Page 3 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
I had to open each tab to see their full information, but otherwise, I could scroll through three notifications at a time in the preview window.
[Perk Quest: Previously on Dungeon Delves and Debutantes …]
[Passive Perk:Sense Fatehas activated. Duke Julian von Slyke will lose his locket at the Coral Palace West Fountain tonight …]
[Passive Perk:Sense Fatehas activated. General Visha Hemsworth will be poisoned at the Fardew tavern tomorrow …]
I opened my Season Two quest and grinned at all the changes that were happening.
EveryErrorwas a victory. Five years spent preparing to subvert the tragedies of the first season. It’d made Season Two harder in some ways because the story had gone so wildly off base, but I’d made it work.
Because listen to me when I say that an orphanage burning down was a simple plot device until you walked past said orphanage every time you visited your favorite bakery in Servalt. And who said the Heroine of Justice had to slaughter the entire Dark Enchanted Forest and then finish off the Dark Lord with a well-timed punch to the face? No one. Not on my watch!
I’d had plenty of time to level up to boss monster status and carefully curate a character build that would let me change the storyline. Every ten levels came with a title, and every title came with one skill selection. For example, at level forty, I’d chosen the Oracle title and the [Foretelling] skill, which allowed me to pick anyone and see where they would be right now in any of the original storylines. Every two levels gave one skill point, and every two skill points gave one perk. With [Foretelling 4], I’d chosen the perks [Sooth] and [Sense Fate].
[Sooth] showed me where key events were going to happen on my mini map, and [Sense Fate] notified me if I could change someone’s fate as long as they got close enough to me to enter my area of effect: Level 65 x Perception 43 x Foretelling 4 = 11,180 sq/ft. A perfect size for anyone crossing my troll bridge.
I sucked at math, and so spent an unreasonable amount of time double-checking or guessing where the limits of my area of effect were … but I managed.While we’d been standing around talking about our plans at the gate, one of the main love interests had entered the city and passed us by, activating my passive perks.
It would’ve been nice to relax and walk around the market before getting straight into it, but an NPC’s work was never done.
I summoned the Master Crystal from my storage.
The future wasn’t going to tell itself.
CHAPTER 2
Dragging Him Back By One Pointy Ear
Julian
Julian von Slyke took his sweet time riding up to the Coral Palace.
He was accompanied by his five trusted party members, all of whom had invites to the Summer Masquerade Ball.
He wasn’t actuallyneededhere this early, but his mother had insisted. It would be three more days until his younger sister’s wedding, and honestly, he would’ve held off arriving until the dayofif he’d thought he could get away with it.
His mother wouldneverlet him get away with it. Grand Duchess Calisto of North Sumbria was a legend. He shuddered to think of her storming off to the Northern Fortress and dragging him back by one pointy ear—just as she’d done to get him to Julia’s debutante at the Spring Ball earlier this year.
His sister had managed to escape her coming of age ceremony until she’d reached twenty-three by gallivanting off to become a famous adventurer and the Paladin of Light. He’d been thinking about not going to the Spring Ball … but then, his mother had stormed the Northern Fortress and dragged him back home without a by-your-leave. At least he’d managed to dodge the afternoon tea party.
As her older brother, Julian had escorted Julia and their mother into the ballroom, danced the first dance, and then promptly escaped back to the North.
Where he belonged. Monster surges from the Northern Ice Fields’ hidden dungeon could happen at any time, and he was in charge of defending the border to prevent the monsters from escaping into the rest of Valaria.
Creatures spawned in dungeons were born with monster madness, and when left unchecked, they overcrowded the dungeon and spilled out into the real world. If left unchecked too long, a dungeon could grow powerfulenough to escape the confines of its pocket dimension and claim the land around it. His goal was tofindthe dungeon and defeat it before the unthinkable happened.
“Your Grace!” his childhood friend, Jeffry, called out. He was the only other half elf besides himself in Julian’s regular raiding party.
Usually, if an elf and a human had a child, the system would choose one or the other to pass along to that child, and they would be born an elfora human. But on the rare occasion, like with Julian’s own elf father and human mother, a half elf could be born.
Suddenly, the light of the Crystal Cast Network flashed just above the roofline. The crystals were installed in every populated locale across the continent and usually reserved for use by the local high nobility exclusively.
That had all changed five years ago, however, when an unsanctioned voice had echoed across every single Crystal Cast in the known world.
The same voice that spoke today.
Hello, everyone, it’s Madame Potts!
