NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 8: He’s still alive?
Ares held his breath as he watched the progress bar inch its way to 100%.
Whoosh—
A brilliant flash of light sparkled, and a pop-up appeared:
[Congratulations! Your weapon has successfully evolved!]
[Weapon: Windblade (Bound)]
[Quality: C-rank]
[Level: 21]
[Attack: 24–35]
[Attribute A: Bleed (1% chance on hit to cause Bleed, -10 HP per second for 5 seconds, can stack up to 5 times. Critical hits guarantee Bleed.)]
[Attribute B: +15% Critical Rate]
[Attribute C: +20% Attack Speed]
[Growth Value: 0%]
Ares exhaled deeply, finally letting go of the tension in his chest.
He couldn't help shaking his head—this D-rank talent was just too limiting. The success rate for evolving was terrible.
Right now, the weapon's rank was still low, so it didn't require too many items to feed, just a bit of extra time. But once the weapon reached B-rank or beyond, having a string of failures like that might very well drive him insane.
He wondered if there was some other way to boost the success rate…
Putting his things away, Ares kept walking while mulling it over. He rounded a bend and suddenly heard a commotion up ahead.
Looking up, he spotted a long-haired woman in white battle armor sprinting straight toward him. From the way she was running, it was clear she hadn't even noticed him, and she barreled right on past, nearly crashing into him.
Ares quickly sidestepped, letting her breeze by like a gust of cool air in the scorching desert.
As she brushed past, the woman stole one glance at him and then darted away, vanishing in seconds. Only then did Ares notice the group of black-robed players chasing after her. A couple of them looked oddly familiar.
"Jessica Johnson! Don't think your Sprint means we can't catch you. How long can you keep this up? Your MP must be nearly dry!"
"Just stop and let us check your Inventory. It's not like we're trying to kill you. Why run off like this?"
The two players closest to Jessica were shouting at the top of their lungs. Jessica whipped around, her eyes fierce. "You think I don't know what a bunch of scumbags the Bradford family is?"
"Stop and let you rummage through my Inventory? And then what would I have left? You're nothing but filthy robbers!"
She yanked out a small blue vial from her Inventory and chugged it in a few gulps, tossing the empty bottle aside. Then she turned her head back toward them with a mocking grin on her flawless face. "Come and get me if you can! I've got thousands of mana potions in my Inventory. Think carefully—maybe I can wait it out, but can you?"
"If I drop out of combat for even a second, I'll just log off. Let's see if the Bradford family wants to treat Oracle like their private property. The Johnson family won't let you get away with this!"
With those words, Jessica took off even faster.
There was only one narrow path here, and Ares was standing off to the side, letting them pass. But then, just as the group charged by, someone stopped, turned around, and stared back at him.
"Ares? He's still alive? And still in this desert?"
The man in front took one glance at Ares and waved decisively. "You two—take care of him. The rest of us will keep chasing Jessica!"
Thomas had sent people to track down Ares, and these guys were obviously in the loop. They hadn't found him yet because they'd been busy dealing with Jessica.
She had a unique awakened talent that made her a Battle Mage—dangerous both in melee and at range. She was far stronger than most players her level would be.
Unfortunately for them, their initial underestimation had let her slip through their encirclement. The minute she started running, they assumed the Dark Crystal had to be on her. That's when everyone else showed up to block her path. Turned out she could boost her movement speed by using Sprint, which foiled their attempts to keep her from leaving combat and logging out.
So now most of the group focused on chasing Jessica, but they still had instructions to check people on their watch list—and Ares was on it, an easy target in their eyes.
When those two turned back and stepped up to Ares, they eyed him with grim faces. "Hand over the Dark Crystal!"
Ares froze for a second, almost forgetting to breathe.
They really know I have the Dark Crystal?
But as he watched their shifting expressions and darting eyes, he realized they were just trying to bait him. Putting on his best clueless look, he said, "Dark Crystal? I have no idea what you're talking about."
The pair hadn't seriously expected a level 10 newbie to get hold of that prized item, so they weren't shocked by his response.
Thomas's clear priority was Jessica, then possibly Ares—plus several others who hadn't come from the Howling Plains, though they were less suspicious. Thomas simply didn't have enough people to spare to hunt everyone down at once. He'd told his men, though: if they ran across any of these folks, they had to check their Inventory. No exceptions.
Now that they'd run into Ares, they weren't going to let him slip away.
A rogue wearing a mask spoke up first: "So you've never heard of the Dark Crystal?"
The warrior beside him snapped, "Cut the crap. The Dark Crystal is famous—don't pretend you've never heard of it. Show us your Inventory, and we'll see for ourselves."
Ares gripped his sword, wary. "Why should I?"
The warrior tried to shove Ares aside with one hand, sneering, "Stop making this difficult. We're working for the Bradford family. I suggest you behave, unless you want—"
But Ares pivoted nimbly and dodged the warrior's hand, his face icing over. "I don't care who you're working for. The Bradford family has no right to inspect my Inventory."
With that, he turned to go.
Missing his shove, the warrior's face twisted in anger. Seeing Ares act so unimpressed made his temper flare. He strode forward, brandishing his huge sword in front of Ares, gaze sharp as daggers.
"Listen, punk. Just because you've got some in-game power doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. The Bradford family is a big deal in the real world—too big for you to mess with. Same goes in the game. Don't push your luck."
He lowered his voice, threatening, "Cooperate, and the Bradford family won't give you any trouble. Otherwise, we'll hound you 'til you're level zero… you won't even be able to kill a rat in Oracle."