[Fates’ Saving Throw][Mandatory]

Due to the effects of the [Usurper] quest, this quest is no longer mandatory. To restore some semblance of a narrative. Your death is required. The way it is done will be up to you. Do not think of it as death. Think of it as doing us a service.

Rewards: Should you accept, your death will be painless.

[Do you accept?]

Jonathan swung at a nearby tree, confusing an already confused Hlaza. Apparently he received no notifications. Jonathan dropped his shoulders in defeat and decided to back away from Hlaza before answering.

“Are you crazy? No one in their right minds would accept, especially when it means death.”

[You do not understand. This quest is not a request you can simply refuse. If you do not accept, more of the denizens of this forest will have a sudden…interest in you and so will the Empire. Either you die swiftly and humanely, or you die painfully.]

“They already have. You’ve set everything up so that I die anyway. The ogres seem to want me dead, because of these damn scars everyone affiliated with the Empire will try to kill me on sight and if none of those kill me, you will give me a mentally debilitating status ailment. If the only incentive I have for choosing the quest is that my death is painless, it’s not much of an incentive if my goal is to live.”

[So you choose not to accept?]

Jonathan felt a mixture of exasperation and frustration.

“Are you dumb too?”

Jonathan started to regret what he had said as a cold sweat gathered on his brow.

[You will not insult me. You will not be able to endure the consequences.]

The voice in his head carried an intense aura that made every word that came from its’ ‘mouth’ feel like it pounded at the inside of Jonathans’ head. Jonathan had sorely started to regret insulting a being that had the apparent ability to affect his life at any point in any way. He felt his heartbeat get louder and louder until the throbbing reached his throat. His anxiety building until it reached a cruel crescendo.

[Skill: [Calm Mind] has defended against the mental attack of being ‘????’]

“Huh.”

The tone of the voice that ponded in his head changed from brutally harsh to a high, slightly loud lull.Jonathan started to form a theory he wanted to test.

“You didn’t see that notification did you?”

The voice was silent.

“I see. You and whatever or whoever it is that tells me whenever my skills work or when I get a new skill are different beings. You seem to have some influence over whoever or whatever it is, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to send me quests. However your influence is not to the point where you are in control of the system that sends me quests itself. If I were to guess, you use the system and are limited by it. If you are limited by the system, I wonder, in what other ways are you limited?”

After a long disgusting beat, the voice answered in a tone that seemed annoyed.

[Get to the point boy.]

“You can’t kill me directly, can you?”

Not giving the voice any time to interrupt him, Jonathan continued.

“If you could, you would have done it. There would be no need to run me through hoops, no need to give me status ailments or quests. Just a simple snap of the fingers or whatever the hell you assholes do, and bam. I’m dead. Seeing as I’m still alive, you simply can’t do it.”

More silence. Jonathan smiled and took this to mean he was onto something. He hoped it was something he would be able to use to get out alive.

“I was scared that you people were some sort of gods, all evidence was pointing to that. You could do all these crazy things, influence people and things the way you felt. One of my status ailments even explicitly says ‘Gods’ Displeasure’ but from what I’m seeing now, all of you have rules you follow. There’s some overarching power or something that prevents you from enacting whatever you want to enact on me. I could be wrong and it could be just due to a weird sense of pride or not wanting to get your hands dirty. I seriously doubt it.”

More silence. Jonathan started to think that he was extremely wrong, when the voice responded.

[I do not see your point yet.]

Jonathan smiled. What he said had clearly affected the voice.

“What I don’t get is that even though you can’t kill me you can simply force others to. You have not.”

The voice laughed. The anger hidden in each word was palpable.

[I haven’t? How about the ogre that attacked you?]

“No you haven’t. Not yet at least. The ogre that ‘attacked’ us did not actually attack anybody. It just chased us off. One of your tactics to increase my mental stress.”

[That ogre was a scout. How do you know that more aren’t coming later?]

A scout? Jonathan thought, unconsciously swallowing some saliva, that thing was huge.

“Yes, but it was a scout that was able to kill us. If you wanted it to kill me, you could have. I’m sure it would have been able to do so casually. This brings up another question. Why don’t you want me dead when the quest would go to the [Chosen] at the moment of my death? By all accounts, shouldn’t my death be beneficial to you? My answer is that it is. There is no reason that it shouldn’t be. So why hasn’t anybody come to kill me yet? My answer is that nobody can. I’m taking a guess but I’m assuming that since the content of the quest details the owner stealing the authority of others, it stands to reason that the killer of the quest holder…inherits the quest, right?”

More silence. It confirmed what Jonathan thought. It made no sense that anybody would put so much effort into manipulating the mental stability of the [Usurper] quest holder when they could just send somebody to kill them, unless there was a reason that they couldn’t.

“You can’t risk some ogre or some Empire soldier having the quest when you want the [Chosen] to specifically hold the quest. The thing I don’t understand is why. Why does it have to be them? Why is this narrative they are part of so important? On that note, what the hell is this narrative in the first place anyway?”

[As you have correctly guessed, there are rules that we have to abide by. One of them is that we are unable to unveil certain pieces of information. You do however already know the reason. It is for our survival. Will you help us?]

The voice was pleading, the anger that Jonathan was sure he felt from the voice was gone. However…

“No.”

[You give me no choice. I had hoped not to use this method. Its outcome is largely luck based. You should hope this kills you. If you survive, you will wish you had accepted our offer.]

[Your mind is being corroded.]

[The backlash of skill: [Mantra of Madness] has begun.]

Jonathan felt a wave of confusion wash over him as dark spots appeared in his vision. He slowly felt himself get weaker. First in his arms and then his legs became weaker, causing him to collapse under his own weight. The dark spots in his vision grew to cover his entire field of view, when he received a notification.

[The First Storyteller has taken an interest in you.]