Single Stat System

Chapter 6: Fated Encounter

"Whew, that was a tough escape!"

In an alley somewhere between the buildings of the city, a young lady in her early twenties heaved a huge sigh of relief. She was hooded in a white cloak with some kind of yellow lines on it as she leaned her back against the stone wall before wiping out the sweats on her forehead with the back of her slender hand.

Beside her was a humanoid creature resonating to that of a fairy. It had a tiny body with a size of about a little larger than the palm of an adult human. Its green and somewhat transparent wings flapped with a breeze of the wind as it floated just in front of the young lady and as it persuaded anxiously, "Lady Stella we should really go back home now."

"Huh? What are you saying, we are just taking a stroll here why are you making a fuss over it?" The young lady named Stella answered in displeasure accompanied by a frown. A moment later, her frown turned into a smile as she continued, "Don't worry Sylva, we're just going to meet the one I saw in my dreams."

"But it's still uncertain..." The small creature named Sylva interjected.

"No more buts." Stella raised her hand and flicked the forehead of the little creature in front of her making it back away a little and hold its forehead with its two little hands. After which, Stella chuckled softly as she continued, "Besides, the 'falling star in the day' that I saw in my dreams had just appeared a little while ago, we need to go in that direction if we want to see the mystery behind my dreams!"

After which was said, Stella was just about to leave the alley but to her shock, something she was afraid of, happened right before her eyes. Two men in black suits obstructed her view. She never had expected that she would be found out so fast by them.

"Young lady, please don't make things difficult for us and come with us right now." One of the men in black pleaded.

"No way!" Stella immediately ran away in the opposite direction. After which, she turned her meaningful gaze to her summoned Spirit signaling that she wanted to speed up.

Seeing her stubborn master, Sylva could only sigh deeply as she waved her hand and a green magic circle appeared right in front of Stella's chest. Stella felt very light as she felt that the wind was one with her. She could only smile widely as her speed had boosted twice if not thrice.

In no time at all, Stella reached the end of the alley and immediately blended herself with the crowds.

"We have found the young lady!" One of the men in black exclaimed as they frenziedly chased after their young lady. In front of him was a hologram screen projection and a map of the entire city was revealed on it. The map was perfectly round in shape just like the many other cities on the Greedland.

Almost all the cities in Greedland were encircled by a towering wall and it was perfectly round in shape. Other than the stone wall, there was also some kind of invisible barrier that was covering the sky of the entire city. And this city was just the same.

On the map, many small icons of different faces scattered all over signifying the current location of each of them who were chasing their young lady.

Just after a moment the man in black delivered the message to everyone, the hologram screen disappeared as the two of them focused their attention on the young lady who had just disappeared from their sight.

"Damn, did we lose her?" Standing at the end of the alley, they looked around the crowds but to their frustrations, they couldn't find their young lady anymore.

"She's still around, let's split up." The other one replied.

"Alright."

With that said, the two separated their ways.

***

"Ugh, if I want to meet with the Vessel then what should I give to be accepted as his follower...?" In a certain street, a man was walking with a frown on his face as he seemed worried about his current predicament.

Taking a closer look, that man was actually the one from before who seemed to know something about the 'thing' that fell from the sky a while ago. His messy brown hair became even messier when he halted his steps and frenziedly scratched his hair, seemingly racking his brain to find an answer.

In front of him was a hologram screen. And a graphical representation of many slots projected on it. Above the many slots was a single big word written in white saying, "Inventory".

But what was astonishing about it was that only empty slots could be found on the screen. There were also a couple of zeros at the end of each word under the word 'Inventory';

Copper: 0, Silver: 0, Gold: 0, Gem: 0.

If one would just see it, anyone would definitely believe that he was a complete newbie.

"That damn hidden boss, how could he be so cruel to me and steal all my possessions..." Seemingly wanting to cry, the man complained indignantly. He then continued his journey and dismissed the System as the hologram screen vanished right away.

***

"Just who is that young lady?"

Somewhere in a downtown where many stands of all sort of stuff lied down on the ground, people around followed their gazes to the beautiful lady leaving the area. Even if they didn't ask it, they definitely understood that she was a high-level Player or had a frightening background.

Knowing these facts, no one dared to approach her for they were all afraid to incur her wrath.

Instead, they all turned back their gazes to the old man who sold the old book for 2,000 gold as they all had the same thought floating on their mind. And that was, 'to extort or rob the old man!'

But to their shock, the old man was nowhere to be found anymore. Not even a trace of his stand was left. Not even one of them noticed when and how did that old man leave. It was as if the old man wasn't there in the first place!

"Just what the hell is that old man, he's too good at escaping!" Everyone around thought in unison as they were all starting to fear how frightening the escaping ability of the old man.

***

"So what now old man, or should I call you 'Greed Spirit'?" After the beautiful lady left out the crowds and was now walking in a certain street with few people passing by, she asked silently as if she was talking to herself. Hugging the book in her arms, she then continued, "Do you wish to follow me now?"

"Interesting... You seem to know me well." A voice of an old man laughed and the voice seemed to come from the book that the beautiful lady was carrying in her arms. That voice was surprisingly, the voice of the old man who sold the book to her. "But I'm sorry young lady, you're not qualified to hold my power."

"Oh?" The young lady wasn't too surprised at all as if she already expected something like this. She knew that she was a high-level one but if she wanted to attract the attention of a King Level Spirit, there was still a lot of rice she needed to eat.

"So you are also interested in the 'Vessel'." The young lady spoke. It was hard to tell whether she was asking or commenting but the book replied to her,

"Hehe, who knows." The book did not agree or did not deny as well.

But with the tone of his voice, the beautiful lady could only shake her head as she easily noticed the excitement blended on it. As if the Greed Spirit really was craving and wanting to meet the 'Vessel' already.

"Did we lose them?!"

Just as the two were talking with each other, a young lady hooded in a white cloak was rushing and running past from behind the beautiful lady. Her voice was filled with worry and relief as if she just escaped some sort of danger.

Beside the young lady was a little creature following her as it flew. A great amount of Wind Energy exuded out from the small creature as if it was naturally leaking out from it.

But of course, most of the people around didn't notice its energy for their level didn't allow them. Only if that creature intentionally revealed its energy, only then a lower level people would be able to feel it. But if that happened, those who were in a lower level would surely tremble in fear.

The beautiful lady followed her gaze to the young lady as she was interested in the matter.

And of course, that young lady was no other than Stella, the one who escaped from the mansion.

She was now running at her normal speed as if exhausted to use the boosting she had done a while ago.

But in all of a sudden, something that she would never expect in her life, happened right before her eyes!

Thud!

As she was nearing the crossroad, she didn't expect that there was actually someone stupid enough to pop out from the other road. That being said, she bumped onto him as both of them fell on the ground with herself lying on top of the other party.

With twitching limbs, the other party thought that the world had really gone insane as he blamed it for all the misfortunes he was suffering.

And that other party was of course no other than the man from before who was just complaining about his current predicament.

The beautiful lady who was holding the book watched the both of them colliding against each other. Without knowing it, a smile blossomed on her lips as her cold personality was nowhere to be found anymore. Something like this wouldn't be enough to attract her attention however, she didn't know why, but she felt some kind of intimacy from the both of them.