Free Web NovelChapter 33: I’m Not a Monster
"Where were we?... Ah, right. After I fully awakened, that treasure started giving me quests one after another." Rios smiled faintly and continued, but Elena noticed the exhaustion hidden within his voice.
"My very first quest was a special quest, and its objective was nothing less than taking control of this world!"
"At the time, the treasure told me that this world contained no one above Wis (4), so there was an extremely high chance that many Wis (4) experts existed here."
"It promised me countless mysterious rewards depending on my final performance. In return, however, it threatened me with death if I failed and gave me a time limit of fifty years!"
Elena listened in stunned silence, and with every new revelation Rios exposed, her shock only deepened. Everything he was telling her shattered many of her long-held beliefs about the world and opened the door to countless new questions.
"My other quests appeared after I met old Jansh and Luna following my killing of the Giant Ang. At that time, the treasure gave me three quests all at once."
"The first was a side objective connected to the special quest. It required me to gain complete control over the City of Light within one year, and I still haven’t completed it."
"Of course, it promised me several rewards whose uses I still don’t understand, but I’m certain they’re incredibly valuable. And naturally..." Rios smiled at Elena, whose eyes trembled wildly from the successive shocks he kept dropping on her. "...it also threatened to lower my cultivation by an entire realm if I failed."
"The second quest was to devour one of the Nine Great Trees—the Tree of Life—located within the City of Light. And the reward for that mission was something I simply couldn’t refuse under any circumstances!"
"Not only would I receive rewards similar to those from conquering the City of Light, and not only would I obtain the Great Tree’s abilities and its Immortal bloodline, but the one reward I absolutely couldn’t bear to give up... was regaining a human form."
Rios smiled before adding mockingly,
"Of course, just as tempting as the reward was, the punishment was equally painful. If I failed, my bloodline would drop by an entire grade."
"Thank goodness I managed to complete it sooner rather than later."
He laughed lightly, then turned to Elena and stared at her for several moments without saying another word.
When Elena noticed his silence, a dreadful feeling spread through her entire body. Meeting his gaze nervously, she asked,
"And... what about the third quest?"
Rios’s teasing expression instantly disappeared, replaced by complete indifference.
"Naturally... the third quest was about you."
The moment Elena heard that, her eyes widened to an unprecedented extent. The rosy color vanished from her face in an instant, leaving it as pale as a corpse. Acting purely on instinct, she scrambled backward until she fell off the bed, like prey confronted by a predator with absolutely no chance of escape.
"W-What do you want from me?! Why am I doomed to suffer my entire life?!"
She backed away until her back struck the wall. At last, the calm mask she had worn crumbled. Two streams of tears flowed silently down her cheeks as she cried—not in sobs, but in utter despair.
Now, more than ever before, she realized just how cowardly she truly was.
Back in front of Thandria, Etham, and Gao, she had boldly declared that she would support any decision made by Lord Rios, even if it meant sacrificing every Sacred Tree in the world, sacrificing her advisors, or even sacrificing herself. freёweɓnovel.com
But now she understood...
She had lied.
She had no objection to sacrificing Sacred Trees or her advisors.
But when it came to sacrificing herself...
She was unbearably selfish.
She couldn’t accept dying like this.
Not after everything she had endured.
Not after finally becoming Queen of the Elves.
If she had truly been willing to sacrifice herself—or if she had genuinely wished for death—she would have ended her own life back when she was a child and everyone had persecuted her.
Yet all this time, she had stubbornly clung to even the tiniest spark of hope.
And now that she had finally become Queen, reached the pinnacle of the City of Light, and stood at the highest position within the Elf race...
Would everything simply end here, as though none of it had ever happened?
She couldn’t accept that.
Not like this...
Or so Elena believed.
Rios extended his hand, causing several violet branches to emerge and wrap around Elena before gently lifting her back onto the bed.
Closing her eyes, Elena resigned herself to her fate.
But after waiting for quite some time...
Nothing happened.
Slowly and fearfully, she opened her eyes to find Rios looking at her with genuine confusion.
"Why are you so scared? As you know... I’m not a monster."
The moment he finished speaking, he seemed to remember something and immediately corrected himself.
"Oh... right, my apologies. I forgot—I really am a monster. But I’m not that terrifying, am I?"
"So... you’re not going to do to me what you did to the Tree of Life?"
Some color gradually returned to Elena’s face, though she still looked frightened and tense.
"What? Who told you that?" Rios looked genuinely astonished by her naïve conclusion, finally understanding the source of her fear. He immediately shook his head.
"Sure, I’m ruthless and a bit selfish, but I’m not a cannibal."
The moment Elena heard that, her eyes lit up. Color steadily returned to her cheeks as she wiped away her tears and asked nervously, frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
"Then... what exactly is your third quest?"
"From the information I extracted from the treasure, talents are divided into five main categories: Ordinary, Basic, Legendary, Heaven, and Immortal."
Rather than revealing the third quest immediately, Rios chose to broaden her understanding of the world first.
"Those with Ordinary talent are everywhere—ordinary beasts and common people alike."
"As for those with Basic talent, they include elite warriors and the upper class of the City of Light, such as advisors like Etham and Gao, or warriors like Luna and old Jansh."
"As for Legendary talent, I’ve only encountered two individuals so far."
"The first one... I already killed."
"That person was the Giant Ang."
"And the second..." Rios smiled faintly.
"You know them very well..."
