezra have thought about raiding an elven tomb in the middle of the night. But his perilous adventure had been fruitful. Not only had he acquired all the crafting components for the new weapon, but also managed to get his hands on a rare soul gem. “Congratulations, my dear Lord. Your persistence finally paid off,” Marlin greeted Ezra as he gazed at the items in his inventory. This nightly escapade had turned out to be quite rewarding for Ezra. Now all he needed to do was find a way to cleanse his body and get rid of the curses before returning home. Ezra returned the dagger to the elven king’s corpse, and drew the lid over the coffin, closing it shut. Putting the dead elf back to rest, he headed up the stairs and climbed out of the tomb. By now, the clouds drifting across the sky had disappeared, and the crescent moon was visible again along with its retinue of twinkling stars. As Ezra walked out of the ruin, he felt a tremor run along his spine.
By the time Ezra and Aurelia returned home, Lord Sebastian and the others had already gone to sleep. It saved Ezra the trouble of having to explain himself to his father, but Aurelia still remained cold to him. “Good night, sister,” Ezra wished her, hoping she would return the courtesy, but her words remained measured. “Night,” she replied curtly as she walked back to her room. Marlin was starting to enjoy this family drama, and he could not help but mock Ezra. “Oh, the poor little boy…Losing his only friend in the world. Must feel sad?” “Aurelia still loves me and cares for me,” Ezra replied. “She’ll never give up on me.” Marlin wanted to amuse himself a while longer by taunting Ezra, but he once again proved to be more mature than Marlin had expected him to be. As soon as Ezra was back inside his own room, he shut the door and set to work on his Gunsmithing workbench. Retrieving all the crafting components from his inventory, he put them on the table. He selected the blueprint
In the dead of the night, when the clock was about to strike three, Ezra woke up with a start, feeling a searing pain in his right leg. As he parted his eyelids, in the dim glow of the night lamp he spotted something black and slimy squirming on his wooden door. “What the hell!” Ezra sat up straight and tried to pull his leg free, but something pulled it back. He quickly threw his quilt aside, and his eyes widened in horror as he discovered a writhing mass of tarry black tentacles wrapped around his leg like vines. “Let go of me!” Ezra kicked the squirming tentacles with his free leg, but a second pair of tentacles grabbed his left leg as well, binding him in place. The more Ezra struggled, the more the tentacles constricted. Soon, they cut off the blood flow to his thighs, and Ezra felt his legs going numb. The squirming mass of slimy black tentacles covering the keyhole, spread all across the door, blocking Ezra’s only exit. It slowly spread to the surrounding walls, growing new
Aurelia had barged into Ramel’s room with the intention of accusing him of attacking Ezra and bringing him to justice. However, what she saw completely altered her perspective. Ramel was still confined to his bed and it didn’t seem like he could even attack a fly in his current state. “How did a damn maid manage to stab you?” Aurelia enquired, looking around the room. “You seriously expect me to believe you could not stop a simple commoner from attacking you?” “I...did not see it coming. She must have drugged me, sister,” Ramel whispered back, gritting his teeth to fight the pain. “Could…we maybe talk…after I get some treatment?” Aurelia did not want to involve any outsiders yet, so instead of calling for a physician, she yanked the knife out all by herself and helped Ramel drink a healing potion. It took a few seconds for the wound to heal, after which Ramel slowly sat up straight and threw his quilt aside. Touching the scar on his stomach, he grinned. “Good thing she didn’t use
Lord Sebastian still could not believe what his son had done. Capital punishment had been outlawed long ago, and this barbaric act of shooting a prisoner in the head was nothing short of brutal tyranny.“You took her life despite knowing she was at our mercy,” Lord Sebastian’s voice deepened as he spoke, and his eyes gleamed with suppressed rage. “Ramel Romanov! You have disgraced my name! It’s a crime to kill an unarmed woman.”“Lolita wasn’t innocent, father. She was a follower of the Lord of Decay. And she sealed her fate by betraying our family,” Ramel replied. “I do not regret my decision. In fact, I’d make the same choice a thousand times.”“So, you feel you can just take a life without any consequences?” Lord Sebastian reprimanded, raising his voice. His keen eyes seemed to peer into Ramel’s soul as he chastised him with his words. “We should have given her a fair trial. We are not barbarians! The Goddess does not support killing the unarmed.”“I think you have grown far too so
Now that the bitter truth Lord Sebastian had kept hidden all these years had finally resurfaced, it threatened to break their family.Ezra had been raised as a noble and was always led to believe he was a Romanov. All these years he had endured all the mockery and ridicule without losing hope because he wanted to prove himself to his father and bring honor to his family.But now that Lord Sebastian had revealed he wasn’t his own son, it left Ezra disillusioned and aimless. “Who….am I really? Who are my real parents? Why did they abandon me?” The questions came pouring as Ezra struggled to hold back his emotions. The storm raging inside his heart threatened to wreak havoc on the man he had called ‘father’.“You are Ezra Romanov. I am your father, and Lady Fiona was your mother. You are my son.” Lord Sebastian reached out to hold Ezra, but he stepped back, pulling away from his embrace.“All these years…I kept calling you my father. All these years…I kept believing that I was a Romanov