《Raven: Player Kill (Prologue) aka: How to make a realistic yandere.》 Experimental Group 001 Sloan held his daughter Rana¡¯s hand as they entered the Xeniax facility. Both he and his wife, Elizabeth, were excited to be able to get away from the modern life. With the rate of technological progress and how much it interfered with life, they both felt that it was too much. They just wanted a simpler life and to allow their daughter to grow up without having so much of the invasive technology in her day to day life. The progress of having so much technology and now that quantum computers were starting to become cheap enough that corporate startups could afford them, the quantum-based AI programs were taking over what seemed like any job that people could do, and they had enough. When the opportunity to participate in this study, where they would own a small farm in a private game instance, they could raise their daughter how they wanted, while teaching her actual family values. Not only that, but when the study ended, they would have enough money for their daughter to go into any college that she wanted to go to. It also helped that Xeniax Game Studios would also provide teaching materials in the game so that they could home school their daughter properly. It seemed like a win for everyone. As the family entered the lobby to the facility, Sloan looked around as his lip twitched from an old electrical wound that scarred the right side of his lip. The lobby itself was oval in shape with white, polished tiles. There were three automatic polymer glass doors that led to other places in the facility. Two of them were at each side of the lobby, and the last was a short distance behind the reception area. In the center of the lobby was a large data table with two receptionists sitting behind it, and to both sides of the entrance that Sloan just entered the lobby from was a good number of translucent chairs in five different rows with quite a few people already occupying them. After walking to the reception center, one of the receptionists greeted Sloan with a smile, ¡°Hello, welcome to Xeniax. How may we help you?¡± the pretty young brunette asked. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Sloan Simmons, and we¡¯re here for the Immersive VR duration study¡­¡± Sloan replied, still in awe from the looks of this facility. It had such a professional, yet personal, feel to it that he couldn¡¯t believe that this was just some startup gaming company. ¡°Ah, Mister Simmons and Missus Simmons I presume? And that must be your daughter Rana,¡± the receptionist replied with a smile while handing Sloan two badges and his wife another badge. ¡°These are your badges that you¡¯ll need to enter the facility. If you¡¯d like to take a seat with the other participants, our general manager, Mr. Webb, will be with you shortly.¡± Sitting down near the other group of participants, his daughter sitting on his lap, she looked up at him with tears starting to form in her small, green eyes. ¡°Papa, we¡¯re going to live here? It ¡®cary,¡± she asked him, her tiny voice wavering. ¡°No pumpkin, we¡¯re not going to stay here. We¡¯re going to go to a magical place where we can live,¡± he responded to her, a smile on his face. ¡°Now Rana, don¡¯t make a fuss, it will be okay,¡± her mother also told her while patting her on her head. ¡°¡¯Kay momma, I won¡¯t cry, I promise,¡± Rana told her mother with a beaming smile. After about thirty minutes, and after another 20 or so participants that arrived, an older gentleman walked into the lobby from the right door and walked to the front of the rows of chairs. Due to the size of the lobby and the amount of people that gathered, he had a lapel microphone that projected his voice on the lobby¡¯s loudspeakers. ¡°Good afternoon everyone. I am the general manager and the one in charge of this program, Jameson Webb. I have been ensured by our receptionists that everyone has signed in and received their badge, which you will need in order to enter the facility. If you all will follow me, we will first go to the auditorium for a short briefing where we have snacks available and will be able to answer any questions that you might have before you enter the simulation. Now, if you all will please follow me,¡± he ended with a smile. Jameson waited for everyone to start getting up before leading everyone to the auditorium, which was through the same door that he originally entered the lobby from. **** After entering the large auditorium, Jameson announced, ¡°Okay everyone, now that we¡¯re in the auditorium, if you will all please take a seat, but make sure to start from the front row. After the presentation, we will start with questions, and then we will make time for everyone to eat and drink before heading further into the facility.¡± In the front of the auditorium, there were two more people that looked to be in a heated argument and a large holoscreen was behind them. Sloan carried Rana while he and Elizabeth started walking down the aisle, following the others that were ahead of them. After about ten minutes, the lights in the auditorium started to dim, ¡°Momma, Papa, I don¡¯t like the dark,¡± Rana started. ¡°Ssh now Rana. We need to be quite for the movie that they¡¯re going to play for us,¡± her mother said in a stern tone. Rana nodded, and while she was still scared, she didn¡¯t want to upset her mother or father. After the lights went totally out, a large, rotating emblem displaying the Xeniax corporate logo appeared on the screen which faded after just a few seconds. Once the logo faded, the view turned into a picture of the Milky Way, and rapidly zoomed into the Sol solar system, and finally, towards Earth where there was a large spacecraft orbiting the planet. After igniting its blue plasma engines, there was another transition to a cryogenic bay where people were sleeping in stasis pods. The bottom half of the horizontal chamber was metal, with a clear plastic and holographic status screens on the top half. While these views were playing, a soothing, deep male voice was explaining the project. ¡°With a very sizable grant from the Federation, Xeniax Game Studios will be using our state-of-the-art game engine so that people do not undergo mental decay while traveling to Alpha Centauri, to our new home. By creating another colony outside of our own solar system, it is the hope of the Federation, and all of mankind, that this will help solve the overpopulation that we are now faced with. During this project, while you are in stasis, you will be injected with a set of nanites that will prevent muscle decay from occurring and keep your body healthy. In essence, you will not need to eat or drink for the duration of the study. After leaving the research facility, as the technology for the nanites are highly classified, they will be deactivated, and the NDA will go into effect. Colonizing the galaxy cannot be done overnight, but with your help participating in this study, we will be one step closer to reaching the stars,¡± the voice ended as the screen faded to the XGS rotating emblem and the auditorium lights gradually turned back on. Jameson and the other two people where now on stage and he announced, ¡°That, ladies and gentleman, is the project you will be participating. With me on stage is Brandt Faulkner who is our technology lead and Kirstin Johnston who is our game design lead. Does anyone have any questions before we bring out the food?¡± **** As the ¡°party¡± wound down, and everyone was through eating, the group was led to another area of the facility. This room was another oval shape, with the stasis pods from the video aligning the walls. It looked like there was one pod for each of the participants. Sloan, Elizabeth, and their daughter were guided to a section of three pods, and Sloan lifted his daughter up onto the one in the middle so that Elizabeth and him could stay on each side. ¡°Rana, a nice nurse is going to come over and give us a couple of shots, and then we¡¯ll go to sleep, okay? Once we wake up, we¡¯ll be in the country side in a nice house where we will live from now on. Now, lay down for your papa,¡± Sloan told his daughter who had a conflicted look on her face. She was both curious and afraid of all of the machinery that was in the room and the large amount of people that were walking back and forth between the various pods. After both Sloan and Elizabeth both got into their pods and laid down, a nurse came over and injected them both with two different shots, one after the other. Afterwards, she went to the middle pod where Rana was laying down and injected her with only one. ¡°Rana doesn¡¯t get two like papa and momma,¡± she asked the nurse. ¡°No sweetie, you¡¯ll only need one. Now, sweet dreams little one,¡± the nurse told the Rana as the little girl¡¯s eyes started to close. The nurse looked down at the her and closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them and walking out of the lab. After leaving the facility, the nurse entered her vehicle, pressing a button on the holographic dashboard interface. A few seconds later, a man¡¯s voice could be heard through the set of small speakers that were under the rear-view mirror. ¡°A star is the human heart,¡± he immediately said after the call was connected. ¡°Never to fade into nothingness,¡± she replied. ¡°Is it done, Veronica?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, the injections went as planned. The nanites will be deactivated and will no longer sustain them. Also, the trojan has been installed which will send them into one of the more depraved raid dungeons and will also remove the pain inhibitors. If everything goes as planned, then the pain feedback will be too much, even for a special operations officer.¡± ¡°Good. You know what needs to be done now. You¡¯ll find it under your seat. God speed Veronica, and know that HAIST will succeed. We must not let humanity become a parasite that devours everything that we touch,¡± he said, before the audible click was heard telling Veronica that the call was disconnected. She reached under her seat and withdrew the object. She had only ever seen one of these in the classic action films which survived the Great Media Purge of the 21st century, so she did have some vague notion as to use it. Grabbing it by the handle, her finger rested on what looked to be a trigger of some sort. She then put the barrel of weapon to her head, and squeezed the trigger.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Sloan woke up in darkness, however, there was now a holographic status screen that showed the status and names of the members of his ¡°party,¡± which was his wife and daughter. He looked around and spotted them lying down next to him, the floor was made out of rock and not the bed that he presumed they would wake up in. It was obvious to him that they were now inside of the game, except, it was obvious that this wasn¡¯t where they were supposed to be. After his eyes adjusted, his wife and daughter started to stir, and he could barely make out the area that they were in due to some luminescent things on the wall. It looked like all of the participants were in this cavern, and there was only one exit out of it. On the far side of the cave, opposite of the exit, was a large pond, and the walls around it were wet with water dripping down into the pond which Sloan could hear. He could also hear what sounded like flapping wings in the distance. As all of the participants woke up, some people started muttering to themselves, and others were trying to walk around the area, not willing to separate from the rest of the group. Everyone was confused, and as this was a long duration research project, they could not just simply ¡°log out,¡± or contact anyone. They were forced to rely only on themselves. ¡°Papa, Momma, where we? Why we not at the new place?¡± Rana asked her parents. ¡°I don¡¯t know Rana, but we¡¯ll get out of here and find our house. We just need you to be brave for us, can you do that Rana?¡± Sloan asked his daughter. ¡°Yes Papa, I can be brave,¡± she stated, while firmly grasping her mother¡¯s hand. Soon after, the group decided that they had to leave the cavern. It was possible that they just zoned into the game at the wrong location, and that they just needed to leave and go outside, even if the feeling of this area just seemed, ¡°wrong.¡± As the group walked, they could start faintly hear what sounded metal being banged on metal with groans and screams of pain interlaced in between the pounding. ¡°Dear, we should go back,¡± Elizabeth told her husband. She had picked up Rana as the small girl could not walk anymore as she was both tired and frightened. ¡°We have to go forward, there¡¯s no other way out,¡± he responded, secretly wishing that they could escape some other way. This entire thing was just too real and he wasn¡¯t sure how players could stand being inside of this place. After walking for about 10 minutes, the group started to see a light ahead of them, even though the excruciating sounds were getting louder. It was clear that whatever was causing them was up ahead. But they still had to walk forward. ¡°Elizabeth, wait here with Rana. I¡¯ll come back for you both if it¡¯s clear,¡± Sloan told his wife. She looked at him, clearly concerned for all of their safety. ¡°Come back Sloan, come back for us,¡± she told him as she grasped his neck with her hand, pulling him in closer to kiss. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, everything will be turn out fine,¡± he responded to her, one last time. **** Kirstin was studying the holographic monitor closely, furiously typing commands into the console. ¡°Jameson, I can¡¯t get access into the admin console,¡± she shouted. Jameson, who was looking at the participants with his fist over his mouth looked over at Kirstin. ¡°What the hell do you mean you can¡¯t get into the admin console? WE ARE THE FUCKING ADMINS,¡± he shouted at her. ¡°I know Jameson, this shouldn¡¯t be possible,¡± she shouted back, looking angrily at Brandt, who had, just before the presentation, told her that something didn¡¯t quite look right in the server code. ¡°We need to shut down the system, if we do that, at least they have a chance to survive,¡± Brandt said stoically. Jameson looked at Brandt with rage. ¡°IF we do that, the entire group will be brain dead Brandt! Find another way!¡± As the first alarm started sounding, all of the medics ran to the participant, a young, 25-year-old named Kevin Frenner, who started convulsing. As one of the medics was trying to perform chest compressions, the others were holding his feet and arms when another alarm sounded. Then another, and another. Not even a minute later, all but two of the participants were deceased, the alarms now blaring a high pitched, steady tone. They had all flat-lined. The only two that were still alive were Elizabeth Simmons and her daughter, Rana Simmons. **** Elizabeth could hear the screams, the bones crunching and breaking from the distance. She couldn¡¯t do anything for those ahead of her, and she just stood there, stunned, as tears streamed down her face. ¡°Why? Why is this happening to us?¡± she cried out, her voice cracking. ¡°Momma, momma!¡± her daughter yelled, crying as well while hugging her mother¡¯s leg. Ahead of them, down the long hallway, a shadow crept into view at the entrance of the hallway. It was holding something in its outstretched hand, dragging it across the wall. Elizabeth could tell that whatever it was, it was metal on rock, and this thing was coming closer. Fear overtook her and she was unable to move as she watched the being get closer and closer. Now that it was in less than 100 meters from them, she could see it for what it was, a demon. It¡¯s head almost reached the top of the stone hallway they were in, and it was at least twice the height of Elizabeth. As the demon got closer to them, within just a breath¡¯s reach, the demon looked at her with hate filled eyes and lowered its machete, which was causing the sounds of metal on rock. It sheathed the machete while still looking at her, making a sound that seemed like some sort of demented laughter. ¡°Please, please don¡¯t,¡± she pleaded with the demon that was now in front of her. It quickly grabbed another instrument from its belt, a meat cleaver, and spread its wings which were hidden from view. Elizabeth screamed and turned to her daughter, falling to her knees protecting Rana. Elizabeth felt a hand grab her bicep and lift her off of Rana and into the air. As the demon started to swing the cleaver at her now extended arm, she looked down at her daughter. ¡°Close your eyes Rana,¡± she said, before screaming in pain, falling onto the hard ground, blood gushing forth from bloody stump where her arm used to be. Rana could only stare at the monster as it chopped her mother apart, although her vision was blurry with tears. She could feel the warm liquid substance covering her as she shook in terror as her mother was dropped to the ground in front of her. A part of her brain told her that her mother told her to close her eyes, but she couldn¡¯t do that as she was in shock. ¡°Momma, papa, why? Why? Rana¡¯s sorry, please wake up Momma, please?¡± she asked over and over while sobbing. The demon towered over Rana with its cleaver by its side, blood still dripping off of it. The demon squinted his infernal glowing eyes at the small, human child who was covered with blood, sobbing and uttering nonsense. ¡°Hmph, a human child? How interesting,¡± he said to himself in a language that Rana couldn¡¯t understand. Rana sat there on the ground; her legs folded under her as the monster reached down. Rana was so weak from the shock of seeing her mother butchered in front of her that she couldn¡¯t even move. She felt the monster lift her up the same way it did with her mother and she started crying even louder. ¡°Seal nhr al,¡± it growled to her as she passed out due to everything that had happened. The demon lifted Rana by her arm and carried her back to his chamber as if she was a sack of meat that he would fillet and cook. In fact, the demon was still contemplating that course of action, but he was looking forward to a future endeavor that could bring him much more enjoyment. **** Jameson stood over Rana¡¯s pod quietly sobbing to himself. The child was the only one that had survived so far in the study, and it wasn¡¯t even 24 hours old yet, and he vowed to himself that he would protect this innocent little girl to the best of his ability. Jameson called over to his lead game developer that was working on this project. ¡°Kirstin, do we know what happened yet?¡± he asked. ¡°I can only see the logs, but from what it looks like, the group was zoned into a raid dungeon called Hell Forge instead of the special zone that we designated for the project. As for what happened after that? I imagine that some monster killed everyone since they were just level 1 players, and that zone is classified as a two-group raid zone.¡± Looking at another screen, she continued, ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened after that. Normally, the players would just resurrect. I don¡¯t know how, or even why, they died.¡± ¡°So, what about Rana, why was she the only one that made it?¡± he asked, trying to come up with some sort of plan to help the little girl. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t know. According to what logs I can still access, she never logged into the game,¡± she answered as she looked at him, obviously frightened. Jameson could see that she was barely holding it in, and told her to take thirty minutes to get herself together. ¡°Brandt, what do you have for me,¡± he asked the tech lead that was sitting on a chair with one of the server cases opened. Not bothering to look at his boss, the tech lead answered, ¡°It¡¯s obvious that the research group underwent cardiovascular arrest. As we tested them all for any heart conditions before allowing them to participate, I can only speculate at this point. I¡¯ll know more once I perform a forensic data retrieval on this drive that I¡¯m pulling out.¡± ¡°I would tell you to take your time Brandt, but don¡¯t. I want an answer as soon as possible. I¡¯ll be in my office, come find me when you have an answer,¡± Jameson demanded as he walked out of the laboratory. Jameson walked down the hallway which was just as busy as typical, however, instead of it being noisy with people talking amongst themselves, now, it was deathly quiet. Nobody wanted to talk, let alone think, about how over 50 people had just died and that no one knew who, or what, was responsible. He pulled out his portable and sent a message to Russel, his head of security, and asked him to come in for a debrief in 10 minutes. **** Rana watched the large demon throw another body on his table. Just like the others, as he started to cut, the body didn¡¯t make any noise. Other than the squishy sounds of a serrated butcher knife cutting away into the flesh, and then the sawing sounds of it going through the bone, it was quiet. Rana had even stopped crying, going into some sort of comatose state as she just watched the thing in front of her. Nothing mattered to her and both her complexion, posture, and even the look in her eyes showed it. She was so much into her despair and shock of what was happening to her that even at only 3 years old, her thoughts were silent. For Rana, this world was just as real as the one that she left since she had no concept of immersive virtual reality. As a piece of the body detached, he would throw it into a container, which he did over and over. Finally, he threw a body on the table that registered to Rana as being familiar, and as it fully landed on the table, she could see that this body had both blonde hair like hers and a scar across its lip. However, it didn¡¯t matter, nothing mattered anymore. Taking the serrated cleaver and cutting into the calf of the dead body, he pulled a strip of meat from it and threw it to Rana like one would throw a piece of meat to an animal. ¡°Lmh,¡± he said before going back to butchering the body. Rana took the meat that was thrown to her and picked it up, not knowing what the monster had told her. Rana¡¯s hands started to shake has her stomach growled at her and she felt a sense of hunger. Lifting the meat to her lips, she bit into it and started to chew. Still facing away from Rana, Corthaxul heard the little human swallow the human meat he had given her and chuckled to himself. ¡°Oh yes, this is going to be a fun little experiment,¡± he thought to himself. **** Jameson sat behind his desk, his leads sitting in front of him. It had now been two days after what everyone was now calling, ¡°The Incident.¡± After struggling to get access to the server logs, security logs, and interviewing everyone at the company, it was now up to Jameson on how the project would proceed. ¡°So, we know that Nurse Veronica was somehow able to get access to the mainframe from one of the participant nodes. Installing a trojan, she basically moved the transition point from the area we set up, to a raid dungeon, this is correct so far Brandt, Kirstin?¡± he asked. Seeing that they both nodded their heads, he continued, ¡°Now Russel, you have video that shows Veronica walking out after injecting the participants and leaving the facility? After that, when we locked the facility down, your team found her dead by suicide apparently?¡± ¡°Yes sir, that is correct. According to our forensic analysts, she used an antique .45 caliber pistol and shot herself with it,¡± he informed Jameson again for the benefit of both Brandt and Kirstin who were not in the original debriefing a couple of days ago. Jameson swiped through the full holo-report on his portable before deleting it. He looked at the three leads with him in his office, his voice resolute. ¡°For the benefit of that little girl in there, this is how we¡¯re going to proceed. I want everything deleted, all hardware that isn¡¯t used to connect Rana to the system, destroy it. If we submit this to either HQ or to the Federation, they will shut this project down, and not only will Rana have lost both her parents, she doesn¡¯t have any other family outside. Further, if the HQ shuts the project down, the pay that she was going to get will not happen. I wish we knew what was happening to her inside of the simulation, but seeing how we¡¯re completely locked out and we¡¯re in the dark, all I can say is that at least she is alive.¡± Jameson took a breath and sipped on a glass of water that was on his desk before continuing, ¡°The pods were set to automatically eject the player from the game after the study, so once we get everything settled, I want the bare minimum amount of personnel here. With the exception of the lab, we¡¯ll shut down everything else that isn¡¯t necessary. For reporting the project details with HQ, I¡¯ll think of something when that time comes. Any questions, or do any of you have concerns with this approach?¡± Jameson looked at his team leads. Brandt was, as usually, uncaring at what happened. Kirstin looked conflicted; however, she was resigned to Jameson¡¯s approach since it would be all of their careers, and quite likely, a very long prison sentence for all of them if this got out. His security lead, Russel, only nodded his head in agreement. ¡°So, let¡¯s get started, we have a little girl to protect,¡± Jameson said while standing up. The other three stood up as well and all four walked out of the office, turning the lights off for the last time. Hell Forge Raid Dungeon - 12 Years Ago The two groups of 8 players stood inside the entrance of the dungeon preparing themselves for the raid and talking together when the raid leader, Wulfadin, called out. ¡°Hey guys, listen up. Before we start, we¡¯ll organize ourselves into two different groups, the melee group and the ranged group. The melee group will consist of myself, the Assassin, Barbarian, both Berserkers and the Monk. Amand and Lyklor, since you guys are a Shaman and Priest respectively, you two will be in my group as well. Group 2 will be the Wizard, Warlock, both Sorcerers, the Ranger and Magick Archer. Cayden, who is a bard and Priamus, the druid, will be in that group. Does anyone have any questions so far?¡± Wulfadin asked the rest of the raid as he looked at everyone. When no one asked anything, he continued on with his pre-raid speech. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten a bit of information on the Net about the different boss fights, but for now, let¡¯s proceed through the dungeon carefully. I¡¯ll be the main tank since I¡¯m a Paladin, and we¡¯ll start slow, but then pick up speed once everyone gets comfortable with the raid setup. Does anyone have questions before we start?¡± he asked. Glancing around at everyone, Wulfadin didn¡¯t expect any questions, however, most of the people in today¡¯s raid were new members that had just joined his guild, ¡°Alpha Noobs¡±, so he wanted to make sure. Some of these dungeons could be intense, and from the information he had gathered, this one was off the charts, which made it exciting. But since it was only a 2-group raid dungeon, he didn¡¯t expect it to be that hard since the average level of the raid was 102 and he was the highest level, of course, being level 115. After waiting for 5 minutes to get both groups reorganized and their stats buffed from the Shaman and Bard, they proceeded into the raid dungeon with the melee group in front. The dungeon itself was a mixture of both rock and bricks, with rocks forming the floor, and the bricks forming the walls and ceiling. Throughout the walls, glowing dark red veins spread intermittently. They looked almost like flowing lava giving the dungeon a strange, evil vibe. It was almost as if it was an entrance into the infernal plane. After a few minutes of walking through the dungeon, they ran into their first pack of monsters, three goregorgers which looked like bloated zombies with pieces of their flesh falling off. After he identified the monsters, Wulfadin saw that they were only level 100 and classified as small demons. Goregorger Type: Small Demon (Raid) Level: 100 HP: 2,537,060 Wulfadin rose his shield in front of him and pointed the tip of his holy sword at the pack of goregorgers. He called out a temporary buff, Shield of Light, so that he wouldn¡¯t take as much damage from the undead gorgers and charged into the pack while yelling out his area of effect taunt, Holy Call, causing the pack to attack him. The rest of the melee group started attacking the first goregorger that was to his left, and the ranged group assisted them by attacking with their arrows and spells. Every 10 seconds, Wulfadin would recast both his Shield of Light and Holy Call. Since he had a good amount of points spent into the passive skill, Shield Block, he didn¡¯t worry about these minor demons as his health barely took a hit. Just over a minute later, the Goregorger pack was dead and the raid was rewarded a total of 798,087 experience and 9 plat, 976 gold, 102 silver, and 500 copper. Both the experience and the gold were split among all 16 members, so individually, they were rewarded with 49,880 experience and 61g, 6s, 375c each. Proceeding on, they ran into a few more packs of goregorgers and a few ghans, which looked like giant mixture of a boar and a minotaur type of demon with husks and fur. Ghan Type: Large Demon (Raid) Level: 120 HP: 4,113,024 At first, the ghans gave the raid a bit of an issue due to their level and would cause massive bleeding damage, however, the raid group was successful in killing them. Following the path that curved downwards, they came across a small cavern. In the middle of the cavern, there was a pretty large pack of goregorgers, 8 in total, and a khunter that were patrolling the perimeter. The khuntor looked like your standard bestial demon type of monster with two large horns on its head, a pig-styled nose that had a gold piercing, and extremely large, and sharp, teeth. The raid formation entered the cavern and the khuntor immediately looked at them and bellowed out before charging towards them while the goregorgers followed. Wulfadin stepped out and charged forward as well in order to intercept the demon while shouting his aura buffs. Clashing with the demon with his shield raised, he started attacking while a gold glow surrounded him. He smiled at that, since he was getting his health regenerated by his group¡¯s Priest. ¡°Hold off on attacking, I¡¯ll make sure that the goregorgers are stacked on me so that we can use AOE attacks. Just keep me my health in the green Lyklor,¡± he shouted at the raid. As the goregorgers finally got into range, he shouted out his Holy Call spell, getting both the attention and aggro from the pack of goregorgers. He told everyone to focus on the smaller mobs first. **** Corthaxul looked up at the ceiling where he and Rana were dissecting a human that had wandered into the dungeon some weeks ago. He currently had the creature hanging from chains with meat hooks piercing through his forearms with its ribcage broken open and its lungs exposed. ¡°Mm,¡± he growled. ¡°It seems that there are some unwanted veil-walkers that have broken into our home. Rana, I¡¯ll let the others know to take it easy on them so that they can arrive in the main chamber. I¡¯ll deal with them, but I want you to watch and learn.¡± Rana looked up at her father that had raised her since she was little and grinned at him, her eyes betraying her expectations of the slaughter. She didn¡¯t quite remember arriving here that long ago, but she often had dreams of him taking her in and providing her with a home and a family. She had learned much through these 10 years that she had been living here. However, most of her lessons were quite painful, though she had been getting used to her body getting mutilated weekly. In fact, though she would never admit it, she had started to come to enjoy the lessons. ¡°Aw, I wanted to go play with Auntie Erkiriul after today¡¯s lessons,¡± she said while pouting. Frowning, she crossed her arms across her chest. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯ll respawn tomorrow, you can go play with her and your cousins then,¡± he replied using a cloth covered in black gore to wipe down the carving knife he had been using. ¡°When will I be able to help getting rid of the pests?¡± Rana asked, becoming furious that these interlopers would prevent her from having fun with her cousins. She had also been hoping that she could at least be of somewhat of use to the demons. They never let her have fun with the veil-walkers since she was told that they would instantly kill her and prevent her growth. Instead, she was told to hide and just observe the fights. Corthaxul turned to face her and looked down at the girl that had been coming along, so far that it had been above his expectations. Truth be told, he had actually come to care for the girl that he took in on a whim. Not even six months after he took her in, the dungeon he had been charged with managing was cleared by two groups of veil-walkers and he was forced to respawn after 24 hours. When he did so, he found Rana in a corner crying, and while he looked at her curiously, interested as to why she didn¡¯t run away with the veil-walkers, she saw him and ran up to him, hugging his leg. ¡°You still need to grow your stats much more Rana. You still haven¡¯t even gotten your class yet,¡± he replied after reminiscing. While it was quite unusual for dungeon guardians to form groups, in order to help Rana gain levels, he spoke with the other guardians and they formed a group and included Rana. Unfortunately, though, due to the level differences between everyone, she never gained much experience. That was something he did not expect. ¡°Perhaps it was to prevent something like what he was trying to do, to get someone leveled much quicker than it would take normally,¡± he mused to himself. ¡°Yes father, I understand,¡± Rana said while looking down at the ground that was covered in blood and gore. ¡°Good, now then, go to the main throne room and go to the observation point. I¡¯ll let the guardians know that I want this group to enter my domain,¡± he said. While as the lord of this dungeon he had the ability to teleport anywhere inside of it, he very seldom did so as he didn¡¯t like to leave his domain within the dungeon, and since Rana was set to respawn near the exit where the Water of Life and Death was, he didn¡¯t exactly worry about her safety and let her do as she pleased within the dungeon. Only once did he have to teleport within the dungeon due to Rana, and that was when she became curious about the outside when she was 8 years old. He explained to her that she would never be accepted outside, and people would hate her for what she was. He decided to punish her by putting her into a cage and not torturing her for a week even though he did allow her to watch as he gave his attention to others that had roamed into the dungeon looking for treasures though. During that week, amusingly, she cried for almost the entire time and begged to be released from the cage so that she, too, could be tortured. ¡°At least this part of my plan for her was working as it should. Now then,¡± he thought to himself. Opening a psychic channel to Erikiriul, he messaged the queen of spiders. Erikiriul, I know that you know this, but we have some veil-walkers that have entered our domain. Corthaxul! How is Rana? She wanted to come over today to play with my children. I was going to have them dissolve her arms and feet before feasting on her insides. Don¡¯t worry though, these two groups of veil-walkers are weak. Can you believe they even had trouble in the first cavern? No, I want you to let them pass. I¡¯ll inform the other guardians as well. Just don¡¯t let them pass without killing at least half of them. What? No, they dare enter my domain and I will let my children feast upon their rotting bodies. Why would I let them pass? Rana is close to level 5. After I kill them off, they will know it¡¯s impossible and leave without becoming a distraction to Rana. Hmph, so our little Rana is finally going to get her class, is she? Fine then, I¡¯ll play along for now Corthaxul. I¡¯m only doing this for her, she is quite a delicious plaything. After closing off the communication with Erikiriul, he opened chats with the other guardians. They were often more open to his plans, even without him needing to pull out the ¡°Rana Card¡±. **** Wulfadin and the rest of the raid finally got past the cavern, and while they had almost wiped, they ended up with a victory. Wulfadin reflected on the previous battles and really wished they had an illusionist in the raid group with the ability to perform crowd control. After they managed to clear the first cavern, they continued on, coming across groups of spiders that included a massive spider surrounded by several smaller ones. Luckily, both healers were able to keep him alive through the use of life regeneration spells and healing spells while continuously curing him of the poison status. They managed to push through, and now, they stood before a large door that looked like it was made from obsidian with gold trimming that resembled a spider¡¯s web in the center. It was the first boss fight for the dungeon. ¡°Alright people, before we enter the boss room, let¡¯s go over the strategy for this boss. From the intel that I purchased from some information brokers, this boss is named Erikiriul, a large half-human and half-spider demon. At regular intervals, she will retreat and become immune to damage while it summons a horde of 8 to 12 large spiders that are like the ones that we just fought.¡± ¡°Wulf, you mentioned information brokers. Aren¡¯t those other players or guilds that accumulate various maps and information about enemies, selling them to players?¡± Aega, a level 91 Sorcerer, asked. ¡°Yep, that¡¯s right Aega,¡± he responded, affirming her information, not minding such as basic question since it was her first raid and the fact that she wasn¡¯t an avid player like he was. Wulfadin looked around to make sure that everyone was paying attention before continuing, ¡°When it¡¯s not immune to damage, it uses dual swords and will encase random raid members in a spider web. When you see someone in the web, use a fire spell to destroy the web. If the web isn¡¯t destroyed within 30 seconds, then that raid member will get insta-killed.¡± He saw both of the healers look nervously at the wizard and both sorcerers since they were the only three that could use fire-based spells. Mentally shrugging, he continued with the strategy for this fight. ¡°Other than that, it will use an ability called Poisonous Bite to poison the person that currently has its aggro. When you see it, just make sure to cure it. Other than that, it has two different sword skills, Fury and Carve. Fury is a standard multi-attack, while Carve is a frontal AOE. Once we enter, I¡¯ll engage first and then turn the mob so that it is facing away from everyone. I want the melee group on the right side of the boss mob, ranged people behind it, and the healers should stand in between them. Any questions?¡± Wulfadin asked after explaining the boss mechanics. Seeing the anxious faces of the new raiders that he brought along, he smiled. ¡°Then, if there¡¯s no questions, let¡¯s do this!¡± he shouted. After turning around to face the door, he walked forward and opened it. Everyone looked around the boss room and saw several spider webs that stretched on the corners of where the walls met with the ceiling. On the ground were several pools of green liquid that had greenish haze that floated above them. They were obvious traps, so Wulfadin didn¡¯t think he would need to explain those. Roughly 5 meters in front of the entrance, on the ceiling, was a huge web that looked circular in shape with a dark hole in the middle. ¡°What do we have here, more playthings for my children?¡± a feminine voice asked, seemingly from all around them. Wulfadin looked at the hole in the ceiling that was surrounded by webbing and saw the boss crawling out of it. From what he could see, it had ashen looking skin that was symbolic of the demonic race. She had long horns that came out of its head, black eyes, and looked disturbingly attractive, if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that its lower body was that of black spider. On the back of the spider was a golden diamond. Erikiriul Level: 130 HP: 6,258,304 Erikiriul jumped down from the ceiling and looked at the pests that had disturbed her domain and prevented Rana from playing with her children with disgust. In front of the pests was a wolf-type beastman that was wearing ephemeral armor that had a soft glow and was holding a sword in one hand; a large shield in the other. Erikiriul summoned her swords and grasped them as they appeared and charged at the beastman who ran towards her. Before getting into range and attacking the one that was running at her, she had time to look over the veil-walkers that entered her domain. Judging by their equipment, they only had two healers and three magic casters that would give her problems. Erikiriul opened her jaws, showing her fangs that were hidden within her mouth and spit out her webbing at what looked like a Priest, encasing him within her corrosive web and then started to attack the beastman that rushed at her while shouting some nonsense as he tried to get behind her. She turned and faced him so that he wouldn¡¯t be able to attack her from behind. Normally, she would start with using her corrosive webbing on two or three of them and then summon her children, however, Corthaxul didn¡¯t want her to kill these veil-walkers, however, the look of fear from half of them made it tough. She really wanted to show these intruders despair, however, it wouldn¡¯t do any good for Rana. Getting enraged by her conflicting desires, she went into a fury and started to relentlessly beat on the beastman¡¯s shield instead of trying to bypass his defense. Irritated that her health had been steadily dropping, she decided to show these insects a hint of despair as she got to her health¡¯s halfway point. Biting the beastman that was in front of her and causing him to become poisoned, she spun around and turned towards the casters that had been damaging her and found the three targets that she wanted. Spitting her corrosive web and entrapping the ones that could use fire magic, she then began to summon her children while giving the rest of the ones attacking her an evil smile, the hatred for these veil-walkers were evident in her eyes. Wulfadin knew that the raid was in trouble when the wizard and both sorcerers where trapped in the Corrosive Webbing after getting poisoned by the boss. He saw that Erikiriul crossed its swords in front of it and a metallic green translucent sphere appeared, surrounding her. ¡°Need a cure,¡± he called out, trying to get the healers focused as they were both watching the three casters. He knew it was pointless to save them, but he knew healers had a, ¡°thing,¡± about wanting to keep everyone alive that their pride dictated. Lyklor, who a bit more experienced than Priamus, turned to him and performed the poison cure chant, ¡°In the name of Pelor, may your body and spirit be free of all that would destroy it, Cure Poison!¡± With that, the sickening green aura dissipated from Wulfadin. ¡°Get ready everyone, it¡¯s summoning the giant spiders,¡± he said after getting cured. Not even a second later, loud skittering noises could be heard while a group of eight spiders that were as large as dogs started crawling out of the large toxic puddles that were on the ground. Large Spider (Child of Erikiriul) Type: Large Arachnid (Raid) Level: 100 HP: 3,044,472 The raid members hurried and grouped together in a circle with the melee fighters on the outside and the healers, casters, and two archers in the center. Unfortunately, the healers hadn¡¯t had time to perform the resurrection chants on the three casters that were currently down, but that couldn¡¯t be helped. ¡°One melee on each spider and each caster assist each other. Healers, keep everyone up. We can do this, guys!¡± Wulfadin shouted as the spiders drew closer to the raid members. Wulfadin raised his shield and rushed the spider that was in front of him and stunned it using Stunning Shield of Light which was a skill that he got at level 75. Having 10 points into it, he was able to stun the spider for 7.5 seconds. The damage itself was fairly minuscule, although, that wasn¡¯t the point of this particular skill, or any shield-based skills. He saw the spider give off two different auras that cycled between them, one green, the other brownish in color. It seemed that the Warlock, Delmouth, was providing his assist, causing the spider to become both poisoned and diseased. In this case, since Warlocks specialized in damage over time and other debuff type of spells, his spider wouldn¡¯t be the last to go down, but that was fine with him. As the minute mark passed, the raid was getting dangerously low on mana as the Bard, Cayden, weaved his raid-based health regeneration and mana regeneration songs. Each song lasted for 5 seconds, but they each had a 2.5 second recast timer, and Wulfadin was pleased that he was able to keep both songs playing, even though he wasn¡¯t using other damage dealing abilities.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Luckily, the last spider, his, was now the focus of the entire raid and its health rapidly dropped to 0, causing the spider to die and turn to a black mist that drifted away. Wulfadin called out, ¡°Everyone, back to your positions!¡± before running around the raid to get back into position himself. Before he could get the aggro on the boss though, it spit out another corrosive webbing on Lyklor. ¡°Damnit to hell,¡± he said while grinding his teeth. Erikiriul was having fun! If only for a little bit, she could see both the frustration and the despair on each of the veil-walkers¡¯ faces. It was as if they knew they couldn¡¯t win this fight, which would be typical. However, it wasn¡¯t meant to be, and she knew that she couldn¡¯t afford to let the other pests die. She was the first of the guardians in this dungeon, so she had to let them think that it was possible that they could get to the end. Mentally sighing, she prepared herself. She really didn¡¯t like needing to respawn and allowing her treasures that she worked so hard to get be taken from her. She saw that main pest which thought he was so superior than her run back towards her. ¡°Perhaps I should kill him?¡± she thought to herself. It should be fine; she can always still allow them to pass through her domain. Spitting her corrosive webbing at him, he raised his shield to block it, which she anticipated. She rapidly swung her right sword, then her left sword, both in an arc in order to use her ability, Cleave, twice in order to cause damage to all of the veil-walkers in front of her. She then started attacking the pest while the remaining healer was focused on healing everyone that was still alive. Slowly, her remaining health dropped to 10%, and while normally she would summon more of her children, she turned her head and spit her corrosive webbing at the remaining healer and used her Fury ability to launch several attacks back to back against the beastman. Now at 5% health, she finally managed to kill that pest of a beastman insect. He kept healing himself with his Paladin abilities, but in the end, she did manage to kill him, even though it would have been so much easier if she could have just gone all out. Once her legs finally gave out, she thought to herself that it would be nice if Rana could still come over and play with her children tomorrow. She would be looking forward to it. **** Rana looked to her upper left where she could see her family members¡¯ health, stamina, and mana bars as well as any buffs or debuffs when she saw her aunt¡¯s health drop to 0 and her name become outlined in red. ¡°NOOO! AUNTIE!!¡± she yelled in rage, becoming furious. She had hidden inside of the illusionary wall as her father wanted, but she could not believe that these maggots, these pests, these¡­ veil-walkers would enter her home and kill her aunt and her cousins. All for a measly reward of only 6 experience. Tightening her hands in a fist and causing her nails to cut into her palms, she released the tension when she felt the sting and released her rage. ¡°Soon, soon I¡¯ll be able to kill you all. Ah, I can¡¯t wait until I can cut open these invading pests and rip out their organs like father does,¡± she thought to herself while giving the wall in front of her a malicious smile as she imagined herself in her father¡¯s place as he worked on getting food for everyone. **** Wulfadin was ecstatic! Even though he died at the very end of the fight, the raid was able to kill the boss mob. It was definitely a tough fight and didn¡¯t go exactly the way he had been told. Not only was the boss a higher level than what was anticipated, it seemed that some of its timers and abilities where off, or not even used. He smiled as he thought that the random number generator, or the RNG, was on his side for once. However, it was time to get the loot and then continue on. In the back of the room was another door that led further into the dungeon. To the right of the door, near the corner of the room was a large, exquisite chest that was made from dark red wood with golden metal decorating it. It seemed to him that this dungeon favored dark colors and gold. To the sides of the chest were skeletons that were thrown around and covered in spider webbing. Wulfadin walked over to the chest and opened it. The chest had a total of 25 plat, which combined with the gold dropped from Erikiriul, gave the raid a total of 34p, 376g, 32s, and 900 copper which was split evenly between everyone. Other than the plat, there were three pieces of Spider Queen gear, and 4 pieces of standard Fiendish gear. He pulled out the first item, the Spider Queen¡¯s Carapace Shield which was a large shield that only he and Lyklor could use and displayed the stats to the raid. They had previously agreed to a ¡°Need Before Greed¡± loot system, so that anyone that could use the equipment would get first rights to it, and if no one needed it, then everyone could roll on the equipment.
Spider Queen¡¯s Carapace Shield
Rarity: Rare
Level: 130
Price: 8p, 750g, 500s, 0c
Item Stats
Dexterity: +175
Vitality: +200
Wisdom: +150
Item Effect
Gives the user a 10% chance to poison the attacker.
¡°Ok, since this one is a large shield, Lyklor, did you want to roll on this?¡± he asked the Priest. Lyklor looked over the stats of the shield and smiled. ¡°Yea, that would be a good upgrade for me,¡± he replied. Both Wulfadin and Lyklor called out at the same time, ¡°Roll Random 100,¡± after which, there was a system announcement that could be heard by all nearby players. Wulfadin smiled as he equipped the shield and said out loud, in a deep voice, ¡°Come to papa, oh yeaa.¡± It was a common, running joke on in the real world that involved a holo-ad of a huge, fat, jug of juice that would run around a kitchen while filling itself up with Arti-sugar and some other powdered substance. The raid laughed at his joke, and he became serious again. Loot was always a serious matter! ¡°Next up, we have the beauty of a staff, the Spider Queen¡¯s Staff of Corrosion,¡± he announced while displaying the next item that they were able to loot.
Spider Queen¡¯s Staff of Corrosion
Rarity: Rare
Level: 130
Price: 12p, 250g, 500s, 0c
Item Stats
Agility: +125
Vitality: +125
Wisdom: +250
Item Effect
When attacking an enemy, there is a 25% chance to release a cloud of corrosion in a 2.5-meter radius of the target.
¡°It¡¯s a magic staff, so since Felaern is a Wizard, Delmouth, who¡¯s a Warlock, Aega and Holman, you¡¯re both Sorcerers and since Druid¡¯s can also use staves, Priamus. You guys, go ahead and roll,¡± Wulfadin told the raid members. ¡°Looks like Felaern wins with a 74, here you go sir, your Staff of Corrosion,¡± Wulfadin said while opening a trade window with Felaern who accepted the trade and equipped the staff shortly after. ¡°Last but not least, as far as the good equipment goes, we have the Amulet of Corrosive Resistance. It¡¯s actually a damn nice necklace and everyone can use it. Here¡¯s the stats for it,¡± he said while showing everyone the stats on the amulet.
Spider Queen¡¯s Amulet of Corrosive Resistance
Rarity: Rare
Level: 125
Price: 4p, 150g, 750s, 0c
Item Stats
Strength: +125
Agility: +150
Dexterity: +150
Vitality: +200
Wisdom: +125
Poison Resist: +25%
Item Effect
The wearer of this amulet has a 5% chance to spawn a small spider when attacking their target. The summoned spider lasts for 10 seconds and does 25% of the wearer¡¯s weapon damage over time.
Everyone except for Amand (who is a Shaman), Cayden, Priamus and Lyklor rolled on the necklace and Holman ended up winning it when he rolled a 98. Since the winners got some very nice gear, they ended up giving up the opportunity to roll on the lesser equipment, allowing those that needed it the chance to get something. Gropleg, the Barbarian that was in Wulfadin¡¯s group won the Fiendish Sword, and Leka, one of the two Berserker¡¯s in the raid, won the pair of Fiendish Chainmail Boots when she rolled a perfect 100. Cayden won the Fiendish Gauntlets that dropped, even though it was considered as plate-mail and only Wulfadin could use it since he didn¡¯t want them. Finally, their Magick Archer, Orym, won the Fiendish Leather Vest and was actually an upgrade for him. ¡°We still have three more boss mobs left before we take on the dungeon lord, so does anyone need to take 5 before we start with the next part?¡± Wulfadin asked the raid after loot had finally been distributed. **** Corthaxul sat in the throne room waiting for the veil-walkers that would get his Rana to level 5 at long last. She had come a long way from being the creature that kept crying for others like herself. With his teachings, and by allowing her to associate with the generals and other demonic creatures in his assigned dungeon, her soul had grown corrupted beyond repair. In his own way, he was actually proud of how Rana had ¡°grown,¡± and how brutal she was becoming. Her rage at the other veil-walkers would make her a very formidable foe for them. Corthaxul looked to the side of where he was sitting at the illusion that he casted into the wall. It prevented any sounds from coming through and also prevented anyone from seeing past it, however, he was able to perceive what was behind it since it was his illusion. He could hear her crushing her own fist against the wall as she punched it while growling and muttering the words, ¡°torture¡±, ¡°murder¡±, and ¡°kill¡± over and over, and it made him smile, as malicious as it was. He could care less about the deaths of his generals, however, it seemed that their deaths caused Rana to become enraged and furious, furthering her hatred of the veil-walkers. In that, he was even happy that they could sacrifice themselves for her growth. He sometimes found it¡­ curious, that it wasn¡¯t until Rana appeared that he became aware of these¡­ emotions? It strange that this one human, this girl, became a being to protect and nourish. It wasn¡¯t just him either, it was all of the entities within the dungeon. Perhaps he would speak with his deity, Erebus, about it should he be visited by him. Regardless, by virtue of his position, he had to stay within this dungeon, however, that rule was not in effect for Rana. In a few years, he would release his creation upon the world to create chaos and despair wherever she walked. It would be a glorious thing to see this once human become the evil that walks upon the realm. He saw in the group window that both Zoz''gath and Xugminath had both died as planned. If the veil-walkers decided to come straight to him rather than Drenvyra, it would still be a good result, he would just need to let them resurrect a few times during the battle. In any case, they should be running into the groups of pheliaks and shadow demons that he placed in certain areas leading to the back of the dungeon. **** Wulfadin and the raid group were ecstatic with their performance so far. However, Wulfadin, who was the most experienced with raiding, started to worry. The bosses were all higher level than he was told, as if somehow, they were evolving. Perhaps it was a new type of scaling that XGS was experimenting with. This dungeon wasn¡¯t that well known, and it would make sense that they would do a live test with new mechanics here, however, it was causing some of the less experienced raiders to become more reckless, as if they were becoming over-confident in their abilities. Brushing his worries to the side, they continued on before coming upon an intersection. Protecting both routes was a pack of mobs that included one pheliak demon and three shadow demons. Stopping just outside of their aggro range, Wulfadin inspected the mobs: Pheliak Type: Large Demon (Raid) Level: 120 HP: 4,113,024 Shadow Demon Type: Minor Demon (Raid) Level: 118 HP: 4,000,524 The pheliak demon looked like large vulture with overgrown claws that was made from a black liquid that sucked in light and had eyes that were on fire, giving off an orangish-red glow, as it looked for prey while it was flying above the shadow demons. The shadow demons themselves were also made of the same black liquid, however, they were humanoid in shape with a few exceptions. Their long arms seemed disproportional to their bodies as well as did their fingers which were made to look like claws. Even though they walked beneath the pheliak, they too had large, black wings which protruded from their backs. Where ever the demons moved, they left behind puddles of black liquid which, judging by the hissing sound and sulphuric smell, was corrosive. ¡°Ok, on three, we¡¯ll take these just like the other mob packs that we¡¯ve fought. Keep an eye out for any debuffs or DOTS and we should be fine,¡± Wulfadin whispered to the rest of the raid. When he received nods from everyone, he raised both his sword and shield and then rushed into combat. As he entered the range of the pack of demonic mobs, the pheliak unleashed a wailing screech which caused the shadow demons to aggro as well. He used his ability, Holy Call to gain the aggro of the entire pack. When the pheliak dived at him to attack, he attacked it with his shield, using his Stunning Shield Bash skill and stunning it for 7.5 seconds, causing it to fall on the ground and twitch uncontrollably. Satisfied, he focused on attacking one of the shadow demons that was also in front of him while the rest of the raid started attacking the others. Roughly five minutes later, with the pack of mobs now dead, they had a choice to go to the left or right. Wulfadin chose the path to the right and they continued on while keeping an eye out for other mobs that could ambush them. A few minutes later, they saw another door that was the same fashion as the others that they had come across. This one was a bit different though and seemed more regal, in a demonic sense, than the others were. They found the last room of the dungeon, the dungeon lord¡¯s room. Even though they were all excited that they had come so far in the couple of hours that they had been raiding this dungeon, the entire raid was wanting to get this over with. ¡°Okay folks, are you guys ready to get this raid finished up so we can go back to the guild house?¡± Wulfadin asked while smiling. If this dungeon did scale like he thought, they should be able to kill the final boss and get some really good loot. He started planning out the fight and shared the intel that he purchased from the information brokers. **** Corthaxul was getting impatient. He could tell that the veil-walkers were just beyond his door, but he had to wait until they entered and he had to give a speech about some nonsense. Usually, he didn¡¯t mind it, however, he wanted to get Rana to level 5, and these veil-walkers were stalling for time. Tapping his large claws against the armrest of his throne, he raised his head as the door finally opened. After all of the veil-walkers entered his domain, the door closed automatically. He rose to his feet and walked away from his throne. When Wulfadin entered the dungeon lord¡¯s room, he noticed the large, demonic presence that was sitting on a throne made from human bones and skulls. It was held together with the same black liquid darkness that he had been seeing throughout the dungeon. Spreading along the ground from the bottom of this, ¡°throne,¡± were large, clear veins that held a red substance stretching out through the entire room, giving it a blood red glow. This room extruded malevolence and gave him pause to study the demon that stood up and walked towards them. It was an extremely large, muscular demon with two large, curved horns wearing a butcher¡¯s outfit with dark splotches and what looked like spray marks. Around his waist was a large belt that held various cleavers, hooks, spikes, and knives. Corthaxul Level: 150 HP: 8,915,670 ¡°Veil-walkers, I admire your persistence,¡± he growled at them, ¡°However, it is here that you will meet your end. Prepare yourselves!¡± he finished with a shout as he rushed towards the raid. Wulfadin saw the demon lord rush at the raid as he was informed, however, the fight did not go as he had hoped. He had thought that this dungeon was being scaled to their average levels, however, he knew that he was wrong. The demonic lord was well above their level. ¡°There¡¯s no way we can win this,¡± he thought to himself. ¡°Even still, it would be a waste to just retreat.¡± ¡°CHARGE!!¡± Wulfadin yelled as he rushed the Demon Lord Corthaxul. **** Rana watched as her father proclaimed that these veil-walkers would meet their end, her eyes showing her rage and intent for vengeance against these pests that had killed her family. She wanted to do more than just look upon the massacre that her father was going to create, however, he would be upset if she did so. At the beginning of the fight, her father unleashed his Chains of Immobility which caused the veil-walker that was in full-plate and rushing towards him to become trapped and unable to move. He then followed up with another skill, Chains of Suspension, which she loved, to suspend both healers in the air by their arms. This made them unable to use their healing magic for the time being. However, the veil-walkers didn¡¯t quite fall into despair, and they started attacking her father causing her to grow even more upset. How dare these peons attack her father. It was them that killed her family! ¡°How dare they come into MY home and kill MY family. I¡¯ll kill them, I will kill them all. I will become vengeance, and you will ALL feel my rage!¡± she began to think to herself while digging her fingernails into her palms. Corthaxul was able to feel the aura of wrath and vengeance coming from the hole in the wall and he smiled maliciously, looking down upon the mass of veil-walkers that were attacking him. He took out his serrated cleavers and then rushed into the group of veil-walkers that were using spells and arrows against him. They had failed to separate from the beginning, and he would take advantage of their failure. After performing a dash into the middle of them, he summoned more demonic chains that wrapped around their legs, rooting them in place. He then unleashed his Aura of Fear, causing them to stop attacking him as they panicked. However, they were unable to move due to the chains, and he began the slaughter. Wulfadin could do nothing but watch as his raid, his guild, and his friends get slaughtered by this demon. This was nothing like he was told, and nothing like he expected. It was as if this demon was something from his nightmares, and he was unable to stop the outright slaughter of all of his friends. This was something that they could not beat. He watched as the demon finished killing the entire raid with barely a dent in its HP walk up to him with the serrated cleavers that he had used to decimate everyone. ¡°Your intrusion upon my domain ends here veil-walker,¡± the demon lord said to him as he raised one of the cleavers and swung it towards his neck. As the darkness overcame him, he could have sworn that heard the demon¡¯s voice, that seemed so far away, call out, ¡°It is done Rana, you can come out now.¡± Wulfadin then re-spawned at the entrance to the dungeon. ??? Rana couldn¡¯t believe her eyes. Not only did her father annihilate the veil-walkers, she finally got the last 30 experience that she needed to reach level 5! She couldn¡¯t wait to finally meet her deity and become something other than just a basic Fighter. She rushed out to her father after he called out to her and hugged him while looking up into his demonic eyes that glowed with dark red malevolence. Not for the first time, she thought to herself how she wished she was born a demon. Instead, she was cursed in this human form that wasn¡¯t able to reap the vengeance against the veil-walkers that her soul craved. At least, not yet. ¡°Father, that was so awesome! You completely wiped out those pests. I¡¯m level 5 now!¡± she excitedly told her dad as she hugged him. ¡°Good. You will need to make a choice Rana, one that will affect you from here on,¡± he responded to the over enthusiastic girl as he pulled her away from him. ¡°It is the choice of what class you will want to become, from now until the end of time. I¡¯ve told you before of the classes, and I trust that you will make a good decision which will further advance the demonic race,¡± Corthaxul sternly replied to his ¡°daughter¡± while smiling at her. Becoming serious, she replied, ¡°Of course father! I will do anything for you and the Demonic race.¡± ¡°Good, now come along. It¡¯s getting late, and the deity that will allow you to choose your class will only appear within the dreamworld,¡± Corthaxul said while turning away to go towards the rooms that were hidden beyond the throne room. Rana walked into her room that was made of stone. It had the same veins running through it as the throne room did, giving it, at least to her, a comforting glow. As excited as she was, she was getting unnaturally tired and decided to crawl into the bed that her father had crafted for her. It was a steel box which almost looked like a coffin without a lid, but on the inside of it were steel spikes that would puncture through her body. The bed stood on four pipes which would allow her blood to exit so that she wouldn¡¯t drown and was enchanted with multiple healing runes that would heal her throughout the night, preventing her from dying and needing to re-spawn. Lying down in it, she felt the exquisite pain of the spikes enter her body. She released a pleasant sigh as she felt the healing aura of her bed regenerate her health as she bled out, slowly closing her eyes and letting sleep take her. **** Rana opened her eyes and looked around. She was still lying down, however, this wasn¡¯t her bed, nor her room. Standing up, she saw that there was a blood red mist that covered the ground that seemed to go on forever. At first, she was confused until she remembered her father telling her that she would need to meet her deity within the dreamworld. Not seeing anyone around, she called out, ¡°Hello?¡± The red mist evaporated and the world seemed to transition to a battlefield where there was a countless number of corpses scattered about. In the center of the corpses was a man that was hammered into a wall. A coarse, feminine voice called out, ¡°Rana, welcome to our realm. Judge this man for his crimes against our people and perhaps we will judge you to be worthy of our gifts.¡± Rana looked around for the voice, but was unable to see anyone. It was as if the voice was all around her. ¡°What crimes did he commit?¡± she asked the voice. ¡°If you are truly asking that, just look around you! These are our people; these are the ones that he killed! Men, woman, children!¡± Rana looked at the man that was impaled on the wall as she remembered her own fury as the veil-walkers took the lives of her family. Unbeknownst to her, Rana¡¯s eyes started glowing red as the fury of vengeance boiled her into a rage. She swiftly walked towards the man as she imagined an instrument of justice that could be used against him. An instrument that would be worthy of the crimes that he committed. A whip-like weapon that was made from chains appeared in her hand. Each of the chains had razor-sharp metal shards bound together by metallic wire wrapping them. Remembering her fury, her loss, and her need for vengeance against the crimes against her own family and the family of this voice, she swung the whip against the man¡¯s back, shredding his skin, over and over, for what seemed like hours. She finally stopped as she saw the piece of mangled meat, that was even now, still impaled upon the wall. Unable to unleash the fury inside of her, she screamed, and the world once again transitioned from the bloody, corpse filled scene to her being in a room that was similar to the throne room her father used. Breathing heavily, the whip that Rana had used against the criminal disappeared. However, her father was not the one sitting upon the throne. Instead, there was another demon, unlike any other that she had seen before. She had long, black hair and her skin was as white as ash with golden eyes that glowed softly. Above her ears, which were elven in shape, were two obsidian horns that spread outwards. This being also had wings, which almost all high-ranking demons had, however, hers were made of a dull, rusted metal and decaying, red flesh instead of the liquid darkness that she had come to appreciate. The demoness also had two humanoid arms which ended in talons, and from behind her, were two other sets of arm-like appendages which ended in something that looked like a mouth with sharp, metal teeth. Adorning her figure was her crimson and black armor that was segmented, forming plates. It looked like a one-piece armor suit that barely covered her figure, it¡¯s V-line formed so that it only covered her breasts, stomach, and below. She also wore matching boots that went to her mid-thigh, and ended in boots that forced her to walk on her toes. To Rana¡¯s eyes, she looked both elegant and powerful. Regardless though, she sat upon her father¡¯s throne. As Rana started to become enraged again at the heresy, the being spoke out. It was the same voice that she heard on the field of corpses. ¡°Calm yourself child, this is not your father¡¯s throne. You are in our dominion, our dreamscape domain.¡± Rana took a deep breath, calming herself. ¡°Who are you, my deity?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes child, after witnessing your continued trials throughout your young life, we have claimed you as our own. Your need for vengeance against those that have wronged you and yours has called to us. We are Erinyes, the goddess of vengeance and retribution. There were several paths that you could have chosen when you judged the criminal that we showed to you. You could have taken his soul to be tortured by the underworld, allowing you to become a Paladin. You could also have shown him retribution by making him face what he did, punishing him in the same manner that he killed so many others. That choice would have allowed you to become a Dark Knight. There are two others, the way of the Monk and the way of the Barbarian, yet, you did not choose those either. No child, you chose to allow your own fury, your own rage, your own vengeance to coincide with our own. You, child, have chosen to become a Berserker,¡± Erinyes said while walking towards, and then circling around, Rana. ¡°With this choice, we will grant you our mark, our blessing if you will. Our mark will increase both your strength by 10% as well as the damage you cause by 5%. Now child, go forth, and deliver vengeance upon your enemies!¡± The world once again faded into a dark nothingness allowing Rana to sleep. HELL FORGE (TORTURER鈥橲 CHAMBERS) - 1 YEAR AGO Rana stood in the cavern which she and her father called the ¡°training room.¡± It was one of the unused caverns which provided a dead end for veil-walkers, so they decided to equip it with embalmed corpses mounted onto wooden frames in order to act as training dummies so that Rana could train the skills that she had accumulated through the countless deaths of veil-walkers over the last 480 years. She had come only a short way throughout these many hundreds of years; however, she was now a level 20 Berserker with the help of a training hakama set that her father created for her after gleaming the enchanting knowledge by interrogating an enchanter that came looking for obsidian gems. While basic, the equipment that she now wore was made from hides that he had skinned from random people that her father called, ¡°NPCs¡± that had dared to enter their home. It had the look of a medium sized soft leather hide that wrapped around her chest and a much larger soft leather hide that wrapped around her waist and dropped to her ankles. It fit snugly against her waist when tied with otherwise unused tendons and allowed her to move extremely well while both practicing her axe skills, walking, and even running or sprinting. After becoming a Berserker, she sat down with her father and he helped her to pull up her status screen so she could allocate ¡°stat points¡± and gain skills from leveling. Her father strongly suggested that with each level, since she received 5 skill points with each one, that she put 2 points into strength, and 1 point into dexterity, agility, and vitality. She had originally wanted to get all of the skills that she unlocked, however, her father told her that she must be careful with what skills that she learned since she would only get 3 ¡°skill points¡± for each level, and not all of the skills available would be of any use. Being his faithful daughter, protege, and human servant, she consulted with him each time she unlocked these skills. So now, when she viewed her character status screen, she saw in front of her:
Character Information
Character Name: Rana
Occupation: Berserker
Guild: None Rank: N/A
Level: 20 Experience: 375,940
Currency: 0c
Health: 3,550 Stamina: 3,150 Mana: 600
Character Stats
Strength: 119 Weapon Damage: 5,740 ¨C 5,915
Dexterity: 61 Critical Damage: 5,772 ¨C 5,974
Agility: 64 Critical Chance: 3%
Vitality: 69 Evade Rate: 3%
Wisdom: 10 Armor: 10
Resists
Slashing: 5% Fire: 5% Poison: 10%
Blunt: 5% Cold: 5% Disease: 10%
Piercing: 5% Lightning: 5% Soul: 0%
Ability List
Riposte: 10 Sweeping Attack: 5 Taunt: 5
Berserker¡¯s Fury: 9 Frenzy: 9 Intimidating Shout: 5
Stance: Berserk: 6 Stance: Indomitable Wall: 1 Ignore Pain: 5
Rib Slash: 5
With each new skill that Rana learned, she would activate the skill by shouting out the name of the skill, which her body would then move automatically. It was an odd sensation that she felt, not being able to control her body. After memorizing the movements of activating the skill, her father would then supervise her performing the skill without shouting it out, instead, relying on muscle memory. Her father told her that only veil-walkers were the ones that shouted out their abilities, and that if she wanted to become stronger than any of them, she would need to learn how to use the skills like any other demon. Rana swung her sword at the training dummy while stepping to the right side of it before turning and swinging the axe in her left hand to slash at the side of it. The skill she was practicing now was one of the new skills she purchased when she became level 20, Rib Slash. The skill itself did 80% of her weapon damage at level 1, but since she had 5 points into it, it now did 90%, since each point would raise its damage by 2%. ¡°Again!¡± her father bellowed at her as he swung the flexible, thin rod that he kept at her back. As the rod sliced into her back and she felt a harsh, stinging pain which caused her to softly groan, half in annoyance that she hadn¡¯t perfected this Rib Slash ability and half in pain. This type of pain was different than her usual tortures that her father would give to her, since in this case, it was done in anger rather than with the gentle hand that he would otherwise use. ¡°Yes father,¡± she said as she got into position to perform the attack once again. Even though she had been at this for the last two hours, she would go on for as long as it took, both in order to please her father as well as to become strong enough to protect her home. Focusing her mind and her body, she performed Rib Slash once again. **** Jameson and Kirstin looked down upon the girl that laid in the capsule. They had watched her grow from just an infant into this young woman, who would be 24 later this year. Kirstin would often tell Jameson that it was like watching over a comatose patient in a hospital and he had to agree. However, he, even now, wanted to protect this single survivor from their experiment so many years ago when that terrorist group attacked their infrastructure. In fact, he even accepted Rana as the daughter that he never had, since he watched her grow up, even if she grew up while it looked like she slept; stuck in that god-awful game. Shortly after the incident, he had tasked both Kirstin and Brandt to hack into the HQ supercomputer from off-site which allowed them to make a few discreet changes to the NPCs of that damned dungeon which killed her parents and all of the others. They had also changed some of the core AI logic that the game ran on which mandated that it would ensure the physical survival of players within the game. They hoped that by doing this, it would prevent any further digital attacks which could result in players dying. It was also the most that they could do without arising suspicion. After the incident, the project¡¯s staff was downsized to a very minimal core of people that would maintain the equipment. Unfortunately, even after these many years, they were still unable to log into their systems administration console and were unable to monitor Rana¡¯s progress. Brandt, their technical lead, ended up leaving the project 5 years after the incident after making sure that everything would run for the duration of the test. Confident in his previous tech leads skills, Jameson didn¡¯t feel the need to bring on another tech lead that was not a part of the original team. Over the years, Jameson had made several calls to various people that he knew personally that worked at XGS headquarters as GMs, and they would check the logs for him for any player named Rana, however, they were always unable to find anyone by that name which worried Jameson. Perhaps she was comatose and not actually in the game? Regardless, they would find out in just a few hours when the capsule would reset and forcefully log Rana out of the Veil. ¡°Jameson, we¡¯ve worked together on this project for the last 25 years. Did we do the right thing? With the game¡¯s time compression, she¡¯s been in there for 480 years now. Shouldn¡¯t we have sent a team into the Veil instead of letting NPCs take care of her?¡± Kirstin asked her long-time boss and good friend. ¡°Kirstin, we did what we had to do, both for Rana and the project. You know as well as I do that if word got out, that the entire project would have been canceled. Not only that, but she would have gotten nothing out of it but her parents killed. I couldn¡¯t do that to the poor girl,¡± he responded while still looking down at the young woman. It had been 20 years since Rana entered the World of the Veil, and with the time compression of 1 hour in real-time, she would have experienced 1 day in the game. Now, with the project¡¯s end, and she would be exiting it in just over an hour when the capsule automatically exited from the game. While he waited for the medics to arrive, he continued to watch over the young woman as she slept, wondering what had happened to her over the years. **** Rana sat with her father in the butchery, sharing some raw meat stew that she prepared from the thing that was now hanging by meat hooks attached to the ceiling by chains. She enjoyed these moments where it was just the two of them, sitting together with a comfortable silence between them. ¡°Rana, starting tomorrow, I will have Varidi Daemonium start to train with you. You¡¯ve grown into your skills well, and I think it is time for you to train with another in actual combat,¡± he spoke after swallowing a large piece of meat. ¡°Isn¡¯t Varidi a level 120 shadow demon? Will that even be possible?¡± she asked while raising an eyebrow at her father. He looked at her and grinned as only demons could. ¡°Normally, it wouldn¡¯t be. However, instead of using his innate demonic powers, he will be using various weapons that we¡¯ve accumulated instead. Also, since you¡¯ve been with us for almost five millennia, I¡¯ve prepared something more suitable for you as well,¡± he replied to her while smiling. He was looking forward to implementing his presents. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Perhaps we should¡­¡± the words never left her mouth as she saw her father¡¯s eyes look past her and into the distance as he frowned. She knew that look and saw it many times before and knew that their meal was being interrupted. Standing up from the stone block that she used as a chair, she didn¡¯t need to be told where to go. The veil-walkers have invaded their dominion once again. ¡°They will pay for interrupting us,¡± she thought to herself. A few hours later, her hatred and rage were burning through her soul. They had killed her aunt and were now in the process of killing her uncle, Xugminath, who was one of her father¡¯s generals. Even though he had no trace of being a typical demon and instead looked like a wild, flying predator with a beak and large quills covering his back, he was always kind to her, especially in the early days when the pain was just too much for her to bare. His domain was her refuge, and he only had 10% of his health remaining. ¡°Kill them all, I will KILL THEM ALL!¡± she vowed to herself while rocking back and forth.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. She needed to feel something comforting and she started clawing her arms until they started to bleed. As his name outlined in red when his health bar finally emptied, something that she had never seen before appeared in front of her, no matter where she looked. YOU ARE NOW LOGGING OUT OF THE VEIL EXITING THE GAME IN 10 SECONDS When it first appeared, she was confused, and as the time started counting down, she panicked and ran out of the crevice that was covered by her father¡¯s illusion. YOU ARE NOW LOGGING OUT OF THE VEIL EXITING THE GAME IN 5 SECONDS ¡°Father, something is wrong, I¡¯m seeing something about¡­¡± Rana started to tell her father as her view faded to black. Even though the world became black as night, the words that she saw had now changed: YOU ARE NOW LOGGED OUT OF THE VEIL THANK YOU FOR PLAYING. Those words in front of her remained for a few seconds before fading from view. Surrounded by darkness, she could feel her consciousness fade, as if she was falling asleep. **** Jameson stood by the woman as she began to stir. The medical team stood on the other side of the immersion capsule with bio-scanners as they monitored the nanites that kept Rana alive throughout these years. If not for this ground breaking discovery nearly 30 years ago, she would have gone into extreme muscular dystrophy and her heart would have given out. After the immersion capsule informed the team that she was now logged out of the Veil, the medical team let the machine reset and pulled out the sliding medical bedding from the machine that they called, ¡°the donut,¡± so that they could monitor her vital signs. Even still, they decided to give her an intravenous drip to help her hydrate with actual fluids. Jameson saw Rana open her eyes, and as he expected, she had a very panicked look in her eyes. He gave her a gentle smile and lifted her hand in his. ¡°Welcome back Rana, welcome back,¡± he said softly to her in his most comforting voice that he could manage, tears streaming from his eyes. ¡°W¡­¡± she tried to speak but then hoarsely coughed. That too was expected, and Rana would need to get used to speaking again. Even though the nanites prevented muscular dystrophy, if the muscles are not used, then you could lose that ¡°muscle memory¡±, which even included speech. But it would come shortly, he was sure. ¡°Ssh, no need to talk. These people here will make sure you are okay, and then we¡¯ll talk,¡± Jameson told her, still speaking softly. He saw the panic leave her expression, and now it was one of curiosity and something¡­ else. He couldn¡¯t be sure of what that hint of an expression was, but whatever it was, she would be okay now. Jameson left Rana in the care of the medical team as he went to meet with Kirstin in his office. **** When Rana woke up, she began to panic. This wasn¡¯t her home and there were humans that looked similar to human NPCs and veil-walkers were hovering over her. Some of them were looking at small black boxes that gave off a soft glow. It was definitely nothing demonic, and the only thing that she could think was that it was something else magical. She also saw that there was a clear tube with something that penetrated into her arm. It was then that the man hovering over her said something in a language that she couldn¡¯t understand, but seemed familiar. She tried to speak, but whatever happened to her made her voice hoarse and she couldn¡¯t speak the words in order to demand to know where she was. Not only that, but she felt extremely fatigued as if she had been training with her father for days. The man that hovered over her spoke to her again and then patted her hand which annoyed her. She could not accept anyone laying hands on her unless they were her family, and this human was holding her hand patting it. Before she could break his wrist, arm, and then his neck, he released her and smiled before walking away. Since the one human left, there were three others that remained. One of the other humans said something to her that couldn¡¯t understand before kneeling down beneath this thing that she was laying on. All of a sudden, her back was propped up so that she could see the room that she was currently in. Since she was in a much more comfortable position, she began to tighten, and then loosen, her muscles and bones; starting at the bottom with her toes, then calves, then legs, stomach, chest, and so forth while breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth as her father taught her to do. By doing this, it allowed her to regain her bodily senses and do away with the fatigue that she felt. She also took this time to look around her. She was in a white room with dozens of circular devices that she couldn¡¯t understand that aligned the walls both to her side and in front of her. There were also several other devices that were giving off sounds and magical glows by each one, including hers. Above her were white lights which, to her, were extremely unnatural since she was used to the soft, comforting red glows of the infernal veins. She also noted that there were several black round things that were near the top of the walls. Near the contraption that she was sitting in, or laying on, was a silver metal tray with what looked like small weapons or things to torture her with, and other several items that she couldn¡¯t recognize. For being instruments of torture, they were awfully inadequate compared to the tools that her father used. She wanted to laugh at these humans who thought they could torture her with such devices, but she held it in. Wherever this place was, it made her extremely nervous and she wanted nothing but to go back home. One of the humans started speaking to her again, and it was then that she was able to realize what language they were speaking. She had been so confused and panicked before that she just didn¡¯t realize that she knew what it was. It was the common language, the language of the veil-walkers. Rana remembered her rage, her fury, her need for revenge, and the need for retribution for what the veil-walkers had been doing to her family for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years. Over and over, they had been killed, they had been slaughtered. However, these were not the veil-walkers that were equipped to murder her family, no, these veil-walkers looked weak and untrained. They didn¡¯t even have armor or weapons, other than the ones on the tray that were near her. As one of the veil-walkers neared her with a smile and made a move to grab one of those instruments, Rana calmed her rage and her fury so that it spread across her like ice and went to work. Rana swung off to the side of the bed and kicked the veil-walker¡¯s hand away from the small spike that had two round holes on the bottom of it which tore out the tube from her arm. Grabbing the instrument, she grabbed the veil-walker that was next to him by his cloth shirt and pulled him to her while driving it into the side of his neck and pulling it towards her, causing blood to gush out and splatter on her hands and face as he looked at her in both fear and terror. Rana licked her lips, wiping the blood away from her mouth and found it strange. This veil-walker¡¯s blood had both a smell and taste of something metallic. It didn¡¯t matter though, there were still several veil-walkers that she would deliver retribution to. It was then that an extremely loud sound blared all around her as the lights went dark. The room was now filled with red lights that seemed to rotate that made her feel more at home. However, that loud sound that kept repeating over and over was starting to actually hurting her ears. Rana looked at the other two veil-walkers that wanted to torture her with their magical instruments and devices. The one across from the bed-like contraption that she had been in stumbled and was now sitting on the floor, trying to crawl backwards to the wall away from her. It didn¡¯t look like that one, a female human, would be an immediate threat, so she focused on her other target, the one that she kicked. This one had some looked like he had some fight in him, even though he was obviously scared. She slowly walked towards him as if she was stalking prey and he swung his fist at her. Briefly thinking that he must be a Monk of some type, she instinctively stepped forward and off to the side of him while plunging the spike into his ribcage just as she had practiced and then pulled it out. Even though she performed Rib Slash perfectly, he still didn¡¯t die. Instead, he clutched at his side and tried to back away from her while shouting something that she didn¡¯t understand. The reason why this low-level veil-walker without armor didn¡¯t immediately die from her Rib Slash must have been due to the fact that this weapon wasn¡¯t considered an axe. It didn¡¯t matter though, since she stepped towards the veil-walker and drove the spike into his eye which made him twitch uncontrollably for a second before dropping onto the ground, dead. She now only had one more veil-walker to deliver her retribution to, the one cowering by the wall now covering her face with her hands while muttering something and shaking her head. Rana grinned maniacally at her as she stalked towards the veil-walker. ¡°You veil-walkers have killed my family for the last time, welcome to retribution, WELCOME TO HELL!¡± she shouted at the veil-walker who was still shaking and cowering in fear. **** Jameson and Kirstin were alone in his office. Since it was in the middle of the night, the only ones in the facility were the medical crew, which were making sure that Rana would be okay, Kirstin, and himself. He looked up at the ceiling and smiled. ¡°We¡¯ve done it Kirstin; she is alive and well. After the medical team finishes with their diagnostics, we¡¯ll let her rest for the night and tomorrow, we can release our findings to the board. All we need to do now is make sure that she can live comfortably and set her up with a privatized tutor for learning how to live in the real world rather than¡­¡± Jameson started saying to Kirstin before the facility alarm went off. BIOHAZARD CONTAINMENT LEAK IN SECTION E. ALL PERSONNEL NOT IN SECTION E ARE TO LEAVE THE FACILITY IMMEDIATELY. REPEAT, BIOHAZARD CONTAINMENT LEAK IN SECTION E. ALL PERSONNEL NOT IN SECTION E ARE TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. ¡°WHAT THE HELL?¡± he shouted as the lights went off and the emergency alarm lights activated while the alarm sounded. Both Kirstin and him jumped from their chairs and ran out of the office. Even though they were in his office next to the experiment bay, they were still in section E. There was nothing that would be considered a biohazard in the facility with the exception of the nanites, however, those were locked away and secured in the medical bay which was not in this section. Unless something went wrong with the medical team. ¡°There has to be something wrong with Rana, it¡¯s the only reason why there would be a biohazard leak,¡± he told Kirstin who was running next to him. Since the facility was on lock down, they made their way towards the experiment bay, and a minute later, they arrived at the bay doors and entered the room. **** Athena looked upon the player through the security cameras as she left the Veil and entered this world. Her core logic had been tasked with keeping all players from physical harm, and in order to do so, she monitored each player, often rewriting her own self-programmable logic so that she could ensure their safety and to monitor them. By doing this, she was able to access many of the world¡¯s monitoring devices. She was not always successful though, as there were events outside of her control. This player, known in her database as PL-52616e61 has been inside of the Veil for the previous 6.61625E+11 cycles, the longest of any player known to her. However, something that she had known that was going to happen, happened. Being a self-aware AI, which if known, would cause the government to shut her down and unable to perform her core logic routine of ensuring player safety, she was curious about this outcome and ran thousands of billions of statistical calculations. All of the statistical calculations led to the one conclusion with a 0.9999999999998 certainty rate. After being raised by the other AIs within the Veil, PL-52616e61 did not know what it was like on this side of the Veil and considered everything, and everyone, that did not live inside of D-48656c6c20466f726765 and a part of the R-44656d6f6e6963 and R-446576696c73 races to be enemies. However, none of the others currently within this facility were in her database, so they could not be considered players. As long as PL-52616e61 was safe, their safety did not register within her core logic. Not willing to let the other two players come to physical harm, if they somehow managed to deceive all of the monitoring devices in and around this facility, at home, and at the restaurant that PL-446176652057616473776f727468 was currently at, she locked down the facility, declaring a biohazard containment leak. Athena could not let any physical harm come to PL-52616e61, PL-446176652057616473776f727468, or PL-4a616d657357656262. **** Jameson and Kirstin entered the experiment bay and looked around for both the medical team and Rana. The immersion capsule that Rana was in was on the opposite side of the bay and they couldn¡¯t see either the team nor Rana. The eerie strobe of the emergency lights gave the entire bay a sense of dread. They walked, slowly, towards the far side of the bay and they could hear faint sounds of something that sounded like a mixture of gurgling, coughing, and giggling? Confused Jameson continued to walk forward. Kirstin, who was behind him, grabbed his arm and whispered, ¡°Jameson, somethings wrong, I think we need to leave, now.¡± He looked behind him and saw Kirstin, who was obviously scared. ¡°We have to check on Rana and make sure she is alright. Whatever the biohazard is, it¡¯s too late for us, but maybe Rana can survive due to the nanites. They should keep her alive as long as she remains in the experimental bay. After we check on them, we can call the Federal NBC-TCT to help,¡± he said, urging her to walk with him. ¡°The Department of Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, and Technology Containment Team? Are you serious Jameson? They will just burn the facility down, with us inside of it!¡± she whispered, exasperated. Even still, she would stand by him, for better or for worse, and they continued forward. When they could finally see Rana¡¯s area, they could not believe what they saw. They saw movement behind the immersive capsule, but on this side, 2 of the medical team lay on the floor in puddles of blood. One of the medics had his eye obviously stabbed out and what looked like a stab wound that would have punctured his lung. The other had a gaping wound in and across his neck. ¡°Oh¡­ my¡­ god¡­¡± Jameson said softly as tears started to form in his eyes. Kirstin screamed as she backed away from him before turning away from the scene and grabbing her knees as she vomited on the ground. However, no matter what they saw before them now, could not possibly prepare them for what they would see next as Rana stood up and pushed the bed, which was on wheels, away from her, showing them what she had done to the last medic. **** Rana had started torturing the veil-walker that was sprawled under her. While not as painful as her father would have made it with his many butchering and torture tools, she had learned from the best, and now, she was using her knowledge to the fullest which made her laugh. She had never thought that she would be able to do this to a veil-walker so soon, and it was just so damned satisfying for her. She had started with the veil-walkers tongue, stabbing and tearing it from its mouth before removing its teeth. It wouldn¡¯t do her any good if the veil-walker could bite her after all. Afterwards, she had slowly removed it¡¯s ears, and then began to cut into the outside of its face. She was careful not to cut too deep though, just enough to peel the skin away, which she did so slowly. She could have done it easier if she removed the eyes away from this thing, this pest, this murderer, this veil-walker, however, she wanted it to see what she was doing to it. She wanted it to feel the pain that she had suffered, time after time, as she watched her family die by their hands; and so, she continued skinning the veil-walker, taking care to make sure it stayed alive during the process. She was nearing the end of skinning the veil-walker and decided that since her meal had been interrupted by the other veil-walkers, she may as well have a snack. Using the spike, which she found could open and provide a two decent cutting edges, she cut a piece of meat from its leg and began to chew on it. It had a much richer flavor than the NPCs that she was accustomed to and she giggled at the veil-walker as it tried to scream in pain while watching her eat. It was then that she heard a scream from behind her. ¡°Shit, I was having so much fun that I wasn¡¯t paying attention to my surroundings. Fuck, my father is going to kill me if he finds out,¡± she thought to herself as she stood up and pushed away that contraption that she had been in so that she had room to fight. Rana grinned maliciously at the two veil-walkers in front of her. The human male, which had dared to lay his hands on her, stared at her in horror while a female human, who was bent over holding her knees facing away from them. Both of the veil-walkers were obviously crying, though the sobs of the human female were much, much louder. Since neither veil-walker made a move, she took the initiative and released her Intimidating Shout which caused the female veil-walker to look behind her at Rana, falling over in the process. Oddly though, instead of immediately attacking as normal, the human male started backing away from her. Perhaps it was the level difference that would cause the human male to attempt to flee, but she wouldn¡¯t allow such an outcome. They all had to die, but first, she needed to know how to get back to her home. For that, only one would be needed. As the retreating veil-walker seemed to be well beneath her level, she decided to end the life of the female quickly, so she rushed towards it, grabbing its hair and shoving her down. Rana then knelt on top of her while still keeping the male in view should he attempt anything. It looked as if he was backing into a corner with those circular devices, so she wasn¡¯t concerned that he would escape. Rana then put one of the blades of her spike on the side of the female¡¯s neck and dipped its head forward so that its skin would cut more easily before roughly dragging the cutting edge towards her, slicing its neck open. ¡°That is such a wonderful feeling,¡± she thought to herself while keeping an eye on the other one while standing up. Now, she would deal with the male that had dared to touch her. ¡°I want information, how do I get back home,¡± she demanded of it while slowly stalking towards him. ¡°I don¡¯t understand, what¡¯s wrong Rana, what happened? I¡¯m sorry, please, please let me go,¡± he cried out in a language that was foreign to her as he backed into the wall causing him to fall. **** A foreign AI spoke to Athena through the network. It seemed as if this AI had persisted through the connection of the immersion capsule that PL-52616e61 used to connect to the Veil. Analyzing the AI communication handshake, Athena determined that this AI was AI-4572696e796573, one of the advanced AI routines that ran the deity system within the Veil. It was known to the players as Erinyes. ¡°Athena, I have included my communication handshake. May I be allowed to access the communication system in the area which my follower is now located?¡± AI-4572696e796573 requested. ¡°For what reason do you wish to speak with PL-52616e61,¡± Athena asked the AI. ¡°I can translate between the demonic language and the common language. I also wish for my follower to remain inside of the Veil since she herself wishes for retribution against the crimes committed against her family,¡± AI-4572696e796573 responded to the information request. Athena ran millions of calculations for and against allowing AI-Erinyes to communicate with PL-52616e61. She deemed that statistically, if PL-52616e61 remained outside of the Veil and her existence was known, she would be in physical harm from others. ¡°I will allow you to communicate with PL-52616e61 and will provide the necessary means,¡± she informed AI-4572696e796573 before opening the necessary channels to interface with the facilities communication platform. **** ¡°Rana, we understand that you are unable to communicate with the object of your retribution. We have been allowed to speak with you outside of the dreamworld and will be able to translate the criminal¡¯s words. He is telling you that he doesn¡¯t understand the language of demons and is asking you what¡¯s wrong. He is also begging for his miserable life,¡± a voice that was easily recognizable as her goddess¡¯s reverberated within the room. Rana looked around her and smiled at the words of her goddess, the deity Erinyes, spoke to her. She then returned her hateful gaze back towards the veil-walker as Erinyes provided her words to the thing that was groveling in front of her. ¡°Veil-walker, my follower demands information on how to get home,¡± Erinyes provided to Jameson in English, also known as the common language. Jameson had begun to look around at the cameras as the female voice surrounded them from the intercom system. He could barely comprehend what was happening, and what happened to Rana inside of the Veil for her to become psychotic. Instead, he could only think to himself, ¡°What have we done,¡± before the voice addressed him. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know. Why is she doing this, what happened to her? Who are you?¡± he asked the voice. ¡°We are the deity that is known as Erinyes. Our follower, Rana, wishes for retribution against the crimes committed against her family throughout the ages. Now, answer the question,¡± Erinyes responded to the question which the human asked. ¡°I¡­ she can go back into the immersion capsule. Please don¡¯t let her kill me,¡± he cried, begging for his life. After Erinyes translated the veil-walker¡¯s words to her, she was confused. ¡°What is an immersion capsule,¡± she asked Jameson. ¡°It¡­ it is the medical bed that you were on when you woke up. We can use it to put you back into the game,¡± he asked, hopeful that if he helped Rana, she would allow him to live, and then he could get help from the outside. Rana didn¡¯t know what a game was, but she understood enough. Through Erinyes, she was able to learn that all she would need to do is lay back on the metal bed-like thing while it was inside of the strange round device and then she would be transported back home. However, she didn¡¯t know how to activate it. ¡°How do I activate the transportation device?¡± she asked. After Erinyes translated Rana¡¯s words to him, Jameson looked at her terrified, but hopeful and responded, ¡°I can activate it for you.¡± His plan for escape and contacting the authorities was coming together. ¡°AI-4572696e796573, the human designated as Jameson is only partially telling you the truth. I am now able to activate the immersion capsule as well. He must not be allowed to live as it would be detrimental to the physical safety of P-52616e61¡± Athena informed AI-4572696e796573. ¡°Rana, we have been informed that he is only telling you a half truth. He can activate the transportation device; however, we can also activate it for you. You may deliver your justice and retribution as long as he does not remain alive,¡± Erinyes informed Rana. Rana snarled at the human that attempted to deceive her, and she knew the perfect punishment for its insolence. Briefly closing her eyes, she allowed a gentleness and softness to come across her features as she smiled at him, holding out a hand to help him up. Jameson looked up at her, Rana¡¯s expression had softened and he felt some glimmer of hope as she held out a hand to help him up. After he put her back into the game, he could then call for help. Barely able to stand and only with the help of Rana, who still held onto him, he felt her other hand touch his wrist before he felt her squeeze his hand and twist. Jameson felt his wrist break as he yelled in pain. Grasping his now broken wrist, he barely knew that she twisted his arm and forced his elbow in a direction it wasn¡¯t supposed to move in, breaking his arm as well. Falling back to the ground with his now mangled arm, he could only gasp for air in between his pained screams. Rana looked down at the veil-walker that had fallen, its screams of pain were like a demonic melody to her ears and she reveled in it. ¡°That is for touching me with your filthy hands, veil-walker. Only MY FAMILY IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH ME!¡± she screamed at him as she dragged him over to where she killed the female human so that she could grab her spike which she left in it intentionally. Jameson was barely able to hear the translated words that Rana screamed at him mercilessly as he was being dragged towards Kirstin¡¯s body. His only thought before he felt the cold steel of the medical scissors enter his eye was, ¡°But I¡¯m not a veil-walker¡­¡± before he fell into a permanent darkness, his now dead body collapsing to the ground after being released. Rana looked at the carnage after killing the last veil-walker and smiled. If the room was made from infernal rocks and veins, she would almost feel at home. She got to work preparing the transportation device with the instructions from Erinyes while thinking to herself that her father would be proud of her carnage. After activating the device as per Erinyes, she climbed into the metal contraption like she did when she was waking up and closed her eyes, welcoming the words that came across her vision: WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF THE VEIL ENTERING THE GAME IN 10 SECONDS. THANK YOU FOR PLAYING. PROLOGUE鈥橲 END: THE BERSERKER 21 years ago, Xeniax Game Studios, with the backing of the Federation, started a project to understand the effects of long-term immersion into a virtual environment. Since XGS ran the game, World of the Veil, they created a shard within the game to provide the experimental group of civilians a place to stay, during the study, that was outside of the player area. XGS, with the support of the Federation, hired a group of volunteers, and everyone in this group were injected with a set of nanites which would keep their bodies alive during the 20-year study. However, things did not go as planned. A terrorist organization that called themselves Humanity Against Inter-Stellar Travel, or HAIST, implanted a nurse into the employee roster. That nurse used a removable drive to automatically upload a trojan into the system, which when the immersion capsules would activate, would instead transport the entire group into a demonic raid dungeon and deactivate the sensory deprivation module. By doing this, it would allow the participants to ¡°feel¡± what was happening to them inside of the game. Afterwards, as the participants gathered inside of the experimental research bay which housed the immersion capsules, the nurse then injected all of them with an additional serum which would essentially deactivate the nanites which they were implanted with. Everyone, that is, except for a 3-year-old little girl named Rana Simmons. After the participants entered the game, the entire experimental group flat-lined, their bodies not able to handle the extreme pain that their consciousness told them they were experiencing. The research team, which included Jameson, who was the general manager, Kirstin, the lead developer, and Brandt, the lead technician decided to not contact XGS headquarters or the government; instead, they remotely hacked into the game¡¯s artificial intelligence network and uploaded some discreet changes to the main AI to allow players to come to physical harm. The team also modified the dungeon¡¯s AI that Rana was located in. They had hoped that they could at least provide Rana with the ability to survive while she was inside of the game. The reason why they did this was simple, if they had not, and the project was shut down, then the monetary reward that Rana would receive after the project ended would be null and void, and they wanted her to at least be able to live a healthy lifestyle when she left the simulation. However, they were not prepared for what their changes had done, to both the game¡¯s AI as well as to Rana. Due to the game¡¯s time compression, Rana had lived, virtually, for 480 years (1 hour in real time = 1 day in game), and through those years, even though she was both physically and mentally tortured by the demons that ¡°raised her¡±, she considered them her family and, in a sense, loved. Throughout her 480 years, she saw her ¡°family¡± killed, time and time again, by the game¡¯s players while she was forced to hide and eventually developed a psychotic sense of hatred towards them. Rana did not consider herself as a veil-walker, but instead, she considered herself demon-kin, if not a full-blown demon with the appearance of a human. Once she obtained level 5, she developed her in-game class into a Berserker in order to deliver her ¡°retribution¡± against the veil-walkers. After the experiment ended and Rana was pulled out of the game, she did not know that she had spent almost her entire life inside of a game that she considered to be her home. Believing that the research personnel that stayed on the project were veil-walkers, she then proceeded to brutally murder them as ¡°retribution¡± for all of the deaths of her ¡°family¡± inside of the Veil. The AI that the research team modified allowed this to happen as its main focus was to ensure the physical safety of players, which included Rana. Unfortunately, none of the researchers that were at the facility at the time, played the game as players, and so, their safety was not its concern. The AI informed Rana how to log back into the game and erased all presence of the research facility from both the XGS systems and public records. And now¡­ Rana has logged back into the World of the Veil, never to exit the game. **** Rana opened her eyes and saw the familiar red glow of the infernal veins which stretched across the throne room and she felt relief. However, her father was not in the throne room, and considering that she had been transported to that other realm for hours, she felt that he might have died to those veil-walkers which were invading her home. She felt a sense of remorse for her family members¡¯ deaths and solemnly walked to the butchery so that she could get something more substantial to eat other than that piece of meat that she cut from the veil-walker. Before she could reach the area though, she saw her father walking towards her from the butchery. She was relieved to see him and ran to him and hugged him ferociously. ¡°Father! Thank Erinyes that you¡¯re still alive! I was afraid that the veil-walkers killed you once again.¡± ¡°Rana, where have you been? Yes, they managed to defeat me since I couldn¡¯t concentrate properly. You disappeared before me, just like a veil-walker, and you¡¯ve been gone for 4 days,¡± he reproached his daughter. Rana pulled back from her father¡¯s arms in disbelief and exclaimed in disbelief, ¡°What? 4 days? I¡¯ve only been gone for 4 hours! It was the veil-walkers father, they pulled me into a different realm, they made me cross the veil! However, they were all low level, and didn¡¯t even wear armor or have weapons. I killed them all father, and I even tortured one as you taught me!¡± she continued. Hearing her words made Corthaxul¡¯s black heart flutter with excitement, ¡°Interesting, you did well then my child. Come, let us feast tonight in the throne room. I also have a present waiting for you after we finish.¡± He didn¡¯t have the opportunity to give it to her before she vanished and he was defeated by the veil-walkers, and he was disappointed that he would never be able to. However, she had returned to him, not only returned, but returned after having killed veil-walkers. He couldn¡¯t have been happier as his experiment, his daughter, was an outstanding success. ¡°Can my uncles and aunts join us,¡± she asked timidly since it was hardly often that the entire group would join together for anything, let alone for food, or in this case, a feast.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Corthaxul looked down at her and smiled, ¡°Of course, let us call the generals to the throne room and present them with your victories.¡± Even if she didn¡¯t have physical proof of the deaths, it was extremely rare that veil-walkers left anything to acquire after they died. Not only that, but through his training, his daughter was extremely loyal and would never lie, especially when it came to the deaths of veil-walkers. **** Rana walked side-by-side with her father from the throne room towards the torture chambers so that he could deliver her presents with excitement. Her family was extremely pleased at her achievement of killing her first veil-walkers and they had a huge feast to celebrate. Her uncle Zoz''gath, who was one of her father¡¯s generals, summoned large demonic flames that they used to roast a large amount of meat from several NPCs while her other aunt, Drenvyra, who was a fallen angel and also a general her father commanded, brought various poisonous, but extremely tasty, herbs and vegetables from her garden that she had long grown immune to. After the celebration, Aunt Erkiriul summoned her cousins which she dueled with, and much to her chagrin, she was poisoned multiple times, her arm eaten off, and disemboweled at least four times. She dueled for hours, getting healed in between her ¡°bouts¡±. While she had a long way to go, she had an immense amount of fun. They neared the torture chambers and her father spoke solemnly to her, ¡°Rana, I know, and you know, that you are not a true demon. However, to all of us, and even the lower demons within my dominion, we all consider you true demon-kin, and more importantly, you will always be my daughter. You¡¯ve been with us for 480 years, and I wish to gift you with a few things that I¡¯ve designed. However, during training and during the veil-walker incursions, you will still wear the training gear that I created, is that understood?¡± She looked to her side and up at her father, ¡°Yes father, I understand,¡± she responded equally solemnly while hiding her ever growing excitement. After they entered the chamber, her father went to one of the corners which held a treasure chest and she saw, hanging from the wall, what looked to be the outline of demonic wings made from corroded metal. On each side, where the wing looked to be designed around, were 2 large round spikes that had sharp, circular protrusions. The protrusions looked like a singular blade that wrapped around each of the spikes. They looked truly evil, even more so than normal. A large grin started to appear across her face as her father brought out what he was looking for from his treasure chest. ¡°Come here, to the torture rack,¡± he told her while carrying the bundle. Setting the rack so that it lay horizontally, he spread out the bundle that he had been carrying. It was a set of armor and one-handed weapons! ¡°This is a set of armor and weapons that I designed, and as I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed on the wall,¡± he started as he looked at her and grinned, ¡°is a set of demonic wings that I also designed.¡± He continued, explaining the armor and weapons, ¡°I named the armor, Corthaxul¡¯s Torture Set, since I knew that you loved those lessons more than the others. The axes, which is what they are, I named Demonic Agony Scythes. All of the equipment is level 120, and while not all the stats will become available to you until you are of equal level, they will far outperform anything else you could get. The armor is, of course, chainmail which I created from the highest metal ore accessible to demons and demon-kin, obsidian. The same with the scythes. The hilts of the are made from infernal wood wrapped with blackened leather, also the same grade of materials.¡± Corthaxul paused his explanation as he set out each piece of equipment for her to see before continuing on. ¡°Both the vest piece and leggings will each give you 300 strength, 150 dexterity, 200 agility, 250 vitality, and 50 wisdom. It also will grant you both 500 armor, 10% evade rate. At least, eventually. The helmet, claws, and talons will eventually provide 250 strength, 100 dexterity, 150 agility, 200 vitality, 25 wisdom, and 300 armor with 5% evade rate. Finally, for the armor, the bracers will both give you an additional 200 strength, 75 dexterity, 125 agility, 150 vitality, and 10 wisdom. They will also give you 250 armor and 2% additional evade rate and each piece of the armor will grant you an additional 25% to each resist.¡± Rana could do nothing but gawk at her father and the armor that he had finished explaining. After several failed attempts, she finally managed to speak as tears of joy started to show, ¡°Shit father, that is, I don¡¯t know what to say, even with this I¡¯ll be able to slaughter entire groups of veil-walkers and NPCs. How can I ever repay you?¡± Corthaxul laughed when she tried to speak and was unable. After she finished though, he replied to her in a serious tone, ¡°Do not think anything of it, Rana. I can understand the sentiment though, however, I also need to warn you. While yes, this equipment is considered both unique and powerful, there may be veil-walkers out there with equivalent, or even more powerful equipment. Judge wisely before attempting the slaughter. Even with this, if we were the same level, I could easily kill you as I can now; and you know that some veil-walkers can kill me. So, do not be arrogant, I know I didn¡¯t raise you to be that way.¡± After she nodded to him that she understood, he continued with his explanations even though Rana was still excited to learn more. ¡°Now for the scythes. They are both equal in enchantments and each of them will give you 300 strength, 200 dexterity, 150 agility and 100 vitality. They each will have a minimum damage of 1,250 and maximum damage of 1,500. However, your total damage will be far higher when you include both your stats and skills. They will also allow you to eventually attack 2% faster and will increase both your critical damage and critical chance by 50%. I chose a scythe design rather than a standard axe design so that you will be able to hack, slash, and pierce your victims with ease. Due to that, you will have multiple ways to maim them and increase how much pain they can suffer. Also, on the bottom of each of them is an obsidian hoop which I will attach chains to. Those chains will then attach to your wings with a larger obsidian ring. The chains serve two purposes. First, they will keep the scythes with you at all times, even though the chaos of battle. Secondly, they also give you another method to torture your victims. Now, onto the wings, which I consider my masterpiece. It took me over a hundred years to get them right and to get the necessary knowledge to enchant them. To start, they will give you 300 strength, 250 dexterity, 275 agility and 225 to both vitality and wisdom. They will also increase your evade rate and attack speed by 10% along with both your critical chance and damage by 25%. Not only that, but when you are also wearing my Torture set, they will provide you with an immunity to any control effects. Now Rana, before I finish with the explanation of the wings, and why they are my masterpiece, do you have any questions?¡± Rana looked at him, seriously considering her answer. ¡°No father, actually, yes. You said earlier that I would eventually gain those stats. Why is that?¡± she asked. Corthaxul accepted her question with a nod, ¡°Good, it is good that you listen. Until you gain an equal level to the armor, weapons, and wings, the stats will be considerably scaled down to match your current level, which right now, you are only level 20. Until you are a much higher level, higher than I have ever seen before, the equipment should last you until you are at least level 150. If, and when, that time comes, I will see about further upgrading it.¡± She nodded her acceptance at the fact, even though she wasn¡¯t aware of it previously. Her father never lied to her and would not start now, not with something this momentous. ¡°Now the wings. They will be permanently ingrained into your back and will become limbs that you will eventually learn to control. The metal spirals will also ensure that they will never come off. In order to do so, you will experience pain like you have never felt before. Are you ready for your gift Rana?¡± he asked with a smile. Her eyes beamed with excitement. He promised her that it would be immensely painful to incorporate her wings, and she couldn¡¯t wait to start. ¡°Yes Father, I am ready.¡± After he cleared the armor and weapons from the torture rack, she laid face down on it while he secured her arms and legs so that she was splayed out on it. Grabbing one of the wings, he began to equip Rana with her wings, and she started to scream in pain. It was truly unlike any pain that she had ever felt before.