8 The Key That Would Change Fate

Following the Wretched Mother's death, the undead army's attack on Tristram came to a halt. After walking back exhausted with the Crusader, the only people left to welcome them back at the town gates were two archers and Captain Rumford.

"Nice work, kid."

Looking at Fang Zheng, Rumford smiled gladly. He extended his hand and patted Fang Zheng on his shoulder before looking to the Crusader.

"Thank you for your help. You can go in now, Leah is in the Slaughtered Calf's Inn, Fang Zheng can bring you there… What's wrong, kid?"

"It's nothing, Captain Rumford."

Hearing the concerned tone of Rumford, Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders. He was regretting his thoughts from before now. He'd thought that while this system was a bit dangerous and a bit troublesome, it was at least giving clear objectives. What he didn't expect was for the third progression of the Defender quest to be so utterly horrible!

Changing his fate?

Thinking of the mission requirements, Fang Zheng felt a strong sense of troublesomeness. The missions that came out of the system were random, and he never imagined that the mission itself wouldn't give any hints or guides, just telling Fang Zheng to change his fate. Just what was he supposed to do? Not only that, this system was even telling him that failing the mission would result in him being forced to stay here. It even went to the extra care of showing him the countdown timer. Great, he now had 48 hours to change this 'fate' of his…

He'd been thinking of grinding and leveling up for a bit beside the Nephalem, but it seemed that it wasn't possible anymore.

"Please come with me."

With that, he stood up straight and nodded to the crusader before entering the town.

The two didn't talk about anything, though Fang Zheng would be interested in checking out Nephalem details on the official Diablo page if he had the time. Right now, though, he wasn't in the mood to be wasting that time. The mission gave him only 48 hours about this whole fate thing, and he still had no idea where to go.

Fang Zheng didn't really remember the plot for Diablo 3 anymore, but it wasn't really unexpected when one was immersed in hunting unexplored areas all the time. What Diablo was talking about in its story didn't quite matter as much to the player anymore, they just wanted to grind out their equipment and items…

When Fang Zheng entered the Slaughtered Calf Inn, he spotted a frowning Leah at the counter. This short-haired girl was sitting on the chair and seemed to be mumbling about something with the owner, who broke away from the conversation upon seeing Fang Zheng enter. He gave him a passionate wave of his hand.

"Kid! You've saved us again! Here, this one's on me… Who's the miss?"

The Crusader walked up on cue and took off her helmet, revealing noble facial features and a blonde ponytail on her shoulder. She smiled warmly to the owner before looking to Leah.

"Hello, Miss Leah, I am a Crusader of Zakarum, called Aribeth…"

What the hell?!

Fang Zheng almost threw out the ale in his hands as he heard that. He turned around and looked at this Crusader before him. This miss Nephalem's name and hairstyle was not a good sign!

Fang Zheng had already seen the ending, after all!

Putting all that aside, Fang Zheng thought that he should first let this Crusader girl change her name and hairstyle… This way his mission would likely be finished easily… as if.

Was it Leah then?

At that thought, Fang Zheng looked over to the young girl once more. He naturally knew that this girl had Diablo hidden inside her, and that the god would use her body to make a revival. Thinking about it logically, if Fang Zheng were to cut her down with a sword strike, that'd be considered changing his fate, but… Was that possible?

Not considering the fact that Leah was a battle type character, that Diablo inside her was equally scary with its strength. Even if Fang Zheng were to attack out of nowhere, he wouldn't be able to bypass Diablo's eyes. If he were to force him into a corner, it wouldn't end well for Fang Zheng either. 

And so, he let that idea pass after thinking about if a bit.

At that time, Aribeth had started asking Leah about the fallen meteor, and Leah was explaining to the Nephalem the way she did in the game, at the same time requesting her to find her uncle Deckard Cain… Hmm?

Fang Zheng's eyes lit up.

Right, how could he forget about an important character like Deckard Cain!

If Fang Zheng remembered it correctly, Deckard Cain was threatened by Maghda, the head of the cult, who wanted him to fix Tyrael's broken divine sword. Deckard refused and was promptly heavily injured by Maghda's underlings. Following that, Leah unleashed her own power and scared off Maghda, leaving Deckard with his last breath that he used to repair the divine weapon… to lose his life in the process.

And at this point, the Nephalem, the main character of the game departed from Tristram in search of the third piece of the divine sword!

So, if he were to find this third piece preemptively, would that mean he didn't need to leave Tristram anymore? Would this be a change of his fate?

At that thought, it seemed as if it really were the key to changing this fate!

With his present strength, though, there was no need to even consider saving the Nephalem or killing Diablo. He was a militia soldier right now, and even if he knew the Crusader's Strike, Fang Zheng didn't think he'd be more capable than the Nephalem. So, singling out those difficult options, what he could do now was find the third divine sword piece beforehand, allowing him to fix the sword earlier. The Tyrael who had lost his memory wouldn't be captured by Maghda in the first place. He'd also keep grinding out the labyrinth's monsters, and Deckard Cain would survive as well. Wasn't that a perfect scenario? Taking a step back, even if something were to happen to Deckard later on, like him dying, for example, Fang Zheng would still have changed the fact that Tyrael prevented capture! This was a change of fate, wasn't it? Tyrael would even recover his memory!

With that, he made the decision. The Nephalem would be the main character at the meteor site, so there wouldn't be much trouble for sure. Considering the time limit the system gave him, it was also a certainty that the plot would take place nearby. Otherwise, if Fang Zheng were to be forced to go to some distant place like the Halls of Agony to "change his fate", the time limit would've been finished before he could even reach that place.

"So, I'll depart right away."

The girl with the dangerous hair and dangerous name, the Crusader had finished talking with Leah. She put her helmet on and looked forward.

"Will you be coming with me?"

"It's alright, I have a more important mission."

Getting seen as important by the main character was a good thing, but Fang Zheng didn't have time to deal with that, and so he declined the Nephalem with a shake of his head. The Nephalem didn't say much, giving a slight nod instead, before leaving briskly.

Seeing her leave, Fang Zheng exited the inn as well. He was thinking of chatting with Leah a bit more, but unfortunately it didn't seem like she was in the mood to be talking with him. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he'd declined the Crusader's invitation, making her quite displeased. The girl only gave him a look before turning to go back to her room, but Fang Zheng wouldn't be pissed at her or anything like that. What if that resulted in the Diablo bursting out or something, it'd be him getting messed up.

He didn't say anything else, but left the inn and tried looking for Rumford. He wanted to ask permission for going to Wortham.

"To Wortham?" The captain was clearly taken aback by this decision.

"Why would you go to Wortham?"

"I've received some news. One of the pieces of the comet seemed to have fallen in the direction of Wortham, and I wanted to see if I might find some clue to the secrets of the meteor."

Fang Zheng's words were perfectly sound and because of that, the captain didn't take too long before nodding his head.

"Alright, I'll inform the boatman to make the preparations. But you've just gone through a big battle, don't you want to rest first?"

"It's fine, I'll rest on the road."

The clock was already ticking for his mission, after all, he didn't have extra time to be wasting on his bed.

"Alright."

Seeing that rushed look on Fang Zheng's face, Rumford didn't say anything much but nodded his head a little more. He led him to the docks, talked to the boatman a bit, and Fang Zheng was on his way in the boat. Going with the current, they headed for Wortham.