Memoria: Searching for My Memories in the Game!
Chapter 5: “The Lost Child”
^^^‘Get my revenge and bring the woman to my mother.’^^^
Myra’s POV
I felt something soft land on my head when I just stepped my foot. The instant a mother's face and warm feeling enveloped my entire body, making me miss her so much, making this foot step on its own to meet her.
I'm sure that's how Elliot felt right now when he put that bunny hat on. But his unchanging expression intrigued me at all and I asked him, “El, do you feel anything?“
He was silent for a moment, then replied, “True. There was a slight magic spell of false memory givers and a strange feeling on this hat. I think anyone who uses it will be exposed to that magic.”
I tilted my head when I asked again, “Then why didn't you get hit by that magic spell?”
All I asked turned around and showed her blue flame shadow in her left hand, “I guess without you noticing your shadow was bound by the perpetrator before she put this hat on. This magic is powerful, but like any other magic chant, we must keep the shadow of the enemy first,” he explained, to which I replied with a nod.
Shadow ties. As the name suggests, all jobs in this game can activate attacks that have a shadow flow on one condition. Players must touch the shadow or shadow of the enemy either using their limbs or with their attacks. This was not necessary, especially by ninjas who relied solely on matrial arts and their non-shadow weapons. But the entire attack would increase many times over when one had tied the shadow belonging to the enemy. Especially for the witches or necromancers, tying the enemy's shadow was a must at the beginning of the battle, because all of their attacks were non-weaponary and pure using magic. I think that's what my enemies have done, causing me to be trapped by that hat spell.
I smacked my forehead a few times with my fist, trying to remember something else that was nothing. There was nothing I could remember but Elliot leaving me with the bear that was devouring me.
The hand that landed on top of my head made my mind crumble, I looked at the owner of that hand that gave me a little smile, “Already. Don't think too much.”
But I grabbed that hand and threw it away, “This is important, Davis. I'm sure this has something to do with the quest giver's mother. You know for yourself, it's not easy to give a quest?”
Because the quest-giver NPC that does not just have the meaning of the quest has a hidden puzzle or riddle. The easier a quest was given by an NPC the smaller the reward it earned. On the contrary, the harder the quest opened, the greater the reward. This is evident from yesterday's mother who several times asked the question “Did you see my son?” but when I said ‘quest’ he didn't answer anything. The quest panel usually appears when the player says ‘quest’ on the NPC. But not with this mother.
This actually makes us players able to earn money very easily, because there are actually more than thousands of hidden quests brought by NPCs that look mediocre.
Some of them are open by only a few players, the rest are rarely open, especially today people think getting money easily is just by farming desperately, or a rather clever person will play the market price, and the smartest will scam and cheat people. Like me hehe.
“...and I'm sure we can get the jackpot from this quest. What say?”
Davis stroked his chin, his mouth slightly advancing forward after I explained the situation. “Heh. I taught you well yes,” he said proudly. Elliot just listened carefully, both ears of the rabbit from the hat he was wearing moved around making it look very strange.
Did I wear that? Embarrassing.
“Good hypotheses.”
I frowned at Elliot, “Hipo.... what?”
With one fist landed in the palm of his hand, Davis said, “Yosh then, we go back to that enchan!”
I smiled broadly hearing it. Elliot next to me grabbed the hat he was wearing, but I stopped him. “Eh, what are you doing?” He just looked at me with his two beautiful eyes. “Why?”
“You should wear it. We need that gift!” My word.
“And I have to wear it? What was— waiting for..” I saw that my eyes were slightly enlarged when he realized his condition. I just smiled and said, “True. I want you to pretend to be that missing kid!”
...----------------...
“You are sure of this?”
The three of us were only a few steps away from the merchant mother who seemed to be sitting alone next to her merchandise. When people pass by, instead of offering an apple beside him, he asks ‘anak’nya, as usual.
I glanced back and forth before finally pulling Elliot's hand in the opposite direction from that mother, “Hei, where did you—“
“Excuse me, do you know this guy?”
The merchant's grandfather looked at me, then took turns staring at Elliot next to me who was trying to avoid eye contact. “What are you doing?” whispered.
“Ah, correct. You're a lost boy, aren't you?”
The answer made me smile with satisfaction. “Your mother looks for you every day, she's there,” she added, which makes me even more satisfied, meaning that hat trick does work.
“Ah, okay. Thank ka—“
Elliot's words were cut off, along with his two glowing eyeballs and the two rabbit ears of the hat standing upright. His whole body froze in place and I pulled the end of his sleeve, “El?” call me.
He glanced at me with a strange expression as he said, “I-mom?”
“Ha?”
“Myra? Where's mom?”
Elliot turned around and ran towards the ‘ibu’ direction he was referring to. I just stood there with my mouth open.
“Someone stepped on his shadow,” said Davis who suddenly came. He pointed with his head towards a little boy in a brown robe who looked familiar to me. He turned around, glancing at his orange eyes made me remember that he was the kid who took my scrunchie this morning.
I who just stepped forward was pulled by Davis, “Hei, what about Elliot?”
“Urus him. Take the prize as a result of his son's invention, I have to pursue him.”
And without listening to any other chatter coming from his mouth, I immediately went after the boy.
...----------------...
This time I won't lose it, I can still see her tiny body under that brown robe that keeps running around this map of the city. I was a little tired, but that didn't stop me from running after him. Until finally when I reached the end of the map where the portal was in plain sight, he suddenly disappeared.
“Teleportation?” I ask myself.
I wiped my sweat with the back of my hand that was instantly absorbed with my black gloves. It would be a waste chasing him if I lost him here. But what did he want until he pulled me here? Is it true that he stepped on Elliot's shadow until he was controlled by the hat?
The question that was constantly running around in my head came to a halt instantly as the notification appeared on my panel. The notice that we got the quest and finished it right then and there after the panel appeared left me astonished. But my eyes were wide open when I found a considerable amount of money in my bag. The title of the quest was ‘The Lost Child’.
My panel was closed when there was a presence in front of me. I returned to my upright position and my breathing returned to normal when I found the little boy in front of me.
He walked over, his tiny hand grabbing something from under his cloak. There was so much I was thinking and I had time to take a dagger behind me. Is he going to cast another strange spell? Is he going to attack me?
I was already holding the tip of my dagger to get it out of the sheath when I found him pulling out something familiar to me.
“Ah! Scrunchie-ku!” I was surprised when he put it on my open palm. I put my face on that scrunchie, making sure I don't trick any more spells.
But I came to a halt when the boy removed the hood from the robe he was wearing. My jaw hung open when I saw her eyes and hair that were the same as the merchant's mother looking for her child.
“You..”.
The sound of approaching footsteps did not even make me move from staring at the child. Until I finally heard, “Quest: Concealed.”
“Then this kid?”
My gaze shifted again to the boy, now the golden-coloured quest panel opened in front of him. ‘The Lost Child pt II: Revenge’ posted there.
I shut my mouth in disbelief, “Quest continued?!”
In my heart I pranced because I believed this quest would give me a very big reward. If part I alone had given me this much money, what about part II?! There's nothing that's made me this happy since the day I managed to scam one of the players and hit the jackpot because the cheated ones are so rich. I don't even have to spend a lot of energy or money, nor do I have to worry about the will of scamming if what I'm doing right now, doing quests. Well, I'm like an exemplary player now.
“Quest: Concealed!” I shouted out loudly, because I know the details about the quest will be given when all the party members have said it. This is usually not needed if the quest is still in the early stages, as Davis did earlier, he must open the quest without needing me and Elliot said it, because he is a party leader. But the boy was still smiling petrified with the panel still floating without any progress.
“Hee? Why?”
Davis swearing and massaging forehead, “Oh shit. Elliot.”
I turned around and found Elliot there, looking confused glancing around. “Uncle Davis, when do we get home? I miss mom,” she said, pulling the end of Davis's shirt.
I'm holding back a laugh, “Oi, Davis. You have the heart! You still haven't opened the label?” My laughter came out shortly after the question was thrown.
Davis turned to me and said, “You're the one who tried. I want to know your training all this time produces what.” That grin made my laughter stop.
I frowned and opened my mouth to protest, but the words that came out when Davis wrapped his arms in front of his chest, his chin raised.
“Shortly, w-what if this kid suddenly goes missing?”
But it was not responded to by Davis when I glanced back at the child who was still flinching. He seems to be standing there until all party members say the key, which is the word ‘Quest: Concealed’. I looked at Davis who only raised both eyebrows, I'm sure what he said was ‘Wait what else?’
“Let's kick Elliot from party only!”
“Let's kick Elliot from party only!”
I bit my lower lip as the sentence screamed in my mind, but I felt guilty when he had become a victim as a child in the first quest. I don't have a choice anymore.
With a sigh and a round of my eyeballs, I walked around Elliot, only to step on the shadow of him that I had bound. It appeared that his shadow had become white like a glitch in a split second before it finally turned black again.
I took a swipe and opened the fire shadow on my left hand. I threw the fire and made it land on my index finger, then poured out the fire to float in front of me. I pressed my hands together, I closed my eyes to focus on Elliot's whereabouts and the blue flames I could feel inside his body. There was an orange flame surrounding his entire body, tying up his entire shadow. But the core of the orange shadow was in one part, and that part was what I needed to remove.
After I found it, I took a deep breath and I said the release spell.
|5 External Shadow: Seal Break|
I opened my eyes, and I found Elliot still silent with his head tilted, looking at me in confusion. “What are you doing, Myra?”
“Whispering.”
I closed my eyes again, my forehead was sweating because two, three, and four rapals I had tried but still did not produce anything.
“Still not yet. Here let me saj—“
“Whispering! Let me.”
I held my hands together more tightly until the fifth time I loudly shouted the opening of the seal. I finally heard the familiar voice I used to hear if someone's seal was open.
“Yash!” I clenched my hands together and smiled broadly when I saw Elliot rub his eyes as he said, “Argh. You are outrageous, “ then grabbed the hat and now the tidy has been completely damaged.
“I can, right? Davis? I—“
I came to a halt when I saw the purple-colored flame shadow being right in front of Davis. With just a flick of a finger he removed that fire shadow. I'm sure that's also what he did at the time I tried for the fifth time to break the spell. My lips are gritted.
“Davis. Just be right!”
“From a waste of time. Never mind,” he pulls Elliot who is still scratching his head with a face that looks tired, “El, say ‘Quest: Concealed’ on this child.”
He looked confused but still did it. Finally the panel shone, then my eyes and mouth opened wide when many panels appeared, giving details along with pictures where we are in progress to complete the first quest. Elliot and Davis laughed a little when they saw my smiling image raising two apples in my hand in that stupid hat. Tsk, Elliot hasn't seen himself while wearing that hat.
I laughed with satisfaction that I exaggerated a little when I finally found a picture of him hugging the merchant's mother with great pleasure. But the expression of hers in the next panel instead made me say “Aww...” compared to her literacy. Then there are new panels that show many roads and descriptions of the next quest.
“Thank you for replacing me as my mother's child!” It was suddenly thrown from the mouth of the child who had just smiled, making me a little surprised.
“Two, three, and four attempts to escape my mother! I just want to play in a new place and pursue my dream to become seora—“
“Skip.”
It made me glance at Davis with an annoyed look, while he just shrugged. “Longness,” he said indifferently.
“To date counted zero participants who have completed this quest! Congratulations on being the first! Next one! Second Mission from The Lost Child!”
The carefree-looking child was now suddenly giving a sharp and serious look. Our surroundings became even more gripping, along with the slowly fading gold panels, turning black.
“Revenge me. Bring the culprit who killed me to my mother.”
“Kill?! You are already ma—“
I looked at the boy who had now turned half-transparent.
So all this time we've been chasing ghosts?
Suddenly a panel appeared and my eyes were wide at the sight of the photo.
“Revenge me and bring this woman to my mother.”
That's my picture. When I pretended to be Red Shadow.
“Life or death. Take him and get his reward.”
...****************...
...Chapter notes:...
...-Bond shadow. It was previously explained! Spells belonging to the entire job (except non-flow shadow: ninja) will become stronger in effect if the shadow of the enemy is touched by the player! Just touched? Not just touched or trampled! But it could be active if exposed to the effects of other attacks that hit the enemy shadow (an example will be given in chapter 'Problem fixer: Marriage!)...
...- Seal break. Spells to be able to escape from shadow ties. Can be done by anyone with any color of fire or job. It takes a lot of concentration to do it. The stronger the player who touched the shadow, the more difficult it was to break the shadow bond....