BXBX NOVEL Chapter 6: Awe and Fear (2)
Under the great empire’s emperor, the investigators of Cloud had jurisdiction over the entire empire, and they all boasted of their outstanding military prowess.
In the deep darkness of the empire, there were all kinds of vicious criminals lurking.
The investigators of Cloud who had to face them had to have a high level of military prowess.
It was no exception for Rick Swail, a third-class investigator of Cloud who was patrolling a small village on the outskirts of the empire.
Rick Swail.
The sharp-eyed investigator scanned the empty village.
A fireplace that still had warmth.
Food scraps rolling on the floor.
A wet cloth hanging on the window.
The whole village showed signs of life.
It meant that people had been living there until recently.
However, contrary to the appearance of the village, there was not a single person in sight.
Rick looked at the guide who had brought him to the village and asked.
“So this happened overnight?”
“Yes, sir! The entire village disappeared in one day.”
“Is there any possibility that they moved somewhere as a group?”
“No way. My friend Jack is… he has a bad leg.”
The guide who accompanied Rick was someone who had a friend in this village.
He had a friend who had difficulty moving because of his bad leg.
If he said so, it was unlikely that they had moved somewhere.
Rick walked towards the village and said.
“I can feel the signs of life… but I don’t see anyone.”
Rick felt uneasy as he walked around the village and opened each door one by one.
Creak.
The old wooden doors made of wood opened easily without any resistance.
But he couldn’t find any people in any of the buildings he entered.
There were traces of people, but the actual subjects were nowhere to be found.
If the villagers hadn’t moved as a group, it meant that the entire population had evaporated in one day.
“Any guesses?”
“Uh, I heard rumors that there were bandits around here! Maybe they did it?”
“Bandits…”
Rick scanned the village again.
If there was a fight, there would have been traces of it.
But he couldn’t find any bloodstains or anything like that in the village.
The only strange thing was that there were black scorch marks all over the village.
It was a peculiar mark that didn’t seem to be caused by fire.
“If there were bandits, there would have been signs of resistance.”
“Then…”
“It looks like there’s a mage nearby.”
The ability to erase a whole village without leaving any traces.
And the black scorch marks that appeared all over the village.
Combining all these things, Rick Swail could only come to one conclusion.
There was a mage nearby.
And not just any mage, but a powerful one who could leave no traces behind.
“A mage…!”
The guide looked horrified when he heard Rick’s words.
The existence of mages was not uncommon in the empire.
There were also mages among the investigators of Cloud who used magic.
But people had long been afraid of evil mages.
There were also those who abused magic on the wanted list of Cloud, so it was understandable that the guide was scared.
“Don’t make too much noise. He might still be hiding nearby.”
“O-okay.”
“By the way, you said there were bandits around here?”
“I don’t know much about it, but I heard rumors that sometimes gangs of thieves roam around.”
Rick frowned as he heard about the bandits.
“Isn’t it too dangerous for you to go alone?”
“There’s a shortcut I know around here. If I go through there, I won’t run into any thieves.”
“I see. Then you should go back now. I’ll investigate by myself from now on.”
Rick dismissed the guide with his words.
An unknown mage and a gang of bandits.
He didn’t know which one was more dangerous.
And the guide who had brought Rick to the village weighed more on the former.
He bowed his head and left after a brief farewell to Rick.
Rick looked up at the sky blankly in the desolate village where he was left alone.
“I got myself into a tricky situation this time.”
*****
-Your karma increased by 1 point.
-Your karma increased by 1 point.
-You reached level 3.
Two more days passed since I gave Eutania a dagger and a cloak as gifts.
During that time, I found five more villages and destroyed three of them.
One of them was filled with bandits who were chasing Utania.
Of course, they met their end by my <Lightning> magic just like the previous bandits I encountered.
I gained nearly 30 karma points by destroying three villages.
Karma 30.
It was enough to level up again.
Naturally, I reached level 3 with the karma I gained this time.
“Level 3… my magic power increased a lot.”
The biggest change that happened when I reached level 3 was the increase in magic power.
My magic power increased by twice as much as before when I leveled up.
If I could use <Lightning> 10 times with my previous magic power, now I could use it 20 times in a row.
It was definitely a drastic increase in ability.
If I assumed that my magic power increased by twice every time I leveled up, then by the time I reached level 10, I would be able to use it more than 1000 times in a row.
-<Eye of the Observer (Lv.2)> has grown.
-<Eye of the Observer (Lv.3)> has been achieved. You can observe the continent with a clearer vision than before.
The next change was in <Eye of the Observer>.
The level of <Eye of the Observer> skill increased, and I was able to face a sharper graphic than before.
If the character I saw before was a dot graphic, now it was a cute 3D graphic level.
It was a game that evolved its graphics as the level increased.
No matter how I thought about it, it was a strange structure.
And the appearance of Eutenia, who I faced with the new graphics, was more adorable than I expected.
“It feels like I’m really raising a character like this.”
The ash-haired tiny character was nibbling on the black bread in her hand.
She looked like a squirrel eating an acorn.
She was still eating while showing various speech bubbles above her head.
Judging by the fact that the content did not change, the 3rd level <Eye of the Observer> did not affect the speech bubbles.
I watched Eutenia for a while and then turned my eyes to see the next change.
-Warning: Karma that is excessively biased in one direction has a high possibility of causing <Causality Adjustment>.
The next message was a warning sent by the <Karma’s Judgment> skill.
It said that if karma was biased in one direction, <Causality Adjustment> could occur.
But I didn’t know what to do to make karma balanced.
And I couldn’t just stop leveling up in a game that I paid 50,000 won for.
I decided to ignore the message.
“I don’t know what this is, so pass. And next is… this is here again.”
I scrolled down and looked at the message with a bitter smile.
The next skill that evolved had a very familiar name.
It was because it was a skill from the store that occupied the spot.
-<Paid Currency Store (Lv.MAX)> skill has been expanded.
-You have acquired <Paid Currency Store (Lv.MAX + 1)>.
-You can now use paid currency to purchase items from the store.
The <Paid Currency Store> skill had evolved.
And what was more peculiar was that the level notation of the <Paid Currency Store> skill was strange.
Skill level MAX + 1?
If the level is MAX, then it should end there. How can there be a level MAX + 1?
Anyway, it was absurd that the store evolved as the level increased.
It was a game that became more and more ridiculous as I saw it.
And I was a user who played that game.
I marveled at myself who enjoyed such a game, and moved my finger to the back button.
“Who would buy this? I’ll never buy it.”
I would never come back to this store again.
That’s what I thought as I pressed the back button.
At that moment, I felt something strange and looked at my finger.
My finger that was heading towards the back button moved in a weird direction.
“What, what is this… Wait, why is this happening!”
There was a strong force somewhere on the screen that pulled my finger in.
My finger moved without my will.
I tried to shake off the force on my finger, but the unknown force was stronger than I thought.
In an instant, my finger moved to the 10 times draw button.
Click.
That’s how my finger pressed the 10 times draw button.
“Sigh…”
The screen flashed and the draw page started to appear.
I looked at the items that came out one by one with a blank face.
Ding dong.
The text message from the card company that popped up at the top of the screen was extra.