The game AI ' gaia ' was paying a close attention to Rudra's every word and decision. Rudra was under heavy scrutiny.

It was a race against time now that Rudra was on the clock , he had little more than a day to complete the quest. Although he was in a hurry, Rudra took in a deep breath , closed his eyes and took a moment to analyse his situation . 

After 5 long minutes to strategizing, he decided to look around the church warehouse again , now for an artifact that can help him on the quest. The first and most important thing he needed currently was the location where the ritual was going to happen 

After half an hour of skimming he found a suitable item. 

[ Locating Mirror ] ( Semi legendary ) : infuse mana while clearly thinking about the name and facial features of the target , the mirror will display their current activities for 7 seconds. 

Cooldown time : 1 hour . 

Rudra absolutely would have never traded for such an item had he not been under the clock and absolutely desperate , but now he chose to take it as his reward. 

Cardinal Lee nodded , he was aldready getting frustrated when instead of working on the quest Rudra was looking around the warehouse for his treasure. However seeing the item Rudra chose , he approved of his actions. 

Wasting no time , Rudra thought about Megan , and the hazy mirror cleared to show a picture of the little girl . 

She was shockingly in a busy street in a bustling city. Cardinal Lee' s eyes sparkled instantly , he seemed to have recognised the place. 

He said " its the western port town of Bethlehem , seems like the market district there. ".

Rudra had to take the NPC's word at face value , the town of Bethlehem was 4 and a half hours of journey on a mount , and Rudra had absolutely no time to waste. 

He stored the mirror , exited the valut and summoned his mount. The grey direwolf went full speed towarda the port town of Bethlehem. 

Rudra was racing against time here hence he had muted all communications and calls as the quest was his topmost priority. 

Wether he was lucky or unlucky , only god knew as both Yua and Naomi sent him messages about wanting to hang out today. 

Yua had a really bad fight with her father , after the auction scenario she wanted to withdraw from the alliance , her father also supported her decision and the initial formalities were being done , when suddenly some unknown investor poured a hell lot of money into the alliance. Her father now refused Yua to leave the alliance again . 

Yua was feeling choked in the alliance and she badly wanted out , hence frustrated she texted Rudra to want to meet today .

Naomi also texted Rudra about meeting as she too was feeling sick after the backlash of her actions. She had noone else to talk to , and wanted to hangout with someone. 

Yet Rudra was oblivious to both these messages as he was focused on reaching the Port town of Bethlehem as soon as possible. 

Rudra called up his stats pannel to asses his cards. 

-----------------------

Player Name : Shakuni / Augustus Won Knight

Title : Viscount of Hazelgroove kingdom, Reputable knight , Saviour of Thol village , Revered Medicine Master , Emmisary of Church , World renowned , Hier of Augustus Won Knight 

Class : Knight

Subclass : Explosion Artist

LVL:43 

Tier : 1 

STATS 

AGI : 216 +108 VIT : 216 +108

INT : 216 +108 STA : 216 +108

PHY : 216 +108 HP : 19000/19000 

unassigned stat points :10

Hidden stats

Luck : ???

Charm :???

Infamy : 0 

Status : Healthy

Equipment : Pirate Armour set ( Lv40) , Lich's Ring , concealer mask( not equipped) , retractable shield ( Epic) 

Weapons : Windcutter ( sword) , Common Bow , quiver of arrows , Excalibur (Sword) ( Replica) 

Skills : Darkness bind , Summon Knight Durahal , Windslash , Critical absorb , Berserk, Darkness blast, Death Slash, Eyes of Truth , Earthquake , Critical block , Blink , Stormbringer

Class specific skills : Knights companion , Knights valor , Golden Ratio

Mount : Grey Wolf 

Pet : mysterious egg (incubating) (48/200)

-----------------------

Rudra felt better knowing that he had the critical block defense card , the blink movement skill and the Stormbringer damage skill added to his arsenal . 

His combat prowess had increased a lot , especially after equipping the level 40 pirate set and the retractable shield that Karna brought back from the quest. 

His defense was stronger now , along with the newfound skills and the added special stat bonus , Rudra knew he was unstoppable currently amongst all tier one players. If he failed this quest , there was probably noone else who could . 

After four hours of intense riding , the insane pace at which the wolf ran saved Rudra half an hour of journey time , Rudra patted his mount for a job well done before running into the city. 

Rudra found the marketplace where he last saw Megan , before finding a quiet place to bring out the mirror 

Rudra thought about megan as the hazy screen parted to show a clear picture , she seemed in the outskirts of the town , there were 5 people around her now , Gary being one of them . The spacing between houses was about one house every 20 meters or so , it seems like there was a church in the baground. The image faded away. 

Rudra asked around in the market place , throwing bags of 100 gold coins to the NPC 's to tell wether they knew of a location that matched the description. After 10 minutes and 3 answers that matched each other , Rudra decided to go to the eastern part of the town where the farmers usually live. 

Rudra had 21 hours left on the quest , he was getting more and more desperate , he ran without minding his stamina madly searching the location he previously saw. 

When he saw the church he saw in the mirror , a shriek of joy came from his mouth. He was soo damn happy . 

He rushed over to the location according to the suns position , that could have been where Megan was walking. Rudra found it quickly as he rushed towards the direction the group was headed. 

All his actions were being monitored by the AI , and the Cuber corporation executives , there was absolutely nothing wrong that they found with the player , if something they were extremely impressed by the skills he displayed. 

/// Golden ticket bonus guys!!! You people are killing it in that department , just the second day into the week and i am back out giving bonuses. Even the powerstones have crossed 800 , hence i guess one more chapter coming after this one! 

Enjoy!

Shoutout to Leo_Crispii for the 2000 coin , the NoOne for the 5000 coin gift and Stampendeinec for the 500 coin gifts !!! ///