BXBX NOVEL Chapter 49 49: Hermits In The Desert [Pt1]
As soon as Keith handed the stone over to Shinzou, he noticed a weird light coming out of it. And suddenly, there seemed to be a screen in front of his eye that looked like an interface.
The blue-tinted screen scared Keith by suddenly appearing but he kept his composure all thanks to the grandmaster\'s poker face. Then, he observed the screen in front of him, only to notice various skills he could choose from.
\'Let\'s see. Which skill I should store for the first usage?\'
Keith needed to choose carefully because he will not be able to choose a second skill until he used his current skill.
But that was a problem in itself. Due to the limitations of the mama stone, Keith could only choose skills that suited his level. There were 4 available skills available in the list currently while the others were marked as ???
The currently available skills were as follows:
Flash fire lvl 2 which could be used to make small fires
Strength lvl 3 could be used to increase your body strength
Small-distance teleportation could be used to travel approximately 10 meters away.
Strength of aura that can flare your natural aura and make the other person intimidated by you.
These were all good skills to have but Keith could tell which one he preferred straight away. The teleportation would be the most useful one in this case since Keith could just use the ring Clair had given him to enhance his aura.
He quickly picked the skill he wanted and the stone went bright red.
The sudden light ended up startling Shinzou but he managed to not drop the stone. And finally, Keith retrieved the stone once he was sure it had soaked enough in Shinzou\'s aura.
"Grandmaster, is this some new technique you are developing? I felt a small shock go through my body just now."
Shinzou did not quite complain but he did not sound happy when he reported this to the grandmaster. Keith flinched internally but he did not let it show on his face.
\'Shit, I did not expect Keith to feel it when I use this mana stone. I would have to be careful the next time I use it.\'
Inwardly, Keith had a lot of worries but he was the grandmaster and he could not let it show on his face.
"Don\'t worry so much about the small shock you felt just now. It is quite normal and you were supposed to feel that. You can go back to your training now if you want to."
Keith decided to cut this conversation short. He had a feeling that it was going in a direction he did not want this conversation going.
"Are you sure, grandmaster? Are you \'sure\' sure you don\'t need my help anymore?"
Shinzou questioned Keith with a serious face. Shinzou was almost directly on-level with Keith when he asked this question.
Had Keith been able to show his emotions, he would have pushed the irritating man back but Keith\'s poker face did not move and his body went stiff due to the sudden closeness instead.
"Yes, I am sure. Now go back to training."
In the end, Shinzou returned to his training with a disappointed look on his face. His dejected expression was a funny one and looked odd on his otherwise confident face.
Now that Keith had attained his objective to get one skill he could use, it was time to go and get more information from Clair.
Clair should have everything regarding Lady Olivia Greenwood sorted out and Keith wanted to remove her name from the threat list as soon as he could.
The first place Keith looked for Clair was her room and luckily, she was there this time.
........
For the first time in a few days, Clair felt well-rested and ready to face the world. She had finally managed to get a good night\'s sleep and the urge to snap in Keith\'s face had ebbed with a full night\'s sleep.
She was in such a good mood that she even ended up taking out the additional notes she had made when she had been going over the documents.
"As you can see, there is news of Lady Olivia\'s recently announced tournament. It seems like the rumors were confirmed yesterday and the tournament would take place in a month."
Clair turned the page as she remembered what else was important.
"As always, it would be held in Dead man\'s land so that no legal issues occur and no one would connect the dots to her."
There was a reason why Lady Olivia was never caught even when everyone knew she was the mastermind behind these competitions. It was mainly because there was no physical evidence of her involvement.
"Olivia Greenwood is a meticulous lady so I am sure she is not holding this tournament without a goal in mind. Do we know what the prize this time is?"
This was all Keith wanted to know. Was this tournament even worth his attention? Or would it be better to go directly after Olivia Greenwood?
"Well, that\'s the tough part. No one knows what the prize is this time. We all tried looking around but there was not even a whisper about the prize. Apparently, the prize would be given to the winner in private by Lady Olivia."
That complicated things. The universe was pushing Keith into this road.
"Looks like I have no choice on that matter. I will have to participate in the competition under a different name. I will need to craft a new identity for myself."
Keith was not looking forward to living a double life but that was what would allow him to live.
"Oh, that should be nice for you. It should finally allow you to live your life the way you want to. But you will need to cover yourself properly so that you are not found out. Time management could also be an issue."
Clair pointed out the flaws of Keith\'s plan to him but Keith suddenly felt excited once he realized that he could be himself in his new identity.
\'It\'s not a bad idea, right? It could allow me to get away with so much more and I will also not risk ruining my reputation as the grandmaster.\'
Clair did bring up the idea of using a proxy or a decoy to participate in this competition but it was vetoed in the end. They could not risk someone else finding out that the mother pearl was missing.
This was a huge risk already in Keith\'s eyes.
So in the end, it was decided that Keith would disguise himself as an adventurer and participate in this tournament.
Now all that was left was to craft a new identity for himself and to create a back story as well. Keith had an idea of how to do that on both fronts.
"Clair, I will be going out alone again and I might have someone with me when I return. Make sure you have a room and a magical contract prepared for me by the time I leave tomorrow."
Since Keith could not make a fake identity appear out of nowhere without risking being found out, he was going to go with the next best thing - Keith was going to buy an identity.
In the original MMO game, there was one place that was capable of providing Keith with a fake identity that existed and could be looked into.
There was a secluded mercenary group called Hermits which excelled in buying and selling all kinds of goods, even identities if you could pay them the right price.
But what these Hermits traded in was not money, it was information. You needed to pay the right price to get what you wanted.
\'And since I am someone who knows the future, my information would be beyond valuable to these people. I am sure they will not refute my offer.\'
Keith was very confident in himself and he set out on the journey the very next morning.
For the first time since had entered this world, Keith was journaling out alone. But thankfully, the grandmaster was known to wander around all the time in the original game.
The location of Hermits changed depending on the route you played and what time it was in the game you encountered the forbidden desert, but Keith had paid an informant guild enough money to find these people under Clair\'s name.
And this was how Keith found himself trekking through the desert on a normal day. It was to track down Hermits\' latest camp and to get them to accept his request.
But the sun was too bright and it was going to erode away Keith\'s disguise with it\'s sharp rays. The only ray of hope in the vast desert was that Keith was almost to the Hermite\'s campout.
He breathed a sigh of relief once he reached the camp and knocked on the door. It opened, an eye looked at Keith and the door was closed shut once again on his face.