THE MOMENT
“Worthless…,” Dion kicked the hero's corpse with a disappointed sigh. He was more annoyed with himself than anyone, but it was easier to take out his frustration on the body; he couldn't kill the man anymore. They'd been ambushed by a small party of goblins and Dion defended himself trusting the vaunted hero to do the same. It was his own mistake, but that didn't mean he couldn't be angry. “What do I do now?” it was a valid question that needed some thought; he had a lot of options. He was supposed to be escorting the hero to his destiny, but after the recent turn of events, he wasn't sure there was any reason to try.
“Oh, is this a bad time?” the familiar voice startled Dion even as he recognized it. He looked up from the body to see Ophelia in the forest with him now.
“Not at all,” he shook his head. “Just debating what to do next. What's up?” he asked. Both to find out why she was there and to hint he was available for anything she needed.
“Solarian asked me to check on your progress and assist you with any help you may need,” she shrugged. “He'd like you as familiar with the AlterNet as possible so you can start training with the team.”
“Heh, it's going pretty well,” Dion gestured down at the armored corpse. “Except the “Grand Hero” here didn't doesn't know how to swing a sword.
“Does he need to?” Ophelia asked with a giggle.
“I dunno? Probably? I'm supposed to help him fulfill his destiny,” he shrugged. “The quest didn't offer a lot of details, but the armor reward is supposed to be a good upgrade for me.”
“If you inspect him, you can find out what he's supposed to do,” Ophelia said.
“Really? Huh,” Dion focused on the corpse and a small paragraph of text appeared in the bottom right of his view. He felt a little embarrassed for not reading it earlier. He noticed it but dismissed it as empty flavor text.
“His destiny is to find a worthy successor…,” Dion sighed again. “... and give them his enchanted armor.”
“That explains why he's still here,” Ophelia giggled again. It was a thing he'd also noticed, but he was still too new to the AlterNet to put it into words.
“Oh yeah…,” he nodded. All the goblin corpses, and other ones he'd produced, disintegrated instantly. The hero's corpse still remained.
“Wait. I can just take his armor?”
“I'd guess yes,” Ophelia nodded. “He's obviously not going to use it anymore. And if you weren't meant to take it that way, he would have disappeared like the other NPCs.”