Chapter 71 - The Assassination Of Arwell Lychester

After angering the pack of wolves, Merlin turned towards the route he plotted out previously and started running. The wolves began sprinting after him with their fangs bared, and their collective barks and growls could be heard from quite a distance away. Merlin saw as various small critters ran away as he and the wolf pack approached.

Merlin's heart was beating fast, there was too many things that could go wrong at this moment, some of which were out of his control. If he failed the timing, he would be mauled to death by a pack of wolves. If for some reason Arwell Lychester's wagon wasn't there, he would be mauled by the pack of wolves. If someone else was where Arwell should have been, they would become lunch for the wolves, and Merlin would lose his chance.

What was ultimately a three minute sprint through the forest had felt like thirty, he had to make sure the wolves didn't get too far away, but also that they didn't get close enough to attack him or trip him up. And he also had to focus on his footwork, the ground was soft, and although he picked a route without many serious obstacles, there was still the risk of him tripping over a tree root or bush if he wasn't careful.

As he got closer to his goal, he could finally see the path a little bit away, and on that path he could see a familiar wagon stopped at the road block he set up. As he got a little closer, he could finally hear Arwell yelling at his personal guards to hurry up and move the tree. It didn't seem like anyone realised what was about to happen yet, Merlin was now only a few meters from the wagon.

'It's time' Merlin thought to himself as his eyes locked onto a tree that was next to a collection of small leafy plants. Merlin began chanting a skill under his breath while sending a vine out to wrap around the tree.

「Skill ⟪Sneak⟫ Activated, stealth increased by 30% for 20 seconds.」

Merlin contracted the vine and put all his focus into hiding his presence. His body slid into the forest dirt, but instead of travelling forward, he used the vine to swing his body into the collection of foliage.

The wolves, now confused by the effects of sneak, instantly lost all their aggro on Merlin, who had swung out of the way and hidden himself. While still in an enraged state, their eyes all locked onto a different group of targets not too far away.

"What the hell am I paying you all for, put your back into it!" Arwell Lychester roared from atop his wagon. He noticed that his horses had suddenly become disturbed, and began moving around anxiously. "What are these stupid things doing now--"

Disturbing his rant, a pack of wolves suddenly burst out of the treeline while barking aggressively, causing the horses to start bucking and trying to break free, which sent Arwell, who was standing up in his wagon, tumbling to the ground with a thud.

"Damn things!" He roared, only now realising that there were a pack of wolves approaching him, he screamed out in fear, swearing at his guards to protect him as he tried to scramble back up on the wagon as fast as he could.

One of the wolves managed to snap at his rear as he struggled up, but was promptly pierced by one of the guard's swords. The rest of the guards had finally caught on, and were getting into a defensive position around the wagon.

"Kill them!" Arwell screamed out in pain as he struggled to grab the reins of his horses.

The wolves split up between the guards, with most pouncing at the one guard who attacked first. The other guards struggled to fight off the wolves, but it didn't seem like they would have much trouble killing them after a little while. Even the guard who was being swarmed was somehow keeping the wolves at bay.

Merlin watched this all happen from the bushes, he made sure he was still well behind cover when he stood back up, he couldn't afford being seen by the guards. He grabbed his bow and one of the few arrows available to him before locking his sights on his target.

"Hurry up, get rid of th--" Arwell's pained cries were briefly cut off as an arrow flew out of the treeline, wedging itself in his chest. "Wha--!"

Another arrow flew through the air, this time piercing through his throat, cutting off his pained cries, but before the man could fall to the ground, one final arrow ripped through the air. And as the arrow embedded itself in the man's eye, he fell backwards off the cart.

Merlin received a handful of notifications, which he briefly glanced over.

「You have completed the quest, "The Assassination of Arwell Lychester.", rewards have been delivered.」

「Congratulations, you are now level 4.」

「You have killed an important NPC, your Karma has been reduced by 300 points.」

The bow in Merlin's hand snapped, but fortunately it survived for just long enough. Merlin's heart began beating even faster as he watched the man drop, it wouldn't take long for them to realise what had just happened, but fortunately Merlin had come with a distraction. Usually escaping was the most stressful part of the assassination, but Merlin had the fortune of being able to just slip into the forest unseen.

Merlin dashed through the forest for several minutes, not even daring to stop and take a breath. It was very likely he wouldn't be seen where he was, but over the years of performing assassinations quests, he learnt that it was better to run so far away that nobody could reasonably expect to find you, and then run a little bit further to be absolutely sure. 

After a few more minutes of running, Merlin found a small area between a few trees that would work as cover while he rested for a moment. He sat down and rest his back against one of the trees while struggling to catch his breath, only now did he bother properly looking at his notifications.

The most glaring notification was the one that mentioned he lost three hundred points of karma, this meant that the name hovering above his head would be a dark shade of red rather than the usual white.

The maximum amount of karma a player could have was one hundred, but there was no limit to how low into the negatives it could go. Your karma could be reduced through various methods, such as attacking and killing players, attacking and killing NPCs, attacking, destroying or otherwise vandalising settlements, to name a few.

But there were only a few methods of regaining karma, you were granted ten karma per in-game hour, or could earn it through a few other methods, the most common being simply killing enemies your level or higher, the higher the level compared to you, the more karma you received.

When your karma fell to fifty or lower, your name was made a shade of orange, which progressively became darker as you grew closer to zero. Once your karma was zero, you were brandished with a red name which got closer to black as you dropped even further.

Players with an orange name could be attacked by other players without any karma penalties, and most NPCs that you didn't have a positive familiarity score with usually refused to associate with you, or at the very least treated you with some degree of scorn in a similar fashion to how they would act if you had low reputation in an area. Reputation in an area, unless it was rather high, didn't really do much against a low karma score, but familiarity with individuals did. 

Players with red names, regardless of the shade of red, were in most cases banned from legally entering settlements, and would usually be hunted down and arrested if they tried. Depending on familiarity and how low the karma score is, some individual NPCs may still respond positively, although in most cases it was unlikely that they would want to speak with you, and attempting to do so may reduce your familiarity with them.

The most punishing aspect to having a red name however, was that if you were killed, depending on how low your karma score was, at least one of your equipped items was guaranteed to drop, alongside a hefty chunk of experience, this punishment scaled severely with the karma score.

This was the solution Gaia came up with after studying human psychology, players hated losing progress, so there had to be a very enticing reason for player killers to do what they did later in the game.

Merlin's karma score was currently negative two hundred, he had to gain at least two hundred and fifty-one karma points to return to good standing, which would take him at most twenty-six hours of just waiting for the hourly karma if he didn't want to grind monsters.