My Roleplay System
Chapter 51: Black Snake

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Black Snake

"Well, this is quite the predicament."

Lake thought to himself as he looked at the woman that was slowly dying on the grass floor.

A moment ago he had been running through the woods heading towards a mountain where he heard the loud roar of a beast a few minutes ago.

As he was approaching the mountain, his sixth sense managed to pick up the weak breath of a living creature nearby.

When he felt this, he immediately went into hunting mode, prepared to ambush and swiftly finish the creature off before rushing towards the mountain.

However, when he finally approached the creature he was dumbfounded to find that it wasn’t a beast like he expected but a person.

Wasn’t he the only human to enter the rift?

With this thought in mind Lake observed the injured woman. She was unconscious and covered in blood with her left hand missing, seemingly torn off judging by the rough edge where it was separated. Her right leg was broken with a piece of her shin bone exposed and her right hand was shredded and bruised with most of her fingers broken and twisted out of shape.

When Lake had seen this he frowned as he looked up to observe the cliff wall above him. Up high, around 30 or so meters, Lake could see a line of blood stretching against the cliff wall.

It seems she had fallen from a great height and had used her hand to dig into the side of the cliff face to slow herself down so she could survive the impact. Lake was slightly impressed by her act of sacrificing her remaining hand for the chance to live.

"What a strong desire to live."

As he spoke, Lake turned his eyes to observe the woman’s fate, curious to see what led to her current situation. However, Lake’s eyes soon widened into a look of shock as he looked at the uniquely shaped fate before him.

There were multiple strands that had intertwined to form a uniquely shaped dollar sign. It glowed with a dim golden light that was slowly becoming dimmer as time went on. Lake assumed that this was due to the fact that she was drawing closer to death’s door as time went on and the black halo of death seemed to confirm this suspicion.

However, although the shape of the fate was certainly surprising, it wasn’t what had shocked Lake the most. What shocked him was the "thing" that had attached itself to her fate.

A long snake-like black strand had attached itself to Harper’s fate, coiling around it tightly while an ominous black aura snuffed out the golden light that was radiating from Harper’s fate.

When Lake lay eyes on the black snake, he felt unfamiliar emotions of hatred and disgust boiling up within him. These emotions came out of nowhere and had greatly shocked him, making him realize that something was wrong.

However, before he could even examine himself or the strange snake before him, Harper’s eyes slowly opened.

...

"Urgh..." Harper groaned as her eyes slowly opened.

When she had fallen from the cliff she had pushed herself to the limit in order to survive. Using the little mana remaining in her body, she strengthened her fingers and palm to drag against the cliff wall to slow her descent.

Her palm and fingers were grated against the wall and it wasn’t until her fingers broke and became twisted that she let go before crashing into the ground.

As she saw the ground approaching her she used the last drops of mana remaining in her body to protect her internal organs. That’s how she had managed to survive the fall. By protecting the internal organs she was able to stay alive and keep her body functioning even if her bones and skin were broken and torn.

She could feel the unbearable pain in her body causing her to groan as she opened her eyes. She was still a little disoriented, but was quickly coming to.

It was in that moment, when she finally gained some understanding of her surroundings that she noticed the figure looming over her making her jump up with fright.

However, this sudden motion caused her even more pain but she still endured it as she sat up, turning her fierce gaze towards the strange figure.

The forest was dark and only the dim light of the moon seemed to illuminate the area. The man was wearing a black hooded robe with a mask covering his face.

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" Harper shouted at the man in a defensive tone.

Her shouting caused her injuries to worsen making her groan and cough in pain, however, even then she did not turn her gaze away from the strange man before her.

She may have just woken up and was seriously injured but she knew that no one should be inside this rift besides her group.

It was only then that Harper noticed that the coat of the man before her was stained in a dense amount of blood which further raised her alertness.

Turning her gaze up she looked at the man in the eye. However, when their eyes met, Harper felt like she was thrust into an icy lake as a chill ran down her spine.

His eyes were blue and held a calm, almost indifferent aura, similar to that of a deep ocean. However, in that ocean Harper could see endless waves crashing against each other with murderous intent.

That rage was so intense and primal that it made her shiver with fear. However, she noticed that strangely, the man wasn’t looking at her, but above her. Before she could figure the reason out though, he turned his gaze down to meet hers as the previous anger and rage slowly vanished from his eyes, leaving behind only a cold, indifferent gaze.

...

Lake released a sigh of relief. He had managed to suppress the burning rage that appeared out of nowhere. Lake wasn’t sure why looking at the snake had such an effect on him but he assumed that it was most likely due to the Master of Fate role.

Ever since Lake had first gotten these roles, he has noticed several small changes in his personality that had an effect on him. For instance, ever since he got the Master Assassin role, his outlook on human life had changed to become cold and uncaring. He was more willing and inclined to make cruel choices if it meant an easier chance at completing the task at hand and killing had become second nature to him.

Whenever he was in combat he always approached it from the logical and methodological perspective of an Assassin, even though prior to getting the role he was only following his basic instincts to guide him in battle.

His Master of Fate role had also had an effect on him, although much smaller and harder to notice than the Master Assassin role. He had become confident, calmer and more decisive with his actions, acting less impulsively and less like a student of life, but more so a master of it.

However, Lake wasn’t just any master, he was the Master of Fate, and whatever that snake-like creature attached to Harper’s Fate was, it was something that he subconsciously hated and felt disgusted by.

When Lake thought of this, he went into deep thought.

"Maybe..."

However, before Lake could continue his thought, he was interrupted by Harper who called out to him again, this time in a softer tone.

"I’ll ask again, who are you?" Harper spoke after taking a deep breath.

She must admit she had become slightly terrified by the man before her after seeing the sheer amount of blood that he was covered in and the cold look in his eyes, but her pride would not allow her to show weakness.

Looking at the woman on the ground, Lake thought for a moment before he started to observe her fate while replying.

"I’m a hunter."

When Harper heard his reply, her eyes widened slightly but her suspicions didn’t die down.

"How did you get here?"

"How else? Through the rift, idiot."

Although Lake’s tone was neutral, his words were insulting and struck a nerve with Harper. As she was about to retort she suddenly remembered her grandfather who was still at the top of the mountain as she heard another high pitch roar erupt from atop the mountain.

Gritting her teeth, she turned to Lake, "Look I need your help. There are people up there that I need you to save. Since you’re a hunter who survived inside this rift you should at least be a Martial Warrior. If you can save them, I’ll be in your debt."

As she spoke the last words through gritted teeth, Harper felt like her pride was killing her but her love for her grandfather pushed her to lower it to ask for help.

"Oh? You’ll be in my debt? What a lucky day it must be for me." Lake spoke slowly as an evil smile formed on his face.

However Harper couldn’t see it under the mask and Lake’s tone still remained neutral so she thought that he was being sarcastic.

Gritting her teeth again, she spoke once more, this time with greater difficulty, "If you don’t trust me, trust in the reputation of the Sun family. My name is Harper Sun, the current heir to Sun’s Mana Technology. If you’ll help me, I, Harper Sun, swear on my pride and the reputation of the Sun family to make this deal. If you need further proof, I have my hunter certificate inside my left pocket with proof of my identity on it."

Harper chose to reveal her identity. She wasn’t dumb and knew the situation she was in right now. She had no leverage or anything of value at the moment that she could use to negotiate with Lake. However, her family was a different matter.

The Sun family was one of the top leading forces in terms of the new branch of technology that had taken off recently, Mana Tech. Their company was well known among hunters and civilians alike for making all forms of products ranging from daily utility items to powerful weapons that hunters could use in battle. The coat Lake looted off the pile of equipment back in the spider nest was one of their recently developed light armor products and Harper had personally worked on the design for it.

That’s why she was confident that Lake would know about the Sun Family’s reputation and agree to her request. She also used her Hunter’s certificate in her left pocket to prove her identity in case he thinks that she was lying to him.

When Lake heard her words, his smile under the mask became even wider, especially when he heard Harper swear on her pride.

After going through her fate Lake had come to a basic understanding of her situation and exactly what she was requesting from him. He was also able to discover some interesting information from it as well.

For instance, the fact that they entered with the Wolf King had given Lake a slight surprise. He remembered that the Wolf King couldn’t enter the rift on his own so Lake guessed that he used humans to open the rift first. As for the reason why this worked, Lake wasn’t sure.

Something else he found interesting was the face of a familiar figure who was a part of Harper’s group. He hadn’t seen this person for almost two months, who would have thought this would be how they met again. However, now was not the time to reminisce about the past.

Looking at Harper’s expression that was getting anxious, Lake took out a peach he had robbed off of the corpse of an ape and handed it to her. This peach grew from one of the trees that had mutated from the dense mana in the rift and had the helpful effect of recovering mana. Lake had no mana so the fruit served no purpose to him so he took it as a snack to eat while he was in the rift. Who knew it would have come up handy in such a situation?

"This peach helps recover mana. If you’re really from the Sun family you should have practiced their mana absorption technique. Use the mana to help speed up your recovery."

When Harper heard Lake’s words she frowned and was about to reply and ask him whether he agreed or not to save her group, but as soon as she opened her mouth, Lake stuffed the peach into her mouth.

While the peach was in her mouth Lake wasted no time and moved his hands to her broken legs, and with quick and precise movements, he realigned them in an instant.

Suddenly, the pain Harper was enduring all this time increased greatly causing her to subconsciously bite down on the peach in her mouth. If it wasn’t for the steady stream of mana entering her body and activating the recovery effect of the Blood Vitality Technique, she felt like she would have passed out from the pain.

After a minute or so, Lake had realigned the bones in her legs and used two pieces of wood and some vines to make a rudimentary splint. He also tied a tourniquet around her missing arm to stop the bleeding. With the healing and recovery effect of the Blood Vitality Technique, Lake wouldn’t have to worry about her succumbing to her injuries.

Harper herself was sweating in pain from the sudden emergency treatment. She wanted to curse but found she had no energy to do so.

After confirming that Harper wouldn’t die by looking at her halo that had changed from black to white, Lake turned his gaze towards the top of the mountain.