Act 1: Arcane Start.
It is the first real quest the game gave you at the very start after the tutorial dungeon quest.
The tutorial after the tutorial if you will.
The quest starts simple, one day, after many days of settling nicely at the academy, a middle aged lady blocks the protagonists way to the academy, the main character, Lucas Sphinx asks for what the problem might be.
Sad tears kept dripping down the middle aged lady as she clung to Lucas, pleading for him to save her daughter.
Naturally....Lucas, in the plot, faced the other way and just ignored the lady.
It was due to the series of events that occurred that made him ignore her at first. A strange group of bundled evil drew in people and and made them disappear without a single trace going back to them.
Lucas called the police, who in turn called the awakeners association to deal with it.
But Lucas, knowing that they might lose a golden opportunity and afraid of the gnawing thoughts there actually being someone in danger. Followed the lady rushing in the alleys, as if realizing the futility of her efforts and instead going for a more reckless action.
At the peak of tension recoiling down the glass cup, the middle aged woman Lucas followed shielded a girl no older than Lucas.
Seeing his stupidity in fruition. Lucas gritted his teeth and faced the attacks of the strange group head on.
The first quest's objective was simple. Take all incoming attacks and stand tall.
It didn't tell you to beat the enemy, it told you to endure, which in the game would be easy enough.
But in reality?
'It's hard.'
Step! Step!
The sound of steps bounced all around me as I swiftly made my way inside the school, beelining for the principal's office.
There, the vice principal twitched at the sight of me. But letting her instincts for survival aside, she listened to me and told me to wait inside the office so she could go fetch him for me.
Sitting inside the principal's office, I awaited for the man that ended runs as if he were cutting butter. His windows tall and wide open, spilling small pillars of light inside.
'If I somehow get him to work with me, saving Ender wouldn't be as much of a torture.'
I emphasized on the 'If' since who knows? The guy might just straight up kill me because I rubbed his ego taller than a mushroom cloud's the wrong way.
'Actually does he even have that kind of ego?'
It was an honest curiosity of mine that brewed as I looked around the old-school office and its furniture, the dark and oak wooden furniture which were divided perfectly, as if the very wood in this room told a clear line of status between principal and those below in an arrogant way.
They also seemed perfectly spaced between each other, no wasted room and not a single accessory misplaced.
The room was just impeccably perfect in its division.
Sitting on the side of the principal's desk, I kept fiddling around, passing the time until finally, the man in which wastes everyone's time comes in, my eyes locked in on the presence domineering and lively despite the joyful smile marred on his face.
Ares offered a handshake, a prickling feeling formed a clump inside me as I stared a while longer more. Wanting to mull over his appearance again before offering my hand.
"Eliot."
Ares shook it, whispering my name with a tint of respect that tainted his record of cold killings.
Soon, he showered me with praise. Something that burdened my internal organs.
"Such valor and heroic spirit emanates from you, truly, your actions are nothing short than astonishing, I find myself in awe each time I'm reminded of your heroic deeds toward the children here, truly. I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused here that might've been a humiliating experience."
"Ahaha...Oh please, it wasn't anything, anyone would've done the same in my position."
To his praise I shrug naturally, as if it were a speckle of dust piled up for too long. But true to its nature, dust left for too long seemed hard to smudge completely away, as the next words of Ares rooted me in place.
"Even if it was the Thieves Troupe?"
Any joyful atmosphere before that clung to the air was gone, decimated and erased. It was obvious that he'd know, how wouldn't he? His skills were top notch, if he didn't know and couldn't identify a troupe infamous of stealing blessings, then how would so many of my runs be at a dead end because of him?
Pursing my lips together, I responded, eyes sharpening around his contrasting expression that I predicted would occur at my next sentence.
"They were mere posers, so I believe anyone would have acted, 'Shadow of the Pearl clan.'"
I spoke of the only information past me could dig up.
"...."
The room stopped to a creaking halt, silence, confusion and even the very air that used to be manipulated by my holy blessing's intimidation shifted.
On his face, Ares had a face pure of disgust etched deeply, his cold mana flew out, choking me despite my blessing countering its affects.
In his confusion, he asked. The room seemed to shake and tremble in the same quaking fear rooting me in place.
"Who are you?"
It was so straightforward and flatly told that I couldn't quite catch it the first time.
In submission. I raised my hands in the air, open and wanting surrender.
"H-Hold on, I'm not your enemy."
As if he were evaluating my strength before, he released his cold grasp onto my nape, clearly realizing I was of no threat. No, he still thought I was of threat to him, he was just giving me a chance to speak.
'Seriously, couldn't you at least make a more hesitating expression? You really were ready to kill me!'
Furious but unable to do anything, I take a deep, cold breath before speaking again, more carefully this time.
"I....Need your help Ares."
"...."
Cra-! Crack!
He nudged me to continue, his fingers cracking in tandem. Eyes steady on my figure.
I wasn't lying, I needed him to take care of any anomalies that formed cracks in my plans in saving Ender. After all, the chances of the troupe going after my blessing weren't a far fetched zero.
Going to the Awakeners Association and telling them I changed my mind, begging for them to send some protection would also work and be far safer to ask for in this case. But there were issues with that.
One, it wouldn't solve the fundamental issue, it'd simply be forcing a stalemate. The troupe wouldn't attack awakeners from the association so long as they shielded me, but that would not only restrict my movements but also put me in a bigger risk.
Even the association couldn't protect me forever, it was only a matter of time before the association loosens up and someone with the ability perfect for infiltration came waltzing in and killed me in the most gruesome way imaginable.
And the association would simply pass it by as 'oh, unfortunate incident...Anyways!' and shrug it off.
By going to the association, not only do I guarantee attracting the ire of the troupe and their sleeper agents, but I also guarantee that I don't accomplish anything with my death even if Ender was saved.
Ender being saved is fine, but me dying shortly after because of the troupe? That's a bit worse in my book.
So? What's the solution? Simple, you hire an overwhelmingly more imposing assassin to counter an assassin group.
The problem of course is...
Shing—!
Actually hiring said assassin.
"You want me to what?"
At my short briefing, a sharp blade radiating a certain warmth pressed firmly onto my sweat factory that was my neck.
Where did said blade come from you may wonder? I have no idea, he took out the blade so fast that I couldn't even process him even having it.
"Now now, please listen to the end mister Ares."
I pleaded calmly, never allowing my voice to shake once at the maw of death.
'If only the higher ranking awakeners were free!'
If higher ranking awakeners were available I'd go to the association without a second thought no matter how much I detested their policies and selfish laws.
However, those fuckers were too busy handling some large scale time dungeon that can only be entered once instead of running to save me.
It was frustrating to be fair, that I needed to do high risks for high rewards when it could've been low risks and high rewards, but alas, the world required equilibrium for some reason only god knew about.
So now I had to convince a retired assassin risk being revealed to the underground and make my mere wish of extending my last vacation time actually seem noble and upstanding.
'Fucking hell.'
I smile, my eyes twitching in ridicule.
'For some reason this seems even harder than some of the earth-shattering events I faced!'
Whimpers wanted to escape, yet, to maintain a relative cool expression on my face, they started to be shoved deep inside, where the pulsing of my veins could faintly be heard.