Chapter 123: Artifacts

The group was told to leave the village, Lillia being banished by her own aunt at the same time. They left the premises of the town, and as they did, loud, jubilant cheers could be heard from inside. Looks of unease were plastered across all of the Ranger's faces, except Rein, who felt satisfied with the outcome of the mission.

"Is D8 ready with that carriage yet, Core?" Rein asked, breaking the complete silence that was lingering over the group

"Yeah, she should be here any second now," as Core said that, D8 appeared in front of Core, kneeling down with a marble in hand.

"I was able to procure a horse-drawn carriage if that is okay with you master," D8 informed.

"That's fine. We're gonna sleep through the ride anyway, so we don't need tigers. Thanks," Core said as he waved her off, disappearing from in front of the group as she threw the marble down, transforming it into a large, horse-drawn carriage.

The group silently boarded the carriage, Rein whipping it into motion as he sat in the front, relaxing as the refreshing wind breeze enchanted his face, his hair shifting as the air sifted through it. His neck wound was almost fully healed, suddenly gaining a notification on his System.

[Level Up!]

"Hold on Versys, you think you could allocate all of those stat values to speed?" Rein asked in his mind.

"What do you mean? You know I can't do that. Stat values are based on the actions you perform. I can't assign stat values if you don't meet the requirement," Versys answered as Rein lifted the sleeves of his pants, revealing a blue anklet on his leg.

"You were asleep at the time, but Voron gave me this weird item in Naji. He found it atop a mountain in northern Econica. He gave it to me since he didn't know what it was used for, so I tried it on. As soon as I did, I felt 10 times slower, and it started glowing," Rein showed Versys, who then unlocked another missing piece of his memory.

"That thing… I see... that's an artifact, an ancient piece of clothing imbued with special powers to boost aptitude to a certain stat. I felt you were slower than usual, but I thought you were just slowing yourself down so the rest could keep up. Well then, you don't need to ask me. Check your stats, they all should've gone into speed," Versys explained as Rein opened his menu.

[Level Up!]

Level: 127 → 130

Health: 2610 → 2700 (Regenerated!)

Energy: 1305 → 1350 (Recooperated!)

Speed: 337.9 → 382.9 (Boosted!)

Strength: 421.5

Defense: 344.4

Intellect: 311.6

Memory Flip: Refreshed!

"Health and Energy level up passively, so the artifact can't re-allocate those. Also, instead of 10 stat points every level, the artifact boosts it to 15," Versys added as Rein thanked him for his assistance and let him go to sleep.

"Well, that's useful… I wonder if there are any more artifacts around the continent. If I come across something that may be one, I should scan it," Rein thought as he suddenly heard a loud stomp in the back of the cart as he propped up and looked through the curtain, seeing Xenia holding Lillia down as she struggled to jump off the cart.

"Let me go! I need to go back and clear everything up!" She kicked around as Xenia pinned her down.

"Calm down! It's too dangerous to go back now!" Xenia claimed as she tightened her grip on Lillia's arm.

"No! The villagers totally have the wrong idea! I need to go back!" She insisted as Rein sighed.

"Sho, you handle this. I'm too tired to be dealing with this shit," Rein commanded, which irritated Sho.

"You know, I am the prince here? You could maybe treat me like one," Sho retorted as Rein laughed.

"Last I checked, you still owe me? How about you start paying up a little," Rein remarked as he closed the curtain and lay down on the bench at the front of the carriage, the one the driver would sit on.

"Tch, fine. Hey, girl. What's got you so pressed?" Sho inquired.

"It's a disaster! The villagers are being tricked!" Lillia yelled.

"So what are you going to do when you get there? Tell them what actually happened? You had all the time to do so when we were still in the village, so why not do it then?" Sho queried, Lillia scoffing at his question.

"I just…"

"I'll tell you why, because you knew it wouldn't solve anything," Sho answered his own question.

"But auntie! She's—"

"She's the reason everything happened to begin with. Yes, I can't say I like the outcome either, but if you think about it logically, it's the only way. You saw how riled up the villagers were, right? If we told them the truth, your aunt would've never been let back into the village again. One of you had to take the fall, and since they blindly trust their chief, the only option was you," Sho described.

"But… She's going to have to live with that guilt for the rest of her life…"

"So what'll you do when you tell the villagers the truth then?" Sho added.

"I'll come straight back here! I promise!" Lillia asserted.

"So the problem isn't that you miss your aunt then? Do you just want the guilt wiped off your name?"

"No! I want to free auntie," she exclaimed.

"And then what? Either the villagers won't believe you, or your aunt would also be forced out of the village. I know damn well we're not letting her come with us, so she'd be left wandering the continent on foot, with no dol to her name, homeless," Sho spelled out, as Lillia heard that, she calmed down and tears began flowing down her eyes.

"I-... I know that already… I'm just… Confused…" She wept as Xenia loosened her grip on her and helped her sit up, hugging her for comfort.

"Come on Sho, get a hint. She was just betrayed by her only family, her mind is in turmoil. Go easy on her man," Core teased, his words genuinely making Sho feel bad, which wasn't Core's intention.

"Oh… I see. I've never been good at reading the room," Sho stated.

"W-well, don't feel too bad… It was an honest mistake," Core added, trying to make Sho feel better about himself.

Amidst the confusion, Clyde stood up and went out to the front of the carriage, through the curtains, and saw Rein outstretched across the driver's seat. As Rein noticed him, he sat up, making room for Clyde to sit down next to him.

"So we were able to remove the curse without killing the user, huh? Do you still have the glowing ball with you?" Clyde inquired as Rein reached into his pocket, pretending to have it there as he summoned it from his inventory, taking the radiant cursed ball out into the open.

"It's right here. Sorry, I can't tell you how I did it," Rein replied.

"That's fine. So, does that ball have the characteristics of the curse itself then? Will it die in 3 days?"

"Yeah… When that happens, another one will appear somewhere in the continent…" Rein stated, his system allowing him to see the inner clock on the item, a timer ticking down for when the item would expire.

47:45:39

47:45:38

47:45:37

The timer kept ticking down, a little under 48 hours being left. Rein thought about using the wormhole Spring he obtained from Stacey during the dodgeball event to reverse the time on it, but he feared that if he did, it would recombine with Lillia, making all of his negotiating with Luther go to waste.

"Yo, Clyde. You think you could try using your Spring on this thing? Maybe it'll slow down the time and extended it's lifespan," Rein posed as Clyde nodded.

"I'll give it a try. Applying my Spring to that small of an area should be no issue."

Clyde squinted his eyes and activated his Spring, suddenly feeling it nullify as it made contact with the glowing ball.

"I felt it activate for a moment, but then I lost control of it… I'll try again."

Clyde did the same thing again, focusing his energy on the compact ball of glowing light, this time, he couldn't even feel his Spring activate on it.

"It's no use. I can't do it," Clyde claimed as Rein inspected the ball, his eyes widening as he saw the timer.

4774:59:55

4774:59:54

4774:59:53

The glowing ball suddenly gained a light purple glow, the timer extending itself to 4775 hours. Rein saw at the bottom of the item's description, a phrase glowing in purple appeared.

"Spring applied: Clyde Morioh"

As Rein saw that, he came to the conclusion that Clyde's Spring did work, and not only that, but it combined itself with the glowing ball, extending the timer a hundredfold.

"It did work. You see that purple glow? Your Spring combined with the ball," Rein exclaimed.

"Oh? Then that would mean that instead of 48 hours, it should be 4800 hours remaining. That was the amount of power I meant to put in, and it would've only lasted for a few seconds ordinarily, but since it's combined, It looks like it will stay forever. 4800 hours… That is approximately 200 days," Clyde stated.

"Right, we have 200 days until this thing expires, then, we have to worry about the enemy finding the curse before us. Our main focus now should be to protect Xenia, who is in possession of the only other curse on the continent," Rein expressed.

"Don't worry, as long as I'm around, no curses will be captured. You can count on that," Clyde asserted, making Rein laugh softly.

"Okay then lover boy, let's go to sleep already. Sounds like the noise in there died down. I'm seriously getting tired…"