Chapter 5: Birth of A Fool

The smoke-cloud that covered my new enemies seeped away as the night wind swept softly over the empty streets.

Blake stood silently beside me, keeping himself passive as promised. If it got to the point where I was in huge danger, he would be instantly defeating Caelu- no, the Solidacium Family. That was the only restriction he imposed on my wish, which I was thankful that he allowed.

Thus, I was free to try and kill those who I used to call my friends.

Back then...

"So, you really want to be the one to avenge yourself?"

My hands shook with... rage, or shock, I didn't know, but I knew I felt something. And that something could only be resolved by this decision.

"It's final." I nodded, though not looking into Blake's eyes as I bit my lips. "This is the only way I would accept."

The BlkHnter studied me from his seat, his arms crossed. He unfolded an arm to my direction, his hand gesturing at me.

"But your level is only 16, effectively 20 even with your boosted stats." Blake said, not unkindly. I gave a grunt of agreement at his observation - I was just a newbie after all. "There is no way you could somehow defeat a group of 6 people, all of them effectively around the high-50s."

"I have an idea as to how to do that alright?" I tried to hold back my rising temper, but Blake wasn't helping. "Just... trust me on this."

The person in front of me gave a thoughtful hum. Then he sighed, "Alright. I'll hand you the quest later."

"Why do people like them even still manage to play in this world?" I couldn't help but mutter at the reminder that no, this wasn't a limited thing - people have been victimized and raped already, and it still was happening. "If they could be marked, then why haven't the GMs banned them?"

Immediately after uttering those words, I closed my mouth.

After all, just from the look Blake was making, it was something he had asked in the past as well, and he didn't like the answer he received. I wouldn't like the answer I would receive.

"Tell me, is my cursor white?"

I stared at his reply. "Excuse me?"

"Just tell me," He pressed. "Nobody can see their own cursor after all."

"It's a bit of ash-grey."

Blake paused momentarily at that, before shaking his head with an almost rueful smile. Then he opened his mouth, revealing to me a fact I rather would've not known.

"Yours is now black."

I froze at his words. "E-Excuse me? How can I be black?"

How can this be? I knew myself: I knew I had morals, that I had believed in other people's rights, that I still held value over other people's lives. I was most certainly not like a PK-er or a psychopath. There was no way I was- Oh.

"The Alignment Cursor doesn't check what you do - rather, it checks what you think."

I was thinking of killing someone, wasn't I? Even if this world was just a game?

Blake seemed to have read my thoughts, looking at me with saddened eyes. "You seem to have realized the flaw in your previous argument. No one, and by that I mean no one in this world haven't reached a point in their time here that their Alignment Cursor goes black. Nor do any of the blacklisted players always stay black as well."

He snapped his head back, looking at the ceiling tiredly. "It's a fact of how people think. None of us are that pure of heart after all."

"Then banning?" I pressed, still trying. "Caelu- I mean, the Solidacium Family are even infamous, right? Then why haven't they been banned from this game? Or even put to jail?"

His reaction was grim as he sat properly again to look at me. "Virtual Masks. Scramblers. There are ways to hide your identity even as you play. Apparently, the black-market sells that kind of technology in the real world. Plus, with the revenues they gain from selling their... videos, they have enough money for creating dummy accounts to log in and more."

The fact that Blake could even answer my questions told me just how much he asked the authorities and just how much he had tried to stop my situation from happening to anyone.

It was a plain and simple conclusion at this point.

There was no stopping them. Beyond what little the GMs, Blake, and the rest of those who bounty-hunted managed to do, there was no way of preventing what had almost happened to me from happening to somebody else.

Thus, I broke my other hand from punching the walls all over again.

When the last of the smoke finally lifted away, slowly I walked off to the edge of the roof of the inn I was standing on.

I jumped, making sure to manipulate my center of gravity as to land on my feet. Had I done the deed in real life, it would've been considered as an attempt for suicide and I would've at least broken my legs. But as this world was that of Fate Online, I landed without taking any damage.

The moment I did, I heard the system make the sound of the creation of a new skill.

Through jumping a great height and landing on your feet, you have gained the skill Parkour!

I couldn't hold down the beginnings of a rueful smile from forming on my face.

Even now, I was still receiving these? Didn't the system know a sense of drama, or at least, the knowledge of just when it was right to have these popping up?

Strangely having my mood lifted out of the depths it was in because of the situation, I turned up my head to look at Caelum and the rest. It had been a few minutes since I first threw that smokebomb at them.

They didn't move. I wasn't surprised.

They were all poisoned, wounded, and paralyzed in the same time after all.

"So, I'm right. Real world physics and biology still matter in this world..." I then laughed a bit madly at my almost lackadaisical observation as I walked towards those who could kill me if they could move. "Or to humans, at least."

I took out another smokebomb out of my inventory, softly using Identify beneath my breath as I did.

Rain's Gift (Durability: Inconsequential, Rarity: Unique)

A smokebomb you created by a secret means. You don't know what it does yet.

Then I watched as the screen morphed right before my eyes, the information changing to fit what I, and probably the system, had learned.

Rain's Gift (Durability: Inconsequential, Rarity: Unique, High-Rare)

A smokebomb you created by mixing glass shards, glass powder, and highly toxic and paralytic herbs. Strangely, the inclusion of beneficial herbs into the mix have also increased the toxicity levels.

It is a very dangerous creation - be careful to never use it on allies.

Glass fragments cause Bleeding (High) and medium lacerations.

Also induces Poison (High) and Paralyze (High).

I stared at the ball in my hands with a strange sense of wonder, pride... and horror. Wonder in having proven my prior theory to be true, pride in succeeding on doing so, and horror upon a fact that I knew from the moment I had started creating the smokebombs.

They weren't supposed to be so strong.

"Rain... you bastard..."

I snapped out of my thoughts as a strangled voice entered my ears.

It was Saelum, with his eyes slightly bloody and his face covered with rivulets of red liquid.

"Saelum..." My voice was hollow - as if I wasn't the one he was glaring daggers at. "Sorry for this."

Taking out the knife they gave me, I slowly walked up to him, even as his eyes followed me all the way.

"Critical Eye."

I inserted the sharp edge into his throat.

His HP bar immediately went red. However, I wasn't over yet. With a mighty heave that made full use of my relatively pitiful STR stats, I dragged my newly bloody knife over to the other side of Saelum's neck - and with a sick plop, his screaming head fell off.

"One down." I murmured to myself amidst all the horrified looks my enemies were giving me. "Five more to go."

It was terrifying when you thought of how much realism affected this world.

While statistics like VIT and END prolonged your life, in the end they only mattered when the hits weren't at critical locations. Why would the game that supported realism support survival without a heart? Why would it care that you have HP when you just lost a head?

Thus, this world wasn't just a game. It was another reality.

"N-No. Rain, d-don't you dare!"

Baratrum was the one who uttered that. He was the one who received a blade into his heart next. Caendium followed next, dying as I cut his carotid artery and left him to bleed. Tonitrum choked as I punctured his lungs. Ormentum, on the other hand, died in pain as I shredded his internal organs.

This, I continued, emptily and mechanically, my mind protecting me by disconnecting me from my own actions. Why would I care that these people that I were killing used to the ones I perceived as my friends? This was just a game after all. Hearts would break, ideals would perish, and trust would be betrayed, but this was just a game.

Just a game... that I had given my last hopes into, my wish of gaining friends.

"Rain. You don't have to do this."

It was Caelum, and he was the last man alive. His familiar smile was on his face as he looked at me - not in terror, but in sadness. Even as I was covered with blood, I couldn't help but falter; he was the person who came closest to me, the person I trusted the most out of all them.

Which made it hurt a lot worse when I found out about him.

"Look, you are crying." His voice was soothing, a sickly sweet voice that still managed to stop my determination, managed to connect Rain to Brian all over again. "You don't have to do this. I can just go away if that is what you want."

At his words, I halted. I paused from my advance, lowered my knife, and let down my guard.

That was enough for Caelum.

Like a man reborn, he immediately pounced over my weakness, the status effects that were plaguing him finally gone as he endured through the moments I spent killing his allies. Caelum's sword was quick and fast - the blade shone like another crescent moon under the moonlight.

Too bad that I had expected that from him. Jumping to a long roll over to the side, I placed my hands over my mouth as Caelum's sword met a ball that I had left for him to strike at midair.

A Gift.

When I had thought of them first, it was simple.

Create a gift in return for Caelum's help, and do the best I could in the process. Deciding to use powdered glass as the base was simple - while I knew from my stock of knowledge that powdered glass was certainly not a poison, it was still a very powerful irritant, especially when airborne.

Having powdered glass in your lungs was a very painful thing to endure after all. Not to mention, the glass shards that still remained in the mixture, flying directly into the faces of whoever was hit by the smokebomb.

Thus, like before the massacre of his friends begun, Caelum was met with a burst of smoke that burned like lava through his throat and lungs, all the while his handsome face was peppered yet again by glass frag.

Then, as blood slowly filled the lungs from the damage the glass caused to the capillaries, whatever chemical I placed into the mixture was immediately transferred through the rest of the body - from the poisons of the herbs they gave me, along with the paralytics they accidentally left in the package that was handed to me, to the healing herbs that only served to aggravate the rest of the body.

The pain did not stop there as the sensation of a thousand volts racked through his body again, locking Caelum in yet another suffering stasis. He couldn't even scream - his lungs failed to take in enough of the toxic gas to do so.

When the Gift finally lifted, Caelum was down again on the ground, his HP already in the yellow.

"P-Please..." He begged, the moment I came down to him with the knife that he gave. "F-Forgive me..."

His expression was burned into my mind as I inserted the knife into his eye sockets. Thus, there was silence in the midnight: no coughing, no pained groans, no yelling - just the weak cries of a person who had just killed his first friends.

Just my cries.

And then the silence broke a few moments later as a happy tune then suddenly rose around me as dozens of windows suddenly opened. Announcements of acquired levels, acquired experience - they I ignored as I tried to grieve.

I clasped my hands over my ears and closed my eyes to block it all out, but there was no use. The sound of trumpets refused to stop playing in my head, and unless I closed the windows, nothing would stop them. So, slowly, I lifted my eyelids and looked for the largest window.

Quest: Bounty Hunting - Complete!

You have successfully killed the Solidacium Family!

Bonuses:

50% - You have done the quest without enduring damage! Nice!

100% - The targets were higher by 30 levels! Amazing!

500% - You have done this quest while below level 20. Stupendous!

Total Bonus: (150%) x (200%) x (600%) = 1800%

You have gained 480,000 EXP! You are now Level 41!

"Really..." I sobbed, "This game has no sense of drama whatsoever..."

The next day was frustratingly cheery. People passed, people went, not knowing that on the very streets they stood a single level 16 player managed to kill several other level 57s. They didn't know the tears that I shed the previous night, didn't know that over an inconspicuous part of the plaza I had spent hours looking at my hands even as no blood remained on them.

The incident was just another Bounty Hunt after all.

"Rain, are you alright?"

I took a quick glance at the speaker, a shade of a former friend over my eyes - expecting him to ask that, expecting him to give that charismatic smile again - only to see Blake. "Oh, Blake, I thought you had left."

"This hunt is over for me, but..." Blake studied me worriedly, "Are you sure you are alright?"

I tried for a smile. For the 'BlkHnter', Blake was a worrywart. "I'll be fine, I'm sure."

An awkward silence filled the air. For one, I was happy in it. No more talking after all. No more ways, no more chances to be betrayed, just... silence. Solitary, but safe.

Or at least, that's what it felt before a punch suddenly hit my face.

I flew at least a few yards, landing my head painfully over the wall of the closest building.

-680 HP!

Sturdy has leveled up!

"Areeeee yoooou alriiiight?" A vein was popping at the corner of the Blake's head. "Tell me, are you alright?!"

I was groggy with pain, but.. somehow I managed to stand, if a bit unevenly, on my feet, my hand in a salute. "I'm alright, Sir!"

"Good. Now, listen up to me!"

It was probably the strangest pep talk I would have received in my life, what with my forehead heavily bleeding and my HP bar in deep red, that ever since the day I've heard the words Blake was about to tell me, I would never forget them.

"Shut up, sit still, empty your mind of all thoughts about what happened last night." Blake started, even if I wasn't talking, nor standing - at least anymore, having collapsed to my feet - and my head was too foggy to even think. "Rain, I know that you were betrayed, but you don't have to let it affect you, you know?"

"W-What do you mean..." I managed. "I'm fine..."

With a sad look on his face, Blake came closer. Still wincing at the punch I had received, I winced and closed my eyes at his approach - only to receive a single finger poke over my forehead.

"Look at me, Rain." He said, his voice startlingly soft. "You haven't looked at me in the eyes ever since last night."

Slowly, I did, opening my eyelids to meet his look. It was warm, unlike the first stare-off we held that left me terrified.

"You may have been betrayed by the first people you've met here, you may felt hurt, heartbroken, or depressed, but that doesn't mean you should just stop moving on." I tried to evade his soul-searching eyes. "Don't look away - I know you were planning to quit this world by the moment I left."

I halted, feeling weak all over again. "Am I that easy to read...?"

"No, I'm just that observant." Blake admitted before poking my head back so he could look at me in the eyes again. "But Rain, don't you get it? You might have been betrayed, but this could be your next chance! Look at you - you're already level 41, and you've just started. That's how much potential you have to be in this world."

He had to be kidding. I was just a loner who had several advantages because of a mix of how I was raised and sheer luck. And becoming a high-level player was never my wish.

"I never aimed to be strong..."

"But you've always aimed to gain friends, right?" He interrupted me before I could finish. "Then start your own party if you have to! If you have this talent, this ability to thrive in this world, then use it so you could find those people who would get along with you, to finally meet those who would be your friends."

...He was right.

"So, will you stand up, raise your chin, and meet to the challenge?"

I had thought at the beginning that meeting Caelum was too easy to be true, right? Well, apparently it was.

I came to this world looking for friends. I wasn't just about to give up now because I failed early on.

I managed to rise up again on my feet. Blake met me there, his hand holding mine in a friendly hold. It spoke of a promise - my promise to never give up, to never let my determination be stopped just because of making mistakes. Come wars, come monsters, dragons, revolutions or evil bastards. Pain was nothing, being wounded was nothing, heck - being betrayed was nothing!

I was Rain. And I was going to find my party for this world, even if it kills me repeatedly!

I must've said that out loud, because Blake gave me a proud smile.

"Good words, Rain."

I gave him my grin. "Thanks for punching me out of it, Blake. Though..."

"Though what?" Blake grinned back, tilting his head. "What is it?"

"Catch me - I'm losing consciousness."

And then, the world went to black.

In the end, when I woke up later on, Blake had already left.

It was no surprise though - he was still a bounty hunter, and if him doing his job meant less people would face the same situation as I did, then I was simply glad to see him go. Even if it hurt that that meant the only person I truly knew in this world of Fate Online had left me behind.

I promised to myself then and there that when we met again, I would have already gained a party of my own. But for now, it seemed Rain had to be on a solo play for a while...

Still, he was kind enough to leave me a note as to where the shops were. From the weapon shops, to the armory, to alchemist's, even the bookstores - all of the information I could possibly need early on, he gave to me.

Too bad I didn't use all of it properly.

"My lad, are you sure you would leave this village without weapons nor armor?" The elderly guard of Pratumira asked the moment I tried to exit the gate. "Only a fool would attempt to do so!"

I had only used Blake's information to sell everything on my inventory - except for one very important item I left in the bottom of my list, never to be used unless in a very important situation. Other than that, I bought books - and not even maps or skill books of any sort; just fairy tales and stories that caught my fancy.

"This would be my new beginning." I shook my head with a smile. "The real one. What more than to start with my pockets empty of things that would make it easy for me?"

The guard studied me before a knowing look entered his eyes. "So shall be it then. Do you have a place to go in mind?"

"None!" I replied cheerfully. "May the winds take me to where I shall be!"

The guard laughed. "Go on my boy then! Start your journey!"

With a bright grin on my face, I took my first step out of Pratumira, the first step of the journey that would define me, grow me, and change me. My spirits were light, my heart was easy - nothing could ever stop me now-

For leaving your starter town with no weapons, no armor, no class and a level higher than 30, you have received a new title.

Class assignment achieved! Class bonus: You may now wear two titles at the same time!

Your class is now The Fool (0)! (Note, classes are irreversible unless upgraded.)

Your new title, 'THE FOOL (0)', has now been permanently equipped!

...Aha. Maybe I should've thought upon this better.

PROLOGUE: END!