chapter 5

Chapter Five: The Red Light's Veil

Lucien was joyfully walking home, thinking of going to tell his step mother of his new found power.

As he was walking home he smelled something burning, his heart pounded in his chest as he approached his home, a sense of foreboding hanging heavy in the air. Something was amiss. As he drew nearer, his ears caught the distant sounds of commotion, accompanied by the anguished cries of his mother.

Fear gripping his heart, Lucien quickened his pace, his feet barely touching the ground. Panic and adrenaline coursed through his veins, propelling him forward. Bursting through the door, his worst fears materialized before his eyes.

Bandits, their faces masked by greed and cruelty, were pillaging his home. The sight of his mother's absence sent a surge of terror through him. The desperate need to find her overwhelmed all rational thought.

The system within him recognized the dire situation, activating and presenting him with a quest:

["Bandit Extermination]

[ kill 5 bandits ]

[ Reward: feather dagger , 50EXP,

Skill burst]

[ Penalty: None]

The gods watched closely, testing his mettle and urging him to rise above his mortal limitations. Lucien accepted the quest with a newfound determination.

Silently, like a shadow in the night, Lucien began his stealthy assault on the bandits. One by one, he approached them undetected, his movements fluid and precise. With each strike of his weapon, he silenced another threat. The bandits fell without a sound, unaware of their imminent demise.

Finally, only one bandit remained—their leader, the key to unlocking the whereabouts of Lucien's mother. His heart raced as he pressed the blade against the bandit's throat, his voice trembling with both anger and desperation.

"Tell me where she is," Lucien demanded, his voice laced with an iron determination.

The bandit, his eyes wide with fear, revealed the location of their hideout in the heart of the infamous red light district. With the information he needed, Lucien swiftly dispatched the bandit, his gaze never wavering from his objective.

Leaving the scene of the shattered home behind, Lucien embarked on a perilous journey through the darkened streets. The gods, observing his every move, whispered guidance and strength in his ears, their divine presence urging him onward.

Finally, he reached the entrance of the red light district. The air was thick with an undercurrent of danger and temptation. Lucien paused for a moment, his eyes scanning the dimly lit streets ahead. The weight of the task ahead settled upon his shoulders, but he refused to falter.

This was just the beginning of his quest to rescue his beloved mother, and the gods watched intently, their eyes filled with anticipation. With a resolute heart, Lucien stepped into the swirling chaos of the red light district, his determination unyielding.

He never had strength before and the feeling he had in his chest when he heard of the kidnapping of his mother gave him adrenaline and anger as she was the only close memory he had of his father, as although his eldest brother doted on him as much as his father he stopped knowing his younger brother needed to mature. The red lights seemed to correspond with his anger. He never felt like this as before even at this moment he would've been to scared to even kill someone let alone chase them back to their base, just the sight of blood made him weak to his knees but after seeing what he's seen on his journey, to getting this powers and having Panthenon he was still scared shitless. He knows the anger in him and adrenaline keep him from thinking of it as reality but this anger also fuelled his strength so charged in regardless of his senses telling him to run .