Chapter 23: Argos Von Kaiser

When Venn stepped forward and stood beside the other three initiates, he saw that there was a grail in front of them as well.

Similar to Venn's, their grails were empty too.

From the looks of things, it seems that the initiation ritual was just getting started. 

The strange phenomenon led Venn to the conclusion that the timing of his arrival was too perfect, especially when he had arrived late to the annual meeting according to the old granny. Hence, he had a guess that the current situation was probably the work of the AI system in the game.

As long as a player enters the orphanage within the stipulated seven days period and answers these NPCs' questions perfectly, he or she will be met with the same exact scene regardless.

That was the only explanation he could come up with.

While Venn was thinking about the details of the quest, the hands of the woman who was wearing the red fox mask never stopped moving.

First, she opened a bottle of wine and proceeded to pour the wine into the grails on the table until all of them were half full.

Following that, she went to the leader's side and obtained a small treasure chest from him.

Holding the small chest on her palms with great delicateness, the woman walked past her seat and approached the four new initiates until she stood right next to Venn.

Opening the chest, she took out a vial of red liquid and added a drop into each and every one of the initiates' grails one by one.

After she added a drop of the unknown liquid into his grail, Venn noticed a pool of bubbles were violently forming in his wine.

Subsequently after putting the vial of liquid back into the small chest, she pulled out an item from inside the chest again. 

This time, it was a brown parchment scroll.

By now, all of the black robes had risen up from their seats. Automatically, without any communication, all of them had a grail in their hands indicating that they had done this at least more than a few times.

"Now, hold your grails high up." 

The woman's pleasing voice echoed loudly in the chamber. At the same time, Venn could smell a sweet fragrance permeating from the scythe wielding woman who was standing close to him.

For reasons unknown to Venn, her small statue coupled with her pink twin tails that was revealed after removing her hood, gave him an impulse to conquer her and have her for himself. 

Fortunately, through sheer willpower, he was able to shake away those impropriety thoughts from his mind and focused his mind at the nick of time.

"What the hell was that?" Venn took a small step back away from the woman to keep a distance from her. He could sense that the woman was the one that drove him to this state. 

Venn concentrated his thoughts back to the initiation ritual and raised his grail up as he was told; channelling his curiosity about how the ritual would be held, and what all the NPCs meant by only three of them would remain.

He silently observed everyone, including the leader of Blood Serpent. 

After eventually confirming everyone in the chamber had held up their grails, the woman recited the content of the scroll with a loud voice. With each sentence she recites, the frenzy glow in her eyes grew crazier.

"Rain. 62th of the Wolf Calendar."

"Chronos had betrayed us!"

"The foreign ones have reached our doorsteps!"

"Only carnage and bloodshed remained." 

"Only I remained."

"The weak minds had closed the gates to Heaven."

"That imbecilic and cowardice bunch!

"They do not deserve to be alive."

"I am Argos Von Kaiser, the last emperor of the dragon race."

"The one who fought valiantly at the end of his time.

"The one who lived his life without any regret except for one." 

"My time is nearing its end now."

"I shall leave my body to the fated ones."

"Take my power and grow in strength."

"Rise from the ashes and to the top. For the Gods shall return one day."

"Prevent them at all costs! My children!"

"Let the Heavens fall!"

At the end of her last sentence, total silence had filled the room. It was so quiet that Venn could hear a pin drop in the chamber.

The content of the scroll had shocked Venn greatly. Judging from what he had heard, the scroll was probably the work of Argos Von Kaiser, written in the format of a diary.

He had no clue who he was, and he had no recollection about reading any information about him. But if he was to make an intelligent guess, he figured that he would be a person that existed in between the Era of Gods and the Era of Calamity.

"The foreign ones and the dragon race. It looks like I'm onto something big here." Venn was thrilled. Uncovering the hidden truth of the missing history would mean legendary rewards and even more.

Like the scythe wielding woman, Venn's eyes are currently filled with a burning desire.

"Now, newcomers! The founder of the guild will test you. Drink the wine in your hands instantly!"

[Ding]

[Do you wish to join the Blood Serpents?]

[Yes / No]

The notification window showed up in Venn's vision upon the orders of the woman. Now, he had to make a decision that would affect his entire life.

He wanted to wait to see the reactions of the other three initiates that had drank the wine, however, the woman had her eyes constantly on him to prevent him from doing so.

When he realised he couldn't afford to drag on without the woman's interference, he drank the wine from his grail at one go.

As the taste of the wine flooded Venn's taste buds, and down his throat, he could feel a burning sensation from within his stomach and esophagus.

Before long, a searing pain could be felt all over his body.