A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn
Pa treon.com/HolyJoker
(20+ chapters in advance)
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Chapter 56: Cold Mercy
***
[New Quest]
[Save the Village]
[Mapaku Village is about to be destroyed by molten lava, save it from its demise.]
[Rewards: 40,000 Exp, Killer of Queens, ??? Snake Skin.]
Sokka accepted the mission, there was no reason to refuse. So he accepted it and kept staring as Aunt Wu came to the highlighted stage and read the clouds. The villagers cheered as the message was positive, saying that the village wouldn't be destroyed by the volcano and that the harvest will be good.
As always, Sokka sighed in disappointment. From what he had seen so far, Aunt Wu seemed to believe in her fate reading. This was a lot more dangerous than being a normal scammer.
Vague phrases and promises were words that he wouldn't trust from someone like her.
Seeing the cheering people, Sokka doesn't say anything and just observes. His eyes were like that of a hawk, observing everything around him. This village couldn't be saved from its naivety. No matter how he looked at the situation, he simply couldn't help someone who didn't want to be helped.
**
In the end, he strolled through the market while Aang and Katara were practicing waterbending close by. Kiwi and Momo were with them too.
Sokka looked through the stalls, trying to find anything worth it. He had invested quite a lot in Luck, so he hoped to be able to find a hidden treasure in a junk store for cheap.
He traveled through many stores and bought some things that caught his eye, putting them in his inventory.
[Coal-encrusted diamond.]
[A rock that has golden coins hidden in it]
[Earthbending Scroll]
He picked these things because he saw value in them. Though the latter was useless for him. Sokka, just to test it, tried to learn the earthbending scroll as the notification to learn it appeared.
[Error!]
[You have no relation with any earthbender in your family.]
[You haven't been granted earthbending from the ???? ??????]
[You also don't have ????? or ???? to learn multiple bendings]
As he had expected it wasn't possible for now to learn multiple bendings. While the Gamer Interface could push the limits of what it meant to be human, it still wasn't able to destroy those limits.
Still, finding any bending scroll was hard. In rural parts like these, finding one in a shop so cheap was impossible… almost impossible.
***
As evening came about, Sokka went all over the village and bought barrels. He assumed different identities by using the Transformation Jutsu. This way he wouldn't draw suspicion, even if he did, they weren't used for anything big so no one would care.
He approached a water stream, that was almost big enough to be a river, and took out a bunch of the barrels he had brought with him.
***
-Sokka POV-
Where is my heaven-defying treasure?! I put all of those status points into luck. Just what kind of luck did those MC have that found heaven-defying treasures in each corner shop.
It made a guy like me feel unfortunate, and I just found a diamond big enough that if I sold it, the wealth would last two to three generations of my family. Even if they spent it lavishly.
But still, I will have to keep trying harder and find a heaven-defying treasure. Though it might be mostly because this world had nothing like that, maybe the best I could hope for is a weapon with a spirit sealed inside of it. Even then, I don't think spirits here work like that.
After filling the barrels with water from a water stream, I put them in my inventory and casually walked back. The volcano should explode soon, while I didn't know the exact time, fighting against a volcano was something I wouldn't be able to normally do. Going in unprepared would end up with dying a horrible death, no matter how much luck I had.
Also, there was one thing most people forget to look out for when fighting something so formidable. They forget to look after their back. While fighting in a dangerous battle, against a volcano, Avatar Roku met his death that way. I don't want to be as naive as him and believe in friendship, that got him killed.
First and foremost, I must convince Katara and Aang to not become entranced by Aunt Wu's predictions. They were useless. My naive little sister already seems to be too involved with them, looking around, trying to find her "love".
Even without listening in, I knew what she probably told Katara. Something like her future love would be a great bender, no… since Aang seemed disappointed. She probably said something like a great warrior, or maybe both.
Things like a good leader, warrior, or bender can mean too many things and are vague. For example, a good leader can mean from a village elder who was kind to their people, to a great general that changed the world.
[Your intelligence has increased by 1 for guessing the most likely scenario.]
Walking back, many thoughts went through my mind. But in the end, I had already made my decision and didn't plan to change my mind now.
I saw Katara drinking some strange concoction, I think it was some juice special to the local area.
Walking toward her, I grasped the top of her head and ruffled the hair under my hand. "Sister, you must be quite stupid and naive."
"What?" She frowned, looking at me with sharp, dagger-like eyes. That was quite a ferocious look she had there. It almost made me proud. Sometimes in life, you have to be a lion, to be the lamb you really are.
My duty as a brother was to teach Katara how to keep her claws sharp. Life was always a fight, and even if she gives up, I will be there to catch her. But I can't make her fight again so that indomitable will wasn't something I could give her.
Kiwi looked on at him with an innocent look in its eyes. I peered at the small creature and picked it up from Katara's shoulder and put it on top of my head. The small fox buried her head in my hair.
"Hey, don't be mean to Kiwi," Katara pouted, knowing how I usually acted with the small spirit. The little fox might get killed here, so it was better if it stayed with me during this.
"Yeah, yeah," I waved her off. "Anyway, we should go and check up on the volcano."
I could see that Katara was about to say something, but she nodded. Good, she didn't say something stupid. While I could afford to babysit her for now, that wouldn't be so in the future. So she better learn these lessons well.
I went and got Aang too, who was trying to learn how to use a sword. I was not gonna bother and even get into that situation. It sounded too troublesome.
We all settled on Appa and went to check the volcano.
**
As expected, the volcano was like bubbling soup and seemed about to burst. Even as we sat atop Appa, I could feel the heat land on my skin. This was hotter than I thought it would feel. Weapons were essentially useless scraps against a volcano, only bending would help… somewhat.
"No way!" Katara exclaimed in shock. "The villagers could die if they don't evacuate."
"Told you the fate reading was a sham. Just overly ambiguous sayings that can be interpreted in many ways." I clarified, breaking my little sister off the hope she had. Well, she was at the age where she would believe in things like this, it's the equivalent of a teenage girl who believes in horoscopes.
Sadly this was a harsh lesson that needed to be taught before she grew up, keeping to those beliefs.
"We need to go and warn the villagers!" Aang reasoned, interrupting me out of my thoughts. "Appa, yip-yip."
The sky bison went and flew back, toward the village. The wind hitting my face started getting hotter. It seemed like it wouldn't be long until the volcano bursts.
As we landed, Aang hurriedly jumped down, using his airbending to soften the landing. He was in the middle of the market on a busy street, for a village that is. "Everyone! The volcano, it's going to erupt soon! We need to evacuate!"
The people stopped for a second, looking at Aang as if he was crazy, and they went on to do their daily tasks.
"What a crazy guy."
"Isn't that the Avatar?"
"Avatar or whatever, Aunt Wu's predictions aren't wrong."
"Yeah, and our village has never been protected by the Avatar. But Aunt Wu has helped us many times."
***
Aang could do nothing but look on in despair, as no one believed him. So, seeing this, Aang turned around and looked at Sokka, jumping up, he glided back into the floating Appa's back and looked at Sokka with a pleading gaze. "Use your words, I know you can convince them like you always do with everyone. Just like you became friends with the Omashu guards."
Sokka shook his head. "My words aren't something magical."
He knew first and foremost, that the people wouldn't listen. What Sokka was looking for here wasn't just the short-sighted vision of saving the village. Because the words Aunt Wu said during the prediction said that the village wouldn't be destroyed.
If they saved the village, then it would simply make her prediction correct. Because she never said explicitly that the volcano wouldn't explode.
Yes, wording like this was what made Aunt Wu a successful fate reader. But Sokka… getting with him in a battle of words. If he knew one thing, it was scammer-like sayings and words.
Aang slumped, not knowing what to say next. But Sokka only put a hand on his friend's shoulder and said, "Let's get ready to fight a volcano."
While both Katara and Aang were panicking in this situation. But Sokka was calm, no thoughts intruded his mind, other than how to deal with the situation at hand.
***
As evening came about, and the villagers were about to go to sleep, something unexpected happened. It was something that they hadn't worried about, until now.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The hallowing noise of the volcano erupting rang out, and the sky turned red as molten lava flew down from the mountain like a tsunami. The villagers looked on in despair, as they had nothing, no plan, nor any defenses to protect themselves.
A burst of hit air came before the lava did, and it filled everyone's lungs with heat. This caused some to start heavily coughing.
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