The NPC Got A System

8. Siegrid and The Little Girl

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

A person barged into a large room filled with two people dressed in shining armor and sat on a chair that surrounded a circle table.

The old man that sat on the left, with long white hair and a vertical scar on his face, stood up to greet that person. “Welcome, Dimitri. What’s brought you here so suddenly—”

“Cut it off, Joe. You know we aren’t in the situation to joke around like this.” Dimitri, a young man with platinum blonde hair wearing a noble suit that matched his hair colour, glared at Jonathan.

“Relax, Dim. Joe just wants to welcome you.” Beside Joe was a beautiful woman, she wore a long red dress with a shawl made from phoenix fur.

“How I’m supposed to relax in this fucked up situation, Merl? Tell me, how?”

Merlene shrugged her shoulder lightly and continued sipping her wine from the cup while Jonathan sat back again and heaved a sigh when he watched Dimitri moving back and forth like some confused fleas.

“Did the last group not make it again?” asked Jonathan.

Dimitri slammed the table with anger. “Those weak bastards! I’ve paid thousands of coins to them, and this is what I get in turn? Their useless dead bodies?”

“Well, perhaps it means we don’t need them to finish the towers. Why don’t we try it ourselves? Maybe it is way faster?” Jonathan wanted to calm him down, but it seemed that his attempt failed because, this time, it was Merlene who put on the wine glass and spoke.

“How foolish. If you think we can finish that tower by ourselves, why must we hire those weak players in the first place?”

Jonathan scratched the back of his head and tried to guess, “Uhhh … to reduce the population?”

Merlene rolled her eyes. “That’s because the tower difficulty has been raised to an extent where it could not be finished with a small group. Since that email arrived and we all got trapped here, things are upside down. Luckily, we are not joining that childish organization made by the ten strongest players on the gameboard, and if we join them, we may become their pawn to finish all towers and summon the last tower.” She glanced toward Dimitri. “So, what will we do now? Do we need to set a new mission again at the Torrenfield job board?”

“Yeah, that’ll do. We need to finish that tower quickly. That’s the last tower in this kingdom. If we manage to finish that, we can use the treasure inside it to expand our business and become the richest player in Terraria.” A hideous grin appeared on Dimitri's face as he looked around at his friends and business partners, Merlene and Jonathan.

Merlene lifted a new glass of wine and said in an alluring voice, “For our luxurious future, Tre Devilla.”

Dimitri and Jonathan also took their wine, lifted it, and rephrased their business group’s name altogether.

“Tre Devilla.”

“Tre Devilla.”

*

“Get out of here, beggar! How dare you come to my place without money?”

A woman with an angry expression looked down at Nash, sitting on the ground after being pushed. He had no strength left, even to stand up, after being rejected almost in all taverns and inns because Nash did not have coins with him.

However, giving up was never in Nash’s dictionary. He looked up and tried to ask it again more politely. “Madam, I’m not asking for your food for free. Just give me a task and pay me with food, please.”

“A no is a no, get lost!”

Slam!

She closed the tavern door loudly and left Nash alone outside.

He heaved a deep sigh and helped himself to stand up. “Well, maybe eating grass isn’t that bad. Even Glen enjoys chewing grass.”

However, Nash knew he could not stay like this for too long. He needed to get a job and find money in order to survive.

“Where do people get a job in a town like this?”

“You can check out the job board on the town square, there are many kinds of jobs there, and it is updated daily.”

The bass voice behind him made Nash turn his body and find a tall man standing there. He had a suspicious aura which made Nash wary of him.

(I need to keep my distance from him.)

But, suddenly, that strange man gave Nash a warm-boiled potato. “Hungry?”

Nash's eyes became bright like a sparkling star, he took the potato and ate it vigorously—well, he was that hungry.

“Twhank ywhou swo mwuch!”

“Hey, hey, easy, man. No one gonna steal it from you.”

(I know he’s a kind man!)

After Nash gulped the last potato inside his mouth, he turned to that strange yet kind man and bowed his head. “Thank you, I haven’t eat since yesterday. I owe you a debt, kind man. What’s your name?”

“I’m Siegrid. Just call me Sieg. And who’re you?” He grinned wide, and Nash was feeling off about that grin, be he chose to ignore it since out of all people here, just Siegrid willingly reached out to him and even gave him food. He must be an angel even though his face resembles a devil's.

“Thank you, Sieg. I’m Nash. By the way, why’re you helping me?”

“Oh, it’s just you look like with someone I know.” Siegrid smiled again until his eyes buried behind his cheeks, he patted Nash’s shoulder in a friendly way. Siegrid added with a mellow tone, “He’s my closest friend.”

“Ah,” gasped Nash while nodding in understanding. “That’s great, having someone that close to you. By the way, what kind of jobs that provided on the job board?”

He shrugged his shoulder. “It’s various. From an easy job such as collecting herbs to the hardest one like finishing a towering monster inside the forest.”

“Monster tower?” Nash suddenly remembered the shadow’s words about tower monsters and the appearing of the last tower, Yggdrasil. If that was the hardest job, it meant that Nash could not take the job, remembering his current level that was insufficient even for fighting a low leveled monster.

Siegrid looked at Nash’s face closely and asked, “Why? Are you interested in it, Nash?”

Nash snapped out of his thought and looked at Siegrid again before shaking his head while smiling. “Nah, I can’t even raise a sword, so how will I fight those monsters?”

“That’s right, better keep a safe distance and live a peaceful life. People like you shouldn’t harm yourself.”

“What?” Nash raised one of his eyebrows as he felt strange with Siegrid’s words just now. Siegrid did not answer Nash’s question and just stood there smiling faintly, making him more suspicious.

Kling!

Both Nash and Siegrid turned their head toward the tavern’s door. A white-haired little girl dressed in a ragged dress stood in front of the door and held a paper bag.

“Oh, is that my food?” asked Siegrid.

“Y-yes,” answered her while quivering in fear. Nash looked closely at that girl and found out if the girl was not a human but a demi-human. She had a pointy ear covered in fur, and Nash could see a white fur tail on her back.

(Is she from a fox tribe?)

From what Nash knew, the demi-human tribe was rare, and not every kingdom had it. It was the same with the Fox tribe, one of the rarest tribes in Terraria, alongside the Dragon tribe.

“Sieg, is she your friend too?”

“What? She?” Siegrid pointed at the little girl who had now buried her head down and dared not look up. “No, no, she’s a slave. Just look at her feet.”

“A slave?”

A metal chain cuffed her tiny feet, which looked ragged and worn out. Even though Nash did not know about that little girl, he still felt bad for her. “Sieg, can’t you release her? She looks in pain. And I think slavery is forbidden in Terraria. You can get arrested if you break the rule.”

“What? Don’t be naïve, Nash. You know it better that we need to be cruel to survive. You disappoint me, Nash.”

“Huh? I mean—”

“No need to explain yourself. I have enough. Let’s not meet each other again, shall we?” Siegrid stopped Nash’s words, took the girl’s arm, and walked away. The girl met Nash’s eyes for a glance before following Siegrid with a grim expression.

“Wait ….” Nash could not move from his place when he read the hologram window above Siegrid’s head.

(What? Why didn’t I read it before? He’s a player! Even worse, he’s a bad player. I need to save that little girl from him!)

Alas, both Siegrid and the fox girl had disappeared into the darkness.

Nash kicked a tree with anger and made it shake violently.

“Shit, I’m so stupid. Shit, shit, shit.”

//

[ Player Information ]

Name: Siegrid Callstone (LV. 30)

Job: Slave Hunter

Title: The Trashiest Of Them All

HP: 960/1500

MP: 500/1200

Strength: 34

Agility: 20

Defense: 15

Vitality: 28

Intelligence: 17

Skill Acquired:

Ensnarement Lv. 1

Chain Making Lv. 4

Smoke Breath Lv. 3

Dash Lv. 4

//