Jake sighed when he saw the ring. While the sword put him in a good mood, the ring put him in a bad one. With that, it confirmed that Karina didn't try to kill him of her own volition. Still, Jake couldn't just forgive, much less work with someone who almost killed him.
"… I don't know how to undo the effect of this item, but maybe destroying it won't solve anything," Jake rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "In that case, it will be better if this stays with Karina… but if she is defeated somewhere, then she will become a slave again… oh, well. Not my problem."
Jake had already solved the problem for her, and she tried to kill him, so he had done more than enough. In any case, Jake walked back to their camp while he checked the items inside the magic box. Unfortunately, he only found Rick's personal items… the best ones of their guild probably were at the armory.
Reinforced Armor
Health + 10, Endurance + 10 (0%), master this item to obtain the status points permanently.
Durability: 25/25
Claw Shield
Health + 15, Endurance + 05 (0%), master this item to obtain the status points permanently.
Durability: 25/25
Ring of Mind.
Mental Armor (0%), master this item to obtain the skill permanently.
Durability: 05/05
Mental Armor: it grants you the power to withstand mental attacks and also hide your skills and status from others.
Mana Ring
It grants you the power to charge this item with mana, and when you wish for it, you can get the mana back.
Mana: 0/10.000
"What a moron… why didn't he store better items in his magic box?" Jake asked since those were the only items that were worth noticing.
By the look of things, Rick wanted to look near-immortal to his people and his enemies. It seemed like a good strategy since he had a healing factor powerful enough to make even wounds caused by the dark flames to disappear fast. However, even that had a problem. He couldn't heal if something was in his wound, like a weapon or the dark flames.
"Still… this shield looks pretty neat. The only problem is the color," Jake thought.
Just like the armor, the shield had a silvery tone. It didn't fit his tastes since he liked dark colors better. Nevertheless, the shield had the shape of a claw, so it could be used to cause blunt and pierce damage with the lower end. Changing his shield and katana for the freezing longsword and the claw shield made Jake feel a bit troubled since he grew attached to them, but it was unavoidable. Besides, he wasn't going to sell them, so it was fine.
Since Jake took his time, he only returned around morning, and the girls were still awakened. Even Karina was already up, and she prepared to attack him since the effect of the ring was still on.
"I command you not to kill me," Jake said while pointing the ring toward Karina.
"Eh?" Karina said, visibly shocked when the effects of the item disappeared.
"Oh, man… I am so nice," Jake said and then tossed the ring toward Karina. "You tried to kill me, and I still do this much for you… I wish the world had more people like me."
"The planet would probably sink to the bottom of the universe if exists at least another one with an ego of your size," Lana said while smirking.
"Did you… kill him?" Louise asked.
"Yep, I did it," Jake said. "Some others probably were killed as well since they attacked me while I was fighting."
Jake said that so nonchalantly that even Louise felt shivers. Self-defense was something, but it was clear that Jake could have left those people alone… they didn't know what they were doing, after all. For someone so young, Jake was too cold when it came to other people's lives… at least when it came to the lives of those who tried to kill him.
"… I am sorry… for trying to kill you," Karina said.
"Apologies refused," Jake said. "Thanks to you, I had to deal with an asshole and dirty my hands."
"It wasn't her fault, Jake," Lana frowned.
"Of course, it was," Jake frowned. "She let herself being caught by Rick, so this caused problems for me. Her incompetence caused me a lot of trouble."
Jake was being harsh and sincere, like usual. Still, none of them could refute him. It was the undeniable truth. Nevertheless, Jake left to his grove to check his plants again. In the end, he will have to plant the leaves he had gathered to use since he managed to surprise Rick with his dark flames.
While the job of reaping and sowing the leaves was pretty relaxing, Jake finished it pretty soon, so he decided to take a nap before coming with his next step. Meanwhile, the girls were having to endure a weird atmosphere.
"I am sorry… for everything," Karina said.
"It is okay… it isn't your fault," Lana forced a smile.
"It is not okay," Karina said. "It doesn't matter if I was being controlled or not… I fooled all of you."
"Everything you told us was a lie?" Louise asked.
"No… while my friends weren't killed by golems, we joined Rick's guild, and then he ended up asking us to go complete a difficult mission when we had just arrived," Karina replied. "Once that was done, she used me to assassinate some people that looked troublesome and annoyed him."
"He didn't force you to…" Lana hesitated in asking.
"No… he was a human trash who liked to see women begging for his protection and beg to go to his bed," Karina replied. "A lot of people that came to this planet didn't have innate skills, so the sudden spike in the difficulty of the missions was too much for them. Thus they had to ask for his help."
"Everything is over now… let's just forget about that," Louise said. "Recalling all this won't do us any good."
"How did you manage to resist at the last moment, Karina?" Lana asked. "In the last moment, you didn't kill Jake."
"… I was scared of dying, so I didn't try to resist the other orders he gave me," Karina lowered her head and then said. "However, after some time, I got so sick of watching people die with that look of surprise in fear in their eyes… then you guys appeared. Most people would look at me with dubious eyes, just like Jake. However, you people didn't treat me like that. Even though Jake was also wary of me, he still decided to give me some good food like I were a part of the team… I couldn't kill someone who gave me such nice meals…"
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