“So Eke-san, where do you come from nyaa.”

“From Nigeria. I live in the capital Abuja. If you are ever in the area, please tell me. I will show you the best areas in my country. Where do all of you come from my friends.”

“I’m from Kyoto, Japan nyaa.”

“Busan, Korea Eke-ssi.”

“Hong Kong, China for me.”

“Ah, so you are all not that far from each other then? It is sad that I am the furthest away.”

As they exchanged basic information including their ages of which Eke at twenty eight was the second eldest, they walked to the elder’s house, unhindered by any of the villagers even though they were not allowed past ten paces from the village’s edge. Eke exchanged friendly greetings with many of the villagers, stopping now and then to talk. The three attempted to talk with minimal mouth movement though both GimmePower and Jinyang’s lips could be seen to be obviously moving in small amounts.

“Hyung, so that’s how you get the charm stat.”

“Boring! I would rather be eaten by a dragon than have to keep talking with NPCs about the weather and crops nyaa.”

“See Ah Girls, isn’t it a great decision to let him join. Now he can do all the boring stuff.”

As they reached the elder’s house, the elder came out smiling.

“Ah Warrior Eke, please come in and have some acai berry tea.”

“Revered elder, I am sorry but I must decline for I have come to join the quest of these three brave men.”

“Re..really? Ah that would be wonderful. Their lack of… ahem… progress was causing some commotion among the other warriors. If you would lead them, perhaps they will find the means to become warriors of minor worth.”

“Revered elder, I believe them to capable of greater heights if they could only believe in themselves.”

As the three stood away from the scene, they continued their semi-ventriloquism

“Hyung, see that? He just praised us. Is he out to get some benefit?”

“Not sure Ah Pow. Just be wary if he wants you to do something like stand in front of the monster.”

“I dunno Money-san, he actually looks sincere. He even thinks we don’t believe in ourselves.”

“Well then he’s going to be a great addition to the team… heh heh... ahem.”

After Eke had received the system message that he had joined the quest, the four made their way to the troll’s cave with GimmeGirl’s leading the way. Once they were near the entrance, the three of them surreptitiously slowed down, placing Eke in the point position without him noticing. The cave was dark, with the sunlight blocked by the rock formation above the cave entrance. Once inside Eke began shouting.

“Come monster, come and face justice! I am the instrument of your punishment!”

Jinyang facepalmed while GimmePower’s face looked like he was battling constipation. GimmeGirls used his finger to twirl in a circular motion next to his head, indicating that he thought Eke was insane.

Predictably, the troll started waking up and when it noticed Eke, it roared in challenge at the invasion of its home. Charging at Eke, both engaged in a brutal melee. The other three encircled the two combatants but otherwise did not enter the battle.

Eke mistook the three’s reluctance as fear at being outclassed by the monster. He had not counted on their help in the first place so their lack of support was accepted without complaint. The troll had initially forced Eke on the back foot with several wild but powerful claw attacks and he readily but slowly retreated in face of the onslaught but as time went on, the troll began to lose ground as Eke’s superior combat skills began to asset themselves. The troll’s lower level was clearly showing the disadvantage it had despite its great strength and regeneration.

Seeing the troll being outclassed by Eke, GimmeGirls gave a thumbs up sign, indicating that all was going to plan. The troll’s strength had been a critical unknown but now with Eke as a gauge, it’s levels were probably in the 200 range. After a minute, the troll was now the one retreating as Eke’s movements kept throwing it off balance.

“Hyung I think Eke-ssi has real life combat training. His movements are orderly.”

As Korean men had to serve in the army for two years, GimmePower was not a total novice in terms of melee combat, having trained in taekwando. Jinyang nodded in agreement as he noticed Eke’s confident movement when feinting. That confidence spoke of regular practise, perhaps in fencing or some other combative sport. The damage he was inflicting on the troll was also plainly greater than its regeneration speed as the number of visible wounds were growing. It took another minute before the troll finally fell to the ground. Its wounds continued to close and heal but with its health at negative, it could not do anything else. It was time. GimmeGirls was the fastest, running into a position between the troll and Eke.

“Eke-san, that was fantastic. Where did you learn to fight like that? You looked so fabulous and cool nyaa.”

While GimmeGirls was distracting Eke, Jinyang had grabbed the trolls arms and hands and began tying it to a stout log shaved of its bark. GimmePower was using his spear to poke the troll, keeping its health in the negative range. After the arms were secured, another solid shaved log was produced from his backpack, which was another they had 'found' while passing a carpenter’s house In the village and had shaved while journeying to the cave. This was used to secure the trolls feet. A final log was taken out and tied to the two prior logs as well as to the troll’s waist. The troll looked like a training hall scarecrow, which was exactly what the three had planned.

As the training hall scarecrow was extremely low level, a player could not get more than 40 points of stat increases for a single stat even if he or she kept hitting it for years. The troll however was over 200 in levels which ensure that the stat gain cap would be very much higher.

How much they could squeeze out of the troll was not known as no one had tried the tactic. Those who could defeat the troll easily were too high in levels and would gain stats at a snail's pace, far less profitable than simply fighting in a dungeon. Those who had a big level gap and thus would gain stats at a faster rate could not hope to capture a troll by themselves.

However to keep the troll there were a few obstacles they had to cross, and Eke was one of them.

Finally getting past GimmeGirls, Eke had raised his blade in preparation for permanently dispatching the troll. His arm was quickly held back by Jinyang.

“Brother Eke, you must stop. This is not justice, this is anger clouding your mind. The only justice is to bring the troll back to the village for the elder to mete out its punishment.”

The words sounded correct and Eke could find nothing to refute the argument especially since the elder would be the one deciding its fate and though it did not sit well with him, he reluctantly agreed.

“Very well, we will bring it back to the village.”

“Eke-ssi, my back has been aching for the last few weeks, I don’t think I can carry it.”

“Eke-san, I think I twisted my ankle when I ran over to congratulate you, I can barely carry my backpack nyaa.”

“Brother Eke, I’ll carry the troll, its only right that I help.”

As Jinyang heaved on the secured troll, it’s shoulders had not even been lifted off the ground before he collapsed pathetically.

“I’m so weak, I’m sorry, I’ll try again…”

“… No it is alright my friend. You tried your best. I will carry it.”

And thus as Eke hauled the troll on his back, the three investigated the cave. There was little treasure of any sort was whatever the victims of the troll had been wearing was torn and ground into dust by the strength of the troll’s molars. Giving up on gaining anything else, they casually walked behind Eke who was lumbering slowly with his burden. Once more they engaged in their hidden conversation using unmoving lips or at least closed mouths in Jinyang's and GimmePower's cases.

"We'll need to get the cart down if we are going to be carrying that..."

"Why Money-san, Eke-san looks perfectly capable of carrying it nyaa."

"Yes Ah Girls but what if he gets attacked? He might get killed before he could put the troll down."

"Well Money-san since he had so many levels, losing a few won't matter much i think nyaa."

"Ah but you forget Ah Girls, then who is going to carry the troll while he’s dead? Unless we abandon it... or you're volunteering..."

Abandoning a ‘hard won’ chance like this was totally not acceptable but being the one to refuse to cooperate in getting transport for the troll basically meant you would be tasked with carrying it with a guaranteed 2 to 1 vote count. None had considered Eke as being really in their ‘team’ of cutthroats as he had been seen to be too much of an innocent.

"...Yes I see your point Money-san, we should try and get the cart to the ground and...ahhh!"

GimmeGirls sudden outburst startled everyone and Eke spun around forgetting about the troll he was carrying. The movement and weight threw him off balance as he collapsed in a heap. Struggling to get to his feet as fast as possible, he glanced all around the group.

"What is it? Is it an attack? I will protect you my friends."

"Sorry Eke-san, I just stepped on some poo and was surprised nyaa..."

"Ah! I understand. Living in a big city, such occurrences are rare compared to living in the countryside. It is no matter."

After Eke had spoken kindly and once more hefted the troll onto his shoulders, GimmePower walked closer. Both he and Jinyang were less than convinced about the excuse GimmeGirls had given Eke.

"Girls-ssi, what happened?"

"...I learnt the Ventriloquism skill. The system just informed me of it..."

Both Jinyang and GimmePower pursed their lips, holding their laughter inside. Apparently there was a benefit to being bad at hiding their lip movements.

"Ah Girls, life is like that, you can't plan for everything, like what skills to get for your ten slots. Look on the bright side of things, now you get to carry a hand puppet and have conversations with it without looking like an absolutely insane person."

The unspoken addition was of course that people would look upon him as an insane person, just not absolutely insane one like a raving psychopath.

"Yah Girls-ssi, you can even make sound effects secretly. When you use your thrown weapons skill, you can do a 'pew pew pew' sound effect and no one would know it was you."

"Ah Pow, don’t forget 'duboom' when throwing something explosive."

"Yah hyung, maybe even a 'voroom' effect when swinging his axe like those laser swords in the movies."

"..."

Given that GimmeGirls had avoided the missteps that both his older comrades had fallen into and had greatly delighted in their misfortunes, having him fall flat on his face like this was something that both found great joy in.

It was nearly sunset by the time they made their way to the village. The second predicted obstacle to their plan occurred just then.

“Why have you carried this demon back to us? You should have killed it. Kill it now!”

“Oh revered elder, we bring this back to show you that real punishment can be done rather than a merciful death. Ah Girls, Ah Pow show the esteemed elder.”

GimmeGirls began kicking the tied troll, after a while he began whaling on the troll with his axe, avoiding the head in his strikes in case he accidentally hit the troll’s brain and killed it permanently. GimmePower had started off straight with spear thrusts, adding in butt strokes and slashes as well. Neither of the two were anything but brutal as to them the troll was merely a computer generated fake. Still any armchair psychologists would be citing their actions as examples of computer games influencing players into becoming violent. Both of them neither paused nor slowed down as this was a good a time as any to start their ‘advanced scarecrow’ training.

After five minutes of seeing the troll being beaten up and spraying its green blood everywhere, even the elder was disgusted. Still there was no system pop up on the quest being completed, so Jinyang did nothing to stop them. In fact after three minutes, he became worried that the two were getting too much of a head start in raising their stats and joined in, bashing the troll with his morning star.

“Just kill it, why are you torturing the creature.”

“Ess..Uhh...teemeed…Urr.. elder…”

Giving the troll a final good swing to its left arm, Jinyang paused to catch his breath and to convince the elder.

“Elder, you must remember the hundreds of villagers that this monster killed.”

“It killed ninety four people, not hundreds…”

“Yes and each of those ninety four lives were as priceless as your own.”

Jinyang raised his voice, addressing the villagers nearby as if he could get a lot of the villagers on his side, he could convince the elder by peer pressure.

“Ninety four lives! They were someone’s father, mother, son or daughter! They were eaten alive! Their bones denied a proper burial! Their loving faces prevented from being home with their family forever! I ask you now! Is a simple death enough punishment for the brutal crimes that this monster has done? Can you sleep well knowing your family or your neighbours or your friends were gnawed on alive by this monster and you just agreed to let it die painlessly, quickly?”

Jinyang’s words preyed on the basic human need for vengeance. If he could inflame some of the crowd, they would drown out any cries for peace and forgiveness. Years of office politics had honed his skill at doing such things. Still as they were NPCs, he could not be sure that the computer system running them would respond as would most humans. In that regard he was not disappointed.

“No! That thing must suffer! He took my husband from me and our three children!”

“Yes, beat it up! Beat it! It ate my daughter!”

“My baby boy was so lively and young and that THING took him away from me!”

“Please revenge is not the wa..”

“Shut up Iswana! You lost no one! Of course you can stand there and talk about forgiveness!”

As the crowd’s anger rose, Jinyang gauged the mood carefully. If he had roused the crowd too much and did not cool them off, the troll would die. If he had not roused the crowd enough, the elder would demand that the troll die. It was a situation that required some perceptiveness. When he felt that the crowd’s rage was at a suitable level but not yet at the point of no return, he raised his hands up for calm.

“Listen, please listen to me! I know that this monster has done great evil to this village but for you to take revenge personally would ruin your lives. The end of revenge is merely emptiness, a hollowness of your soul. Let us instead be your agents in punishing this creature! You will know the monster is paying for its crimes yet your hands and your spirit will be clean. We will take it with us so it can never again threaten your village and we will beat it every day for a year for every life taken!”

He had set out to incite the crowd and now he was the one appealing for peace. The tactic was one that he had found to be effective in not antagonizing anyone at his workplace by being on both sides of the argument. Even peace loving Iswana had nodded along with his words. However, someone in the crowd interrupted his speech.

“Ten years!”

“Yes, ten!”

“Your voices calling for justice have been heard! We will beat it every day for ten years for every life it has taken!”

It was only smart to agree to such nebulous terms in a simmering situation like this. That would mollify those in the crowd that demanded greater punishment and who would even know if they killed the troll tomorrow, next week or next month as long as they were far away enough from the village.

With a roar of approval from the crowd behind him, Jinyang turned to the elder. The elder was not deaf. He knew what the crowd demanded and he had to agree despite the fact he was the village elder, as those elders whose decisions went against popular opinion too many times quickly found themselves sitting alone in their hut and ignored.

“Ahem… Yes, your words carry truth and we now appoint you the agents of our just punishment against the monster.”

Quest completed: Slay the monster threatening the village

Despite not having actually slain the monster, the village elder accepts your actions as having defeated the threat.

Familiarity with the villagers have increased

You can now freely move about in the village.

Fame increases by 300.

You have gained the Charm stat

Charm increases by 3 points

Though the quest was completed, the quest rewards were less than exciting. To Jinyang, the Charm stat was as useful as a heated rock on a hot afternoon. Fame was at least slightly better but too much fame had you and your actions being talked about by NPCs which meant everyone knew what you were doing and probably where you had been. To him, fame was only beneficial if you were being so famous that everyone knew you or a total unknown, out of sight and mind of the masses. Being middling in fame was not a good thing in his thinking.

The obstacles to keeping the troll around had been removed. As the satisfied villagers scattered, Jinyang joined the other two in beating the troll up. Neither GimmePower or GimmeGirls had stopped their attacks throughout the entire commotion as they had decided to keep attacking until it was supper time. As he was bashing the troll’s right leg with his morning star in one hand and a spear in his other, Eke quietly moved up next to him.

“Chief, your speech was good. It made the crowd move as you wanted.”

Jinyang was startled. Eke, the innocent lamb, had seen through what he was doing which meant he was not so innocent after all. An idiom he had heard before, of disguising oneself as a pig to eat a tiger came to his mind. Stopping his attacks, he turned to Eke.

“Err.. brother Eke, I was only helping the crowd see…”

“Yes I understand, you made them to see what you wanted them to see. Do not be alarmed my friend, in my… workplace, such things are not uncommon.”

“Ah I understand now brother Eke. You and me have at least that much in common then, as survival with sly and ruthless men as co-workers requires giving up your ideals and naivety.”

“That is where our thinking differs my friend. I understand the need to remove naivety but if we have no ideals, we are merely corpses moving.”

“Well brother Eke, if you find our paths diverging…”

“No my friend, I would be happy to remain with your group if you would let me continue with you. I find some of myself in each of you. Perhaps we can find answers to our questions together, though I would not be willing to be the one to always carry the troll…”

Although GimmePower and GimmeGirls looked utterly focused on kicking and bashing the life out of the troll, both had kept a ear open, listening in to the conversation. Just as Jinyang has been, both were surprised by Eke’s ability to see though GimmeMoney’s manipulation of the crowd plus having their award winning (in their own minds) acting, back when they were deciding who to carry the troll, found out. Both stopped their training and joined the other two.

“Eke-san, perhaps we should start over nyaa.”

“Yes Eke-ssi, a fresh start is good.”

“Brother Eke, I think their suggestion is a good one. What do you think?”

“Only if you will call Ah Eke like how you call them.”

“…Alright Ah Eke, let us bring you up to speed on what we are doing here.”

As GimmePower made sure the troll was secure and within sight, Jinyang, Eke and GimmeGirls gathered around a communal fire and talked.

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