13 Betrayed!

The days flew by in a blur. Loki's Xp had upped to 55/100, he had 100 credits in his Inventory and he was feeling stronger than ever. Daphne and Terrence had been helping him train his swordsmanship, and since Daphne was always with them, no one had ever bothered their little group of five.

Currently, they were sitting at the cafeteria, eating their lunch as they discussed their plans for the day.

"Can we go to the marketplace?" Seraphine asked. "Me and Terrence wanted to buy some stuff."

"Why not?" Loki said with a small smile. "I want to get some weapons too."

"That's cool," Daphne said. "I'm going to get Elegans sharpened. What about you, Ava?"

"Yeah," Ava nodded absently.

"Ava? Are you okay? You've been like this ever since you got that call from your parents," Terrence asked concernedly.

"I'm fine!" Ava snapped. "It's just, my parents have been found murdered, and if that wasn't bad enough, it turns out that they didn't leave anything to me and gave it all to my damn cousin, Matthew!"

A few heads turned towards their direction, but Daphne glared at them, making them quickly look away.

"Oh," Seraphine said sympathetically. "That must be rough."

Ava took a deep breath. "Sorry for snapping at you guys. I just- My parents had always made it clear that they wanted a male to take over. I just hoped that one day, they would see that I was capable of taking over the family name."

"Then it's the perfect excuse to go to the market and let of some steam," Daphne squeezed Ava's hand comfortingly. "I know! I can treat everyone to some fresh bake rolls then show you guys the places I usually go!"

"You got me hooked when you said 'fresh baked rolls," Ava laughed.

After they finished their lunch, Daphne had brought them all to get them some rolls, then proceeded to bring them to all of her favourite spots in the market. She helped Seraphine pick out some new shampoo, got Elegans sharpened, showed Terrence where there were some Earth Ability books for sale if he ever wanted to buy it, and got them all friendship bracelets. She had showed Loki some weapons, and even offered to buy one of the cheap swords for Loki, which Loki had refused, remembering the beautiful cape that she had already purchased for him, and the sword that was already in his Inventory.

Currently, Daphne was leading them down a street into a more secluded area of the market. "This is where people do some more illegal trading, such as trading beast cores and weapons that were probably acquired illegally. So basically, don't let yourself be lured in here.

"Can't the government just stop it?" Seraphine asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"They could, but they don't so that when lower-leveled people buy them, they can arrest the buyers."

"Wait, surely higher-leveled people buy them as well?" Ava said, frowning.

"The government would probably ask for a bit of money and turn a blind eye, like the biased assholes they are," Daphne said in a disgusted tone.

"I-" Ava's phone rang. "Oh! I have to take this call. Be right back." Ava quickly ran down a nearby alleyway.

"What was that all about?" Terrence said in surprise.

"I have no idea. But once Ava gets back, we should be heading back to school," Loki said. "I'd rather not be caught here, thank you very much."

They waited in silence. After an eternity ("It's only been 15 minutes!" Daphne scolded Terrence, displaying the time on her wristwatch. "Stop being so impatient!"), Ava returned, looking slightly spaced out.

"Hey, Ava?" Loki said, shaking her shoulder lightly. "What's going on?"

Ava ignored him, suddenly running into the (illegal) trading hub.

"Ava? What are you doing? Come back! We're leaving!" Daphne called after Ava's retreating form. "Damn it. Come on, let's go after her!"

They followed Ava as she ran until she reached a clearing that was surrounded by woods, not to far away from the trading hub.

Why *huff* why did you come here?" Seraphine panted, out of breath as she stopped to rest for a moment.

"Because," Ava said turning to look at them. "They needed you."

"Huh? What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Terrence asked suspiciously, taking on a defensive stance.

Ava simply smirked and seemed to vanish into thin air.

Seraphine tried to summon up an Earth spike, but nothing happened. "What's going on?" Loki exclaimed.

[Inspect has been activated]

[Since Inspect has leveled up, you can now Inspect this clearing]

[Ability has been Inspected]

[Ability has been used over clearing]

[Ability has been used to shut down other's Abilities]

"Someone has used their Ability to shut ours off," Loki hurriedly told the others.

"Wait what? Who would be able to do that? And how do you know that?" Terrence said, looking disbelieving.

"I just do!" Loki said. Daphne added, "I'm not really sure what Ava just did, but I trust Loki."

Terrence opened his mouth to answer, but just then, Seraphine let out a shriek of pain as she fell to the ground, holding her leg that had a dart sticking out of it.

"Sis!" Terrence yelled, scanning the clearing for the culprit.

[Inspecting Dart]

[This Dart has poison]

[The poison is fatal]

[In an hour's time, Seraphine Narrington will die]

"Shit!" Loki cried out, rushing forward and pulling out the dart. "This thing has fatal poison!"

"All of you shut up," a voice said. All their heads turned to a masked man who was holding a knife to Daphne's throat. "If you continue to make any noise, I will kill your little friend here." He put more pressure on the knife against Daphne's throat, causing a small cut and a few beads of blood to well up. Everyone fell silent. "Good. Now, boy," he gestured to Terrence. "You pick up the girl and all of you follow me quietly."

Loki quickly Inspected the man.

[Name: Rashad Orchid]

[Race: Ogre]

[Agility: 3/3]

[Stamina: 13/13]

[Strength: 35/35]

[Speed: 5/5]

[Hp: 20/20]

[Estimated Level: 30]

[Ability: Shut down]

[He is able to temporarily shut down other's Abilities]

[Weakness: Loves to hear himself talk]

[Combat quest: Defeat Rashad Orchid: +50 Xp]

Loki didn't have a plan nor the capability to defeat Rashad immediately, so he mouthed to Terrence, 'Stall for time'.

Loki saw Terrence frown in confusion, but did as Loki asked.

"Hey, um, big man? Could I ask you where you're taking us?"

Rashad grinned. "Well, if you have to know, I'm taking orders from someone who's taking orders from someone else..."

Loki tuned them out as he quickly formed a plan. Rashad was strong, but he was slow. Rashad sill had the knife held near to Daphne, but if Loki timed it just right, and used the element of surprise, he could save them all and earn the Xp as well.

"Hey!" Loki said loudly to Rashad.

"What?" Rashad answered, looking annoyed at being interrupted.

"Let us go, Rashad Orchid!" Loki said while thinking, 'I want to take out the Monterisso Dragonskin cape and the AS sword now!'

[Monterisso Dragonskin Cape has been taken out of Inventory]

[AS Sword has been taken out of Inventory]

As Rashad was in momentary shock of Loki knowing his full name, Loki quickly pulled Daphne from Rashad's grasp and swinging on the cape, holding his AS sword like Daphne had thought him.

Loki ignored the cries of surprise from his friends as Rashad swung his fist came at Loki. Rashad's fist contacted with Loki's shoulder, and Loki fell to the ground with a wince.

[Damage taken]

[Hp: 11/15]

Rashad's fist came down on Loki's head, but Loki twirled out of the way, using all his might to swing the butt of his sword into Rashad's head.

Rashad fell to the ground, unconscious.

[Opponets Hp is now 1]

[Combat quest completed: +50 Xp]

[You have Leveled Up]

[You are now Level 4]

[5/200 Xp]

[Hp: 16/20]

[You have now unlocked a new Ability]

[Ability: Mind Link]

[This Ability allows you to create a link between one person, and allows you to communicate telepathically]

[When you create Mind Link, you will -12 Strength]

[You have obtained a stat point]

[Where would you like to add your stat point?]

'Save it,' Loki thought as he quickly knelt next to Seraphine. 'Take out the Flip Venom, now.'

[Flip Venom has been taken out of the Inventory]

[29 spaces remaining]

Loki ripped the leaves off, crushing the stem and quickly letting the sap trickle into Seraphine's mouth.

"Ugh," Seraphine groaned. "Sis! Are you okay now?" Terrence asked worriedly. "Yeah, I feel better now. I think the main question is, what the hell did you just do, Loki?"

Loki ignored them, putting his hand to Rashad's head. 'Activate Memory Warp.'

[Memory Warp Activated]

[-5 Stamina]

[Stamina: 6/11]

"When you wake up, you'll remember that we managed to run from you."

His hand glowed for a moment, and he left his hand on Rashad's head until his hand stopped glowing.

'Store back all my items.'

[Monterisso Dragonskin Cape stored in Inventory]

[AS Sword stored in Inventory]

[Flip Venom leaves stored in Inventory]

[26 spaces remaining]

"What the-" Loki hushed them, motioning for them to follow him.

Once they had exited the illegal trading hub and went to a secluded corner, they rounded on Loki. "Okay," Daphne said sternly. "What the hell was that?!"

Loki gave a small sigh and gave them a summary on everything.

All of them looked confused as Terrence asked, "I don't really get it. How did you get that system thingy? And how did you know that you had to be 16 to open it? And-"

"I'll explain it again tomorrow. Can you guys just drop it for today? I'm really tired," Loki muttered, running his hand through his hair. "Please?"

"Fine," Seraphine said. "But you had better tell us tomorrow."

"Promise," Loki said. "But right now, I'm really tired. I'm going to skip dinner and just go sleep now."

Loki trudged back to his room, washing up and flopping to the bed.

The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was the whispers of his friends, before he submitted to the tiredness and fell asleep.