The Game of a Blood Mage

Chapter 86




Title: Talk with an Old Man...





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The old Monk started his story. "Well, my name is Marnok, a Monk."



Alex recognized the origin of the name and related it to ancient texts. That was an old name, not something that would normally be given to a child within the recent eons. 



Marnok smiled and said. "When I was younger I made many mistakes. Regrets always piled up on me. Being born as a Blacksmith's son was pretty much a destined path that would lead me to the same job too. By the time I was six years old, I already knew how my life would end up."




"You knew you would end up as a Monk who could end world-ending events with a slap?" Asked Alex, with a curious look on his face.





"…" Marnok just stared at him knowingly. This made Alex smirk a little, the monk knew what he was up to and yet let him do it. "No, obviously not. I just thought being a Blacksmith was my predestined road."




"Ah… okay…" Alex agreed awkwardly, trying to sound interested in the story. 



"Also don't try to turn the situation weird to change the conversation into your theme." The Monk chided him, seeing straight through his act.


Alex scratched his cheek uncomfortably. "Sorry, I do that unconsciously sometimes."



"Yeah, I can tell," Marnok agreed but seemed to stop himself from saying something more. "There was no benefit in changing the subject. You just like to be in control of everything," the monk smirked as he emphasized that. "Also this situation is out of your control, so you unconsciously tried to at least have one thing under your control."



Alex only nodded, a polite smile on his face and nothing showed that he was uncomfortable. But internally, he was uncertain and didn't like people knowing his true nature.



"Your need to control things is truly something out of the ordinary," the old man analyzed him. A soft and gentle grandfatherly look never left his face. "Sometimes people need to understand that the world isn't something you can control. There will always be an outside alternative that you will be unable to predict. So why worry about something you have no control over?"



"Are you my psychiatrist?" Asked Alex with an amused smile. 


But the Old Monk looked at him with a  knowing gaze "This is another way you do things isn't it? In the end, it would lead to me asking about what a psychiatrist is since I don't know this unfamiliar. By the end of it, you will change the conversation into a whole different topic."



Alex shrugged and seemed unbothered by the old Monk. "What you say might be true, I might have a slight control tendency-" 



"Slight?" The old man interrupted him with a raised questioning brow. "C'mon now, I thought there was no need to lie here."



Alex couldn't express in words just how annoyed he was at the Monk. Even if he didn't express that on his face. "As I said," he continued, looking at the Monk with a pointed look for interrupting him. "I might have control tendencies, but is that so bad? After all, this world isn't a place where mental quirks are bad. Psychopathy? Control Tendencies? Anger Problems? All of them are advantageous in a world like this. Not having any of them would be a problem here."






"Well, I can't refute that. Reincarnated people don't admit that, but the survivalists amongst them always have or gain one of those traits." the old monk smiled gently. Not appearing bothered by Alex's arguments. "Still, people should learn to enjoy themselves. Even the vampire girl that you protected was worried about you."



"Camilla?" He questioned, wondering if the old man knew what he was talking about. Because Camilla wasn't someone who would care about others.



"Yes, I remember when she was a young girl. Back then her ideas to improve the world were refused," the old monk explained. "She wanted to help her family but was refused by the people she wanted to help."



Alex nodded, he knew that Monk Classes had a lot of skills that allowed one to look into others' Karma and True Intentions. And the man next to him undoubtedly had many abilities to see through people. 





What surprised him a little was how Camilla used to be kind at one time. But it wasn't too strange either, and he understood things like this happened a lot when reincarnated people came around. Two thousand years ago, when she was young it was a medieval time, and women didn't have a voice in these matters. Also, people don't accept change just because someone told them to do it. 





'How strong is this Monk and how far can he see?' Wondered Alex. He knew the old Monk was an immortal, someone who had gone past Level 30 without turning into a God. There were two ways to go past Level 30 in the game.




The First road beyond to reach Legendary Rank was to become a God, just like Alex had done in-game during his last life. The second method was to become an immortal, a creature without divinity and could travel the world freely. 




This old Monk and the Beast Emperor had reached the Immortal Rank, and so had the giant snake that was sent off by the Monk. 



Alex as he thought about these things couldn’t help as a sense of jealousy settled in his heart. He was quite jealous of some other beings who were born naturally to be as strong as a God or Immortal. It made the Game Interface that he had access to nothing more than a cheap sheet. Knowing that one wasn’t special would make most p[eople despair and give up, but he had known these things.


He shook his head and looked at the sky. “You do know that even more creatures like the world-sized serpent will come here, right?”


The old monk sighed and looked at the sky too, recognizing that he was trying to change the subject and let Alex have this. “Yeah, but I am not omniscient to-”


“But you know it's a God who did it," he interrupted the old man. Who looked at him a little surprised. What the old Monk didn't understand was that Alex had another reality of this world to compare events. While his future knowledge had become obsolete, he still had a reference of events. 



The only reason a God would get involved at this point and do something like this was because humanity appeared weak, unlike when it had millions of players. So that meant one of the Gods took the chance to corrupt the world.




"So who do you think it is?" Asked the old monk curiously, not being ashamed to request someone's help. 


"Someone who hides themselves very well," Alex gave the best non-answer possible. He wouldn't give out information like this for free. Also, he didn't bother hiding his intentions and looked at the old Monk with a look that said 'Do you have anything valuable on you?'.



"I am a Monk, material possessions are against my beliefs." The old man shrugged, making Alex feel drained. If he were to get his hands on a Mythical Item from the Monk, then it was bound to be high level. 



"Welp, you can leave whenever you want now." Alex looked disappointed and pointed towards the barriers around the Soul Sect.



The old Monk was baffled. "You will try and keep a secret like this to yourself? Even when you know that it could lead to many people's deaths?"



"People will die anyway, old age, sickness, it doesn't matter." He was dismissive about this, knowing that people would inevitably die anyway. Was it even worth living in a world like this for a normal person? Their whole lives would be plagued by pain and the constant feeling of seeing someone you love die a gruesome death. "It also doesn't matter which God opened the initial rift, because it has already just sent a signal through the Astral Plane summoning this corruption. Even if we destroy the instigator, immortal monsters will keep coming to this world."



Alex knew that by opening the rift, it had created a gateway to the world. Like a permanent radio signal, it doesn't matter what happened now. Because this won't stop, even if they killed all the Gods. 


He wasn't too worried about the timeline either, the absence of the players had created a big deviation in it already. But to him it didn't matter, Alex had one goal in his eyes all along. The situation around him wasn't important in a general gist of things. 



The old man nodded, agreeing with him that it didn't matter who started this. "See you around…" the monk relented and his body dissipated into specs of light.



Alex was left alone with Isabella, the Witch of the Bloody Forest. Who looked at him from afar with a strange mesmerizing gaze. "One day…" she murmured and teleported away, noticing that now wasn't the time to discuss her deal with him.



In the end, he was left alone and the fields around him were lush and green. It seemed almost artificial just how beautiful the scenery was. Yet thousands of people were under the ground he was sitting on, each of them unknowingly working under one singular goal. A dream that he would follow. 





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Within a distant land, a place was covered in darkness and there was barely any light. Tendrils of shadows moved to abound in the land as if each had a mind of its own. 

The only thing that stood out as out of place was a young girl with dark hair tied in a ponytail and blue eyes. She looked at the ground and suddenly the shadows in her way dissipated and the space lightened up. It revealed the ground and earth.


The young girl frowned. "I can't find it no matter how hard I look…"








She sighed and closed her eyes, an image of a young girl who resembled her with a boy similar to her age. He had dark eyes that expressed a coldness in them. It was Alex and Lily.



The girl sighed. "Damn. Another premonition? Is he in danger?"



...
A/N: Come to Discord for more pics of a grown up Lily...

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/M9hghrm