[Fear Mask]

Mike activated the effects to the Mask on his face and as he did the girl who was sitting on the couch waiting for Mike to do something suddenly freezes up as she looks at Mike.

From Mike's perspective, he saw the carefree girl who was sitting on the couch suddenly freeze up as her eyes suddenly glazed over and she started shivering prompting Mike to move closer to her to see what was happening to her.

"STOP! DON'T COME NEAR ME!" The girl yells out at the top of her lungs as she suddenly starts moving to the corner of the room as far as possible from Mike

Her yelling at him just scared him as well since Mike had no idea what she was seeing through the effects of the mask so he just moves back towards the doorway and decides to stay as far away from her as possible to see what the limits of this mask were since it was not really defined. Seeing Mike back up the girl was not as scared as before but she was very jumpy from Mike could see as she was just staring straight at him not blinking for fear that he would suddenly appear in front of her.

Eventually, the minute passes, and the girl's eyes turn to normal but she is still scared of Mike as she looks at him.

8 and 5

This time the five stays instead of the eight

'Wait why did that rol- blargh!' Before Mike could move from his position or register why he had rolled the dice he was tackled from behind

With it being so sudden Mike is now lying face-first on the floor with something heavy on him keeping him there while there was someone who grabs his hands and pulls them behind his back.

"You there! What happened to her!" A feminine voice rings out behind him

"N-nothing I did nothing to her I swear!" Mike says

15

'What the hell you stupid system I did nothing to that girl!' Mike shouts seeing how the dice were rolled

"Actually brother I think that you traumatized that poor girl," Abbey chimes in after reviewing what happened

'What the Hell! How?!'

"How else?"

'...'

'The mask dammit' Mike thinks

"Get me some rope and we will take this bastard to the room," The voice rings out once more as she says something to someone else Mike can hear footsteps retreating from the room

"Look lady I did nothing can you please let me go so we can talk about this?" Mike asks hoping to not escalate things if possible

"Shut your mouth!" Was the only reply that he got from her

'Welp don't blame me then'

[Ice Blast]

72

Mike has taken 5 frost damage

Synthia has taken 5 frost damage

With Mike's hands being behind him he assumed that there was someone behind him holding him down so Mike used that assumption to try a spell.

"Augh!"

The shout of surprise and the notification that he received proved that he was right.

12

With the roll of the dice, Mike can free himself from the woman's grasp and clamber off the floor and move to one of the corners of the room.

Now that Mike was off the floor he was surprised to see that the woman he attacked was a lady in a full suit of metal armor that had some leather cloth in the joints to prevent the noise from escaping whenever the pieces moved and hit each other.

The armor was in quite a good condition with there being sort of markings and decor on it for which Mike had no idea for what they were meant to be either as decoration or something else.

"Um... look lady I am sorry for attacking you but can we please talk through this?" Mike tries speaking but the only response he receives was her drawing her sword and rushing Mike

'Sarenthia hold her back please and don't harm her' Mike asks

Sarenthia flies out of Mike's scabbard and flies towards the lady and fends off her initial strikes at Mike.

"Look lady please can we talk through this?!" Mike tries again as he does not want to kill anyone here if possible

If he wanted to leave he always could make a way out if he was overwhelmed and the exit downstairs was blocked by more people trying to stop him.

"Shut your mouth you bastard in the name of Drohdia I will defeat you!" The armored lady says as she starts attacking with renewed vigor that even Sarenthia is having a tough time dealing with her with the limitations that Mike set on her

'Wait what?' Mike thinks as he hears the name of Drohdia

"Um, Mike you may want to take a look at her information...." Abbey says prompting Mike to do so

______________________

Name: Synthia Roseward

Level 13 Fallen Paladin

Race: Half-Elf

Health: Unable to see due to difference in level

Skills: Unable to see due to difference in level

Weapons:

Shortsword (10-13 piercing damage)

Spells: Unable to see due to difference in level

Highest cast spell: 3rd tier spell

______________________

'Fallen paladin huh?' Mike thinks to himself as he sees the information presented to him

Paladins are generally overly religious people who can use magic and cast through whatever god they worship but unlike clerics who are more known to use the power of their god to heal, paladins mainly use it for fighting and attacking more than anything. In D&D there was a variant of the paladin class where a paladin falls from grace by going against the code that they both follow and as a result of that their nature changes into becoming a fallen paladin where their god rebukes them and their powers go to the dark side of things.

Now in D&D, these fallen paladins had one chance to redeem themselves and if they did they would be able to become regular paladins once more but after that, if they fell again they could not return to the way they were once.

Seeing an actual fallen paladin in front of him Mike was a bit hesitant on how he should approach this.

'Sarenthia come back now I don't need you anymore' Mike says prompting Sarenthia who was dealing with the paladins advances stops for a split second before flying to Mike and hovering near him

"Die!" The paladin says as she rushes Mike once more

"So this is how the god Drohdia teaches her followers?" Mike says

That remark makes the paladin who was about to strike Mike and behead him stop in her tracks with her swing. She then moves back a bit while looking at Mike.

Mike could not see her expression due to her helmet that she wore and she could not see his due to the mask that he was wearing.

Mike takes off his mask and looks at the paladin before him.

'Sarenthia you don't need to worry about me go back into the scabbard' Mike tells her

She slowly floats down and goes back into his scabbard without saying anything but she was defiantly ready to fly into action if she deemed it necessary to do so.

"Look miss we got off on the wrong foot I did nothing wrong to that girl I may have scared her... but I did nothing to harm her physically I promise on well... your god I guess," Mike says

The girl does not react particularly to what Mike has said

"I will not take your word for not harming this girl, while I do not take your word for it, I now realize that I may have overreacted a bit at what happened," She says

"Thank you for not killing me," Mike says in relief

"I have not decided if I should yet that is all," She responds

'Well crap'

"I got the rope!" A voice shouts out as another girl runs into the room this time she was actually wearing some actual clothing and not the workers clothing

"Oh..." She says as she sees Mike was now off the floor and was standing near one of the corners of the room

"Hi," Mike says seeing her enter

The girl that entered was the same height as Mike, had brown hair, was wearing actual clothes, tanned skin, a decent figure, and a pair of blue eyes that were now trained at Mike.

"Um... Synthia should we... you know bring him to the room?" the girl asks

"Not yet I will decide if we shall bring him there," Synthia says

"Now then tell us what happened here?" Synthia asks Mike

"Alright look all I did was test the effects of this item here alright," Mike says as he points to his mask in hand

"Why did you come here for that? where did you get it? What does it do? Are there any harmful effects?" Synthia starts bombarding Mike with some questions

"Hold on one question at a time alright"

"Hmf"

"Look first off I came to the slums to test it here because I had no other idea where I could use it, as for it's effecting it makes people fear the user, I won't tell you how I got it but I will say I did not steal it, and finally it should not have any sort of harmful effects," Mike says answering the questions that were asked

"Hm... had that mask to me," Synthia says

"Um, n-"

"That was not a request," She says while moving her sword a little as an emphasis to what she was saying as she cuts Mike off

"... Fine here," Mike says as he hands the mask to her

She starts inspecting it for a bit trying to find something that Mike could not see or know.

"Hm... I guess I will just have to believe that you are telling the truth about the mask for now," Synthia says as she moves towards the girl who was still in the corner scared out of her wits at what had just happened

"I would like my mask back please," Mike asks to which Synthia does not reply and ignores him

When Mike had activated the effects of the mask the girl say that Mike became a monster of some kind, while there seemed to hundreds of pained and screaming voices telling her to run away from him or else she might join them. When Mike took a step closer that was when she kinda broke down as her body was telling her that she needed to run as she saw that there were more terrifying monsters than Mike behind him waiting to get her and by staying still she would die by their claws and teeth.

She became even more scared when Synthia appeared after the mask's effects wore off as she saw that everything was fine and that she was not as scared as before. Still, she was scared to see Mike being tackled, then his actions to free himself, and everything else that happened past that.

"Are you alright?" Synthia asks the girl

She does not say anything but just nods her head at her slowly as she realizes that everything is fine with her around.

"Did he do anything to harm you?" Synthia asks

The girl does not move as she tries to think about what had happened.

"Look miss I am sorry for doing that to you alright, but I just wanted to test out my new item if you want I can give you some compensation," Mike chimes in from the corner

"You can-"

"It is alright sir I understand that you did not intend for this happen and I will gladly accept that compensation," The girl cuts in as she realizes that she can get some money out of this

"How does 10 gold sound to you?" Mike asks as he moves towards his money pouch that is on his hip

"Sure thing!" The girl says as her timid mood is instantly replaced

Mike hands off the money and looks towards the fallen paladin before holding out his hand.

"Can I have my mask now?" Mike asks her

"No"