Chapter 11 A Choice

Vance entered the run-down hut and looked around. There really wasn't anything inside. Just some dried-up leaves and vines growing up through the cracks in the floor. But those same vines would be useful to Vance. He ripped them up and tied them end to end. After a bit of rigging, he set up a small pulley system using parts of the hut and tied one end of the vine to his foot so when someone or something trips the line, it should tug his body. Whether it would wake him up or not, Vance did not know, he was just trying something out. He figured it was better than nothing. As an extra safety precaution, he set up a few boards at the door that would fall if someone rushed in.

As Vance was busying himself, taking a rest, further in the woods, a young woman in a torn, expensive-looking dress was running as fast as she could. Her white dress adorned with many frills, which was not made for running around, kept getting caught on the branches as she continued to run. Not far behind her were a few men with swords. They looked rough and had many scars on their body. Judging by their clothes, it seemed that they had not bathed for many days.

"I only have a bit of mana left, but I have no choice! Ice Wall!" The girl turned and fired off an ice spell called ice wall that caused a large wall of ice to form in the directions that the caster implied into the spell. The distance of which the ice wall will span is up to the caster based on the amount of mana put into the spell.

The girl has used up the last of her mana, allowing her ice wall to stretch out in both directions from the target point for a quarter of a mile. The bandit-like men all came to a stop and slammed their fists against the wall of ice in anger. "That bitch! Quickly go around!"

As for the girl, she continued running with everything she had, trying to put as much distance as possible between her and the bandit-like men. But her stamina could only allow her to go so far. Out of breath and with no other choice, she began looking for a place to hide and rest. It was then that she saw a small, broken-down hut. She quickly made her way over to it. Seeing the boards blocking the entrance, she picked up her dress, raised her foot, and kicked the boards with all her might sending them flying into the room and on top of a certain someone who had just fallen asleep. But along with that certain someone who yelled out in pain, so did the girl who tripped over a tripline made of vines and fell flat on her face. "What the hell!?" "Ouch!"

​ Vance rubbed his sore nose as he pushed the planks of wood off his face and looked towards the figure lying flat on her face in a strange position. "What is a noble girl doing this far out in the forest? We are not even near the capital yet…."

The girl who heard the voice wanted to die. She just ran from a bunch of bandits, and now she seems to have run into another one! Her life really sucked! She ran through a lot of scenarios in her mind but could only come up with one solution to get out of this mess. Pretend to be dead!

As for Vance, who had just finished untying the vine around his ankle and cursed the fact that it was a very useless attempt at a warning system, he walked over to the girl whose arms were slightly shaking from trying to keep them up in the air, and the legs that were bent at the knee sticking up straight into the air as well. "Ummm…" Vance scratched his chin. "You know…. It's hard to play dead when you are moving so much."

"Tch!" The girl clicked her tongue, and she slowly crawled up from the floor into a sitting position and looked at the young man in front of her. But to her surprise, he did not seem like one of those bandits that would chase after her, but she still had to keep her guard up.

Vance looked at the pink-haired beauty, who had pink eyes to match her hair, and tried to think where he had seen this girl before. He did have some recollection of seeing a pink-haired noble girl before but couldn't put his finger on where he had seen her. Putting his thoughts away, he looked at the girl who was a mess and sighed. "Miss, is there a reason why you are running around this deep in the forest?"

The girl was silent. She did not dare say a word. She had to figure out what she was going to do next. Vance, on the other hand, was not just paying attention to the girl but his surroundings as well. If such a girl was in such a hurry and kicked the door in, she must have been running from something. Thinking of this and looking at the elegant dress that was in tatters, Vance opened his inventory and pulled out his only other set of clothes, and tossed them to the girl. "I do not know what is going on, but I can at least make some guesses. For now, put these on. I will be right outside. As for your dress, hand it to me after you are done changing, and I will stick it into my inventory."

The girl blankly stared at Vance, who had just tossed a set of clothes at her feet, and walked out of the hut. She looked at the rough-looking clothes that were nowhere near a size that would fit her blankly, unsure of what to do. She turned and looked at the young man standing guard outside the door, looking towards the forest before picking the clothes up and going into a corner of the hut to change. As of now, she could only hope to put some trust in this young man she had just met, and hopefully, she would be able to come out of this whole ordeal alive.

As for Vance, he was looking at the sudden pop-up in front of him.

[ Life Quest]

[Alice Findale, the only princess of the Findale Kingdom and second in line to the throne under her brother Edward Findale. You must choose whether to protect Alice Findale or leave her to her own devices.]

[Reward: ???]

p1ease visit n0ve1b(in).ne)t

Vance hated these kinds of life quests. These were what players called cross-road life quests. The rewards would differ based on the path you choose. In this case, he had a choice to either side with Alice or Edward. Sadly for poor Edward, Vance would always save the beauty over the dude. Even before, when he was making his way to the top when doing these quests, he would also save the beauty. And he did not plan to change that now. But this also allowed him to understand a little more about the situation, from what he could remember about some of the game's storyline. Edward secured his right to the throne after his younger sister died. Vance never cared too much, so he did not know how she died, but it seemed it was probably before the game was released, and this was just some of the game's lore being played out in real-time.

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